1981

< Prev Home Next >

June 08, 1981

• The Orlando Sentinel Orlando, Florida Monday, June 08, 1981 - Page 11 — Not So Wild A Dream: She Wants To Be World's Best at Chess. — “Nobody can say yet what her final potential may be, but she is now at about the stage where Bobby Fischer was at 13, a year before he won the master's title… “Most of the people she plays in chess tournaments are adult white males, and they have trouble taking their opponent seriously when she is a teen-aged black girl. At least until they notice they are losing. Then they have trouble accepting that fact. “I had a lot of opponents blow smoke in my face,” she says. “They get red in the face, some of them try to cheat and sometimes they knock the pieces over. A few weeks ago, I had an opponent who was drinking coffee out of a Styrofoam cup. At the beginning he was smiling and relaxed, but then he began nibbling on the cup. By the end of the game, that cup was covered with tooth marks all around the rim.”
  “I remember one tournament where I was playing a 17-year-old boy who came in with his mother. He took one look at me and told her, ‘You won't have to wait for me; I'll be back in half an hour.’ After he made a couple of moves, he went over to talk to the tournament directors. I saw them looking at my name on the list of players — laughing at my name. Well, instead of getting mad, I thought the best way to handle it was to beat him — and to take a long time about it. The game went on for hours, and it kept getting worse for him. Finally I got his queen in a pin; no escape possible. At first, he didn't notice it; he just sat there calmly looking at the board. Then he began to understand the situation, and his face got redder and redder. Finally he just stuck his arm out and swept all the pieces off the table.” “…a lot of money to spend. “We try to follow the tournament circuit,” says her mother, “but it gets very expensive. For big tournaments, you can have entry fees of $250 to $300, plus travel tickets and out-of-town living expenses for a week. We're being priced out of the tournament market. We're trying to get a little sponsorship — a corporate sponsor or an individual patron — but so far we have had only a few one-shot contributions.” Baraka's winnings are a steady but relatively small income compared with her expenses.
  The Shabazz family left Alaska when they began to understand Baraka's potential. By that time, she had won the championship of Anchorage, and there were no worthwhile targets in sight. “There was not much chess in Alaska,” says Baraka. “That's why we moved. We stayed in California for two years, and now we have come East. I think the East Coast would be best.”
  Now they are in Washington, considering whether to live here or in New York. They have been living on savings, with some help from disability payments her father receives from an injury suffered in Alaska.” ★ Read More

Not So Wild A Dream: She Wants To Be World's Best at Chess 08 Jun 1981, Mon The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida) Newspapers.com

July 09, 1981

• Asbury Park Press Asbury Park, New Jersey Thursday, July 09, 1981 - Page 32 — Chess Grandmaster to Play 6 Boards At Once in Dover — Dover Township — Grandmaster Edmar Mednis of New York will challenge six opponents here tomorrow night in a simultaneous chess exhibition with clocks, sponsored by the Toms River Chess Club. Mednis, the author of “How to Beat Bobby Fischer at Chess,” is a professional chess player and a columnist for Chess Life, official magazine of the United States Chess Federation.
  Read More

Chess Grandmaster to Play 6 Boards At Once in Dover 09 Jul 1981, Thu Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, New Jersey) Newspapers.com

• Asbury Park Press Asbury Park, New Jersey Thursday, July 09, 1981 - Page 32 — Man Claims Idea For Hit Movie — (Appearing next to the article on Edmar Mednis, is an article about the church attorney who acted as Bobby Fischer's former lawyer, whom siphoned untold millions from collectively, Fischer and members of the Worldwide Church of God cult. Stanley Rader's chicanery didn't stop there, as he moved on to bigger fish to fry… George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg.)

Man Claims Idea For Hit Movie 09 Jul 1981, Thu Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, New Jersey) Newspapers.com

September 30, 1981

• Democrat and Chronicle Rochester, New York Wednesday, September 30, 1981 - Page 34 — Showdown at the Chessboard — “In Soviet eyes, Karpov, the Hero or the Siegfried of Chess, will be playing against a man who to the Russians is a deformed, diseased, morally sick renegade who in 1976 defected from the Soviet Union to the Netherlands for a mess of pottage. … Already the Soviet propaganda wheels have been turning. And Karpov himself recently called Korchnoi “an immoral character” who had abandoned his wife and family. … Korchnoi, a burly, temperamental figure, has been giving back as much as he receives. Since he left his country, he has lost no opportunity of attacking the Soviet system. He has demanded repeatedly that the Russians release his family. That would involve release from jail of Korchnoi's son, who was put away in 1979 as a “draft dodger.” The sentence still has six months to run. Korchnoi has accused Soviet chess players of cheating, of ganging up on Westerners in tournaments and throwing key games when necessary. Korchnoi claims constant harassment and even threats on his life. ★ Read More