Philadelphia: First move for Fischer

' .. Anthony Koppany of Lansdale, witnessed that arrogance a dozen years later when Fischer made a tour stop at the Cheltenham Township Art Center. He was among 67 players who sat in five rows of tables to challenge the U.S. chess champion and future world champ in May 1964.

Fischer had dispensed with 66 other games by the time he faced Koppany. He had won 62, drawn two and lost two.

"My game was the last one he played, and it was a drawish position, but he wanted to win it," Koppany said today.

Koppany, then a 46-year-old brewery worker, was ranked as an expert, several levels below the grandmaster Fischer, then one of the world's strongest players.

At 8:20 p.m., Koppany was the only player left in the art center. So a tired Fischer sat down to try to finish him off.

Was Koppany nervous? "No, I wasn't. I wasn't."

Koppany, .. , had been in much tougher situations. Before coming to the United States in 1949, he fought on the Russian front with the Hungarian army.

It was a wild game of chess, in which Fischer, playing white, wound up with two rooks and two bishops against Koppany's queen and two knights, according to an online archive that lets players run though every move.

Even for a grandmaster, such persistence seemed a bit arrogant. "I think in a way, yes, because it was a dead-drawish position I had against him and he wanted to win it."

Eventually, after the bishops and knights were gone, and Koppany's queen seemed positioned to check White's exposed king repeatedly, Fischer offered a draw.

They shook hands. ..'

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/new...

by The Philadelphia Inquirer, print, Staff Writers, 2008

The online article - the kid was referring to, was published a day later and at the moment can be found here

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/new...

'Cheltenham Township Art Center'
https://www.cheltenhamarts.org/abou...