Dutch Grandmaster Gennadi Borisovich Sosonko, currently in Tbilisi, Georgia for reporting from the 7th Chess World Cup, made public — through the Chess-News.ru web site — a letter that 11th World Chess Champion Robert James “Bobby” Fischer sent to Viktor Lvovich Kortschnoi nine days after their “secret” meeting in Pasadena, California, United States on September 16, 1977.
The fact that Fischer’s letter may be freely translated from Russian can sound quite paradoxical, but one can be sure that, at request of the interested parties, Sosonko won’t have difficulty in providing the original English text.
The fact that Fischer’s letter may be freely translated from Russian can sound quite paradoxical, but one can be sure that, at request of the interested parties, Sosonko won’t have difficulty in providing the original English text.
September 25, 1977 Dear Viktor, How are you? I hope you have arrived safely. Only today I received a tape recording of your performance on Friday evening of September 16 (the day of our meeting) and I feel very upset. Didn’t I tell you, and didn’t we agree literally a few minutes before we start talking, that both our meeting and the content of our conversation would have remained strictly confidential, except for the very fact that we met each other????? That’s beyond my understanding. Either you have a very short memory, or... I told you that I am surrounded on all sides by conspirators and I believed that you perfectly understood this. I appreciate your openness, sense of humour, friendliness, goodwill, etc., but I cannot communicate with someone who betrays my trust. So, it’s up to you. It may very well be that something of what you said has been altered or distorted (not a film — but your words!). Perhaps this was due to the fact that our meeting was quite brief, or was a consequence of your lack of knowledge of English. I know that you still keep connections with the United States Chess Federation and FIDE. I do not approve it, but it’s your business. I broke off any kind of relationship with them and I regard them as filthy gangsters. Specifically, I don’t want to give any “interview” to Chess Life & Review. As for their dirty plans, they couldn’t imagine a greater success than receiving — directly or indirectly — such an “interview” from you. Again, I explained all this to you. You were not obliged to share my viewpoint, but you had to keep your word. To my regret this did not happen. I do not know how much harm has been already caused by this. I guess you will have more to say and more interviews to give before coming back to Europe. I can only wait whether and when there will be anything else in the press. I would be grateful if you will strictly adhere to our agreement from now on. All the best, Bobby P.S. My name is not required on my mailbox. |
- Gennadi Borisovich Sosonko, Письмо Фишера | Fischer’s letter, Chess-News.ru, September 20, 2017
Bobby Fischer, summer 1972. Photo © Harry Benson.
No comments:
Post a Comment