English Reading Practice - 0004 Bobby Fischer

I don't know who wrote this. When Bobby Fischer was battling Boris Spassky for the world title in 1972, I was a 9-year-old club player in my native town in the Soviet Union. I followed the games avidly. As I improved during the 1970s, my coach made charts to track my progress and to set goals for me. A rating above 2,500 was grand master; 2,600 meant membership in the Top 10; 2,700 was world-champion territory. And even above that was Bobby Fischer, at the very top with 2,785. I became world champion in 1985 but it took me four full years to surpass Fischer's rating record. It was Fischer's attitude on and off the board that infused his play with unrivaled power. Before Fischer, no one was ready to fight to the death in every game. No one was willing to work around the clock to push chess to a new level. But Fischer was, and he became the detonator of an avalanche of new chess ideas, a revolutionary whose revolution is still in progress. At Fischer's peak, even his adversaries had to admire his game.