Correcting absolutebest post on Fischer

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/gm-bobby-fischer-best-ever

In June, 1974, the FIDE Congress in Nice approved the 10-win regulation and the elimination of draws from the scoring, but imposed a 36-game limit and rejected the 9-9 proposal. On June 27, 1974, Fischer sent a telegram from Pasadena, California to the FIDE Congress:

As I made clear in my telegram to the FIDE delegates, the match conditions I proposed were non-negotiable ... FIDE has decided against my participation in the 1975 World Chess Championship. I therefore resign my FIDE World Championship title.

In March, 1975, an extraordinary FIDE Congress was held in Osterbek, Netherlands, and it was agreed to have an unlimited number of world championship games, but still refused the 9-9 rule (32 votes for it, and 35 votes against it).   Fischer, unwilling to budge, refused to defend his title.

In Karpov's memoirs he recounts how he was disappointed to not have a chance to become champion in the traditional manner:

I don't know how Fischer feels about it, but I consider it a huge loss that he and I never played our match. I felt like the child who has been promised a wonderful toy and has it offered to him but then, at the last moment, it's taken away.

On April 3rd, 1975, Karpov was declared the 12th World Champion.

I wonder if Karpov is being fully honest here. It is doubtful the Karpov of 1975 would have had much chance even though Fischer hadn't played for 3 years. Later Karpov was comparable, IMHO, to Fischer. On the one hand, Karpov was disappointed. On the other hand, he was probably relieved to get the title without risking a probable loss. I suspect that in truth Karpov's feelings were very mixed.

Absolutebest is a big time troll. But he is right that Fischer is the greatest player in history and that Karpov would have lost in 1975.

I've been blocked from posting to that thread.

Finally some facts.

I too have a copy of the telegram Fisher sent to then FIDE President M. Euwe and also FIDE's reply stating they hoped Bobby would reconsider.  This was a battle between Fischer and FIDE, Karpov had nothing to say in the matter.

For the record, I was a big fan of Fischer's chess back then and still am.

Bozidar Kazic has written perhaps the most detailed history of the dispute published in Chess Informant 19.  At the FIDE Congress in Sept. 1971 in Vancouver, it was decided that the winner of the title match would be the first to win 6 games.

At the FIDE Congress in Oct. 1972 at Skopje, FIDE president Euwe tabled a proposal that the match be limited to 30 games, but withdrew it to focus on the Candidates matches.

In Sept. 1973, Fischer sent a telegram to the FIDE Congress at Helsinki proposing an unlimited match won by scoring 10 wins with the champion retaining the title were the score to reach 9-9.  It was decided to set up a commission to write up the match regulations: Euwe, FIDE vice president/US delegate Fred Cramer, Soviet delegate Yuri Averbakh and the delegates from Brazil and Hungary.

In March 1974, the commission met in Amsterdam, but it seems the Brazilian delegate did not attend.  The commission was unable to reach an agreement.

In June 1974, the FIDE Congress at Nice voted for a match of 36 games.  One could win by being the first to score 10 wins or by leading after 36 games.  If the score was tied after 36 games, the champion would retain the title.  Fischer wrote to Euwe resigning his title.  Delegates voted 35 to 17 with 11 abstentions to retain the match conditions as worked out, but they wrote to Fischer asking him to reconsider.

From March 18-20, 1975, FIDE convened a special conference at Bergen at the request of 35 federations.  Critics of Fischer's proposal pointed out that Karpov would need to win by a 2 point margin 10-8 to gain the title, a new advantage FIDE had never before granted.  Delegates voted 37-33 to accept the unlimited match, but 35-32 to reject the 9-9 draw.  There were only 6 or 7 communist countries in FIDE (no East Germany, no China), so a majority of those voting against were in the west.  A deadline was set of midnight April 1 to accept.  Karpov accepted, but Fischer did not respond.  Euwe extended the deadline for 2 more days, and then declared Karpov champion.

Incidentally, the regular FIDE Congress was held at Oosterbeek in September 1975, and took place after Karpov was declared champion.  It appears that Bill Wall got the two Netherlands venues confused, and the error was copied to Chessgames.com and Wikipedia.

Thanks wayne_thomas for the input on this.  My source was some old Chess Life and Review articles from back then and your source filled in a lot of holes.  I knew most of what was being said on that other thread was just wrong, just couldn't remember how it actually went down.

badenwurtca, I agree, bet some delegates ate and drank pretty good during those conferences on the Russian chess delegations account.  Maybe too, some of the western delegates that voted with the Russian side were just tired of Bobby constantly dictating to them the conditions for their tournament.

diakonia, thanks for starting this in a new thread, great idea.

Youre very welcome.  I just wanted to correct some misinformation.