The Morning Call Allentown, Pennsylvania Sunday, June 27, 1982 - Page 139
Dirty Tricks Unnecessary
A chess game, per necessity, is a psychological struggle. But chess should not be and need not be a campaign of dirty tricks.
I can recall a particularly distasteful experience. It happened when I was winning lopsidedly over a grandmaster opponent. But then he began to persistently offer me a draw. An old tactic which I had not faced before.
I was distracted, got into time pressure and blundered a rook.
Another “dirty trick” was described to me by an old friend of Bobby Fischer's. Fischer had told him of his several most unpleasant experiences at the chess board. The worst for Fischer occurred when his opponent concluded each move by pointedly “screwing” the piece into the board.
Fischer, incidentally, had a reputation of consummate good sportsmanship when he was playing, but he often had a profound psychological effect on his opponents.
But Fischer's most devastating weapon by far was his ability. He could put up an ingenious and fierce resistance in poor positions.
In the game below, the fourth from his historic world championship match, he rescued a lost cause and demoralized his opponent Boris Spassky.