AThe Sydney Morning Herald Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Tuesday, October 19, 1971 - Page 27
World Chess Title Tue, Oct 19, 1971 – Page 27 · The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) · Newspapers.com
World Chess Title
Bobby Fischer, the American chess genius, and Tigran Petrosian, the former world champion, are playing a match of 12 games to decide who will meet the present world champion, Boris Spassky (USSR), for the world title.
The match is being played on neutral ground in Buenos Aires, and among chess players throughout the world interest is at fever pitch.
The results of individual games are being published in the “Herald” together with a record of the moves. From these, chess players are able to following detail the game as played by the champions.
The notation used is known as the English system. It is one of several codes used for recording moves and positions. For players unfamiliar with the system, here is a description which will allow them to follow the championship games.
The chess board is set so that each player has a white square in the bottom right-hand corner. The lines of squares running horizontally across the board are known as ranks, and the lines running vertically, between the players, are known as files.
Each file is named after the piece set there at the beginning of the game. Thus, the file where the queen's rook is set is known as the queen's rook file — and similarly with other pieces and files, as the diagram shows. The ranks, in turn, are numbered from 1 to 8, as illustrated.
It is important to note that each player counts the ranks from his own side of the board.
Consider now the opening moves in the sixth game of the current match. White (Petrosian) begins with N-KB3 — that is, he moves a knight out to the third square of the king's bishop file.
Black (Fischer) replies with P-QB4 — that is, he moves a pawn to the fourth square of the queen's bishop file. This simply means moving the pawn forward two squares.
When then plays P-QN3 — that is, he moves his queen's knights' pawn to the third square; in short, forward one. Black plays P-Q4 — he moves his queen's pawn forward two squares.
And so the game continues. A capture is shown thus; BxB, meaning bishop takes bishop. You will find the full score on page 4 of the “Herald” today.
There are a few abbreviations to be learned to make the code complete. They include: O-O, which means that a player castles on the king's side; O-O-O, which means that he castles on the queen's side.
Ch is short for check; dis ch means discovered check; PxPep means pawn takes pawn en passant.
