Benko Wasn't Paid

I added a new clipping to the page (C08) Zonals 1969-1972 (m-w.com), under the zonal titled '5 New York 1969-11'. It's taken from the letters section of the November 2007 issue of Chess Life and starts,

September Issue: "Fischer Fallout" Fallout • Reading the sidebar on page 25 of the September Chess Life, "Myth of the lone gun," I found two sentences which [mention] me and I think I should correct them.

"Fischer couldn't have played [the 1970 Interzonal] if Pal Benko had not been bought out," and "They then paid GM Pal Benko $2,000 to step aside."

This is indeed only half true. [...]

Five paragraphs later, the letter signs off,

So I state again: I never got anything, not even a penny, for giving up my place to Fischer and I never regretted it. I only asked Fischer, "Don't quit." And indeed, he became the only American world champion.

Pal Benko
Budapest, Hungary

One of the intermediate paragraphs mentions,

Fischer once asked me, "Is it true you got money to give up your place for me?" [...] After I answered, "No," he asked me, "Can you put that in writing?" Indeed I did; one can find it in my old Chess Life column.

If I ever find that needle in the haystack of Benko columns, I'll add the reference.

Portrait of Hou Yifan

This month's featured photo on my main blog, Enhanced Chess Art (March 2025), won over another photo on the short list that I also wanted to use. Luckily, the second photo is equally appropriate for this current blog.

I play my enemies like a game of chess... © Flickr user Dunk under Creative Commons.

The description copied the first paragraph of Wikipedia's page on Hou Yifan (wikipedia.org), ...

Hou Yifan (born 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and professor at Shenzhen University. She is the second highest rated female player of all time. A chess prodigy, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster (at the age of 14 years, 6 months, 16 days) and the youngest ever to win the Women's World Chess Championship (at age 16).

... then added,

Portrait of Hou Yifan at the 2016 Chess Olympiad by Andreas Kontokanis via Wikimedia Commons [plus a link].

The Flickr title, 'I play my enemies...', is a line from the 1996 Fugees hit 'Ready or Not'. For a look at Hou Yifan's path to the Women's World Championship, see 2010 FIDE Knockout Matches (m-w.com; 'Antakya (Turkey), XII, 2010').

Boris Spassky (1937–2025)

The Fischer - Spassky era is officially over.

Russian chess grandmaster Boris Spassky dies aged 88 | Reuters (1:15) • '[Published on] Feb 28, 2025'

The description of the video omitted any mention of Fischer. It was, after all, not Spassky's greatest accomplishment.

Russian chess grandmaster Boris Spassky has died at the age of 88. Spassky was the 10th World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972.

His Wikipedia page Boris Spassky (wikipedia.org), mentions all three of his title matches in the first paragraph.

Boris Vasilievich Spassky (January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigran Petrosian in 1966; defeated Petrosian in 1969 to become world champion; then lost to Bobby Fischer in a famous match in 1972.

As for the dozens of mentions of Spassky on this blog and on my main blog, the two that I remember best are:-

• 2018-07: Another Bad Day for Spassky; see also the link to 'A Bad Day for Spassky'.
• 2009-04: Photogenic Spassky

RIP, Grandmaster. You earned it.