Chess for Children Step by Step
by William Lombardy and Bette Marshall
Introduction by Sam Sloan

This book came out as an indirect result of the 1972 match for the World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. In that match, Bobby Fischer was represented there in chess matters by William Lombardy and in legal matters Fischer was
represented by attorney Paul Marshall, husband of co-author here Bette Marshall.
I had many conversations with William Lombardy up until the time of his death on October 13, 2017. These conversations were long, lasting 6 to 8 hours, with him doing almost all of the talking and me doing the listening.
In discussing the movie Pawn Sacrifice starring Tobey Maguire, Lombardy told me that he had advised Bette Marshall, the widow of Paul Marshall, not to cooperate with Tobey Maguire in the making of this movie but that Bette Marshall had gone against his
advice, saying that she had wanted the public to be aware of the considerable contribution her husband had made in causing the match to take place.
As a result of the contribution made by Bette Marshall on behalf of her late husband Paul Marshall, the actor playing her husband in the movie got considerable air time.
On the other hand, although Lombardy did not want for anybody to play him in the movie, an actor got the part but had almost no speaking lines. You can tell he is depicting Lombardy because he is wearing a white priest's collar. Lombardy probably tried
to stop him from being depicted in the movie but as anybody who watches “Saturday Night Live” realizes, those who want to stop living persons from being represented in the movies cannot be prevented from doing so.
Although the movie depicts the actor Paul Marshall as having a major influence on Bobby Fischer, in reality William Lombardy had far more influence than Paul Marshall did. Indeed, had it not been for William Lombardy the match would have ended after
Fischer forfeited the second game of the match and everybody would have gone home.
I may times suggested that Lombardy write the ultimate book of the match, but he declined to do so.
This picture of Lombardy taken in Union Square Park in New York City on 1 December 2016 just after Carlsen defeated Sergey Karjakin of Russia in a match for the world chess championship. This photo can be found on youtube dot com after searching for “
Chess Hustler Doesn't Know He is Playing World Champion Magnus Carlsen !” William Lombardy is not the chess hustler. Lombardy was just a spectator watching the game. In all probability Magnus Carlsen did not recognize William Lombardy and did not
realize Lombardy was watching the game.
I first met William Lombardy at the Eastern States Open in Washington DC in November 1956 directed by Norman T. Whitaker. I met Bobby Fischer and many other elite chess players at the same tournament. My parents had driven me up from Lynchburg Virginia
to play and this was my first experience with big-time chess. I had just turned 12.
I first met Paul Marshall on August 12, 1972 when I flew to Reykjavik Iceland for the Fischer Spassky Match for the World Chess Championship after a mutual friend had told me that Fischer wanted me to come to attend the match.
When I arrived on the flight from New York to Reykjavik, William Lombardy had arrived in his car to pickup Paul Marshall at the airport. When Lombardy saw me there he offered me a ride into the town.
The reason I remember the date was the 13th game of the match had just finished, which turned out to be the most exciting game of the match. Lombardy told me that Spassky had blundered with 64. Kc3. Had Spassky played 64. Kb3 instead, the game would have
been declared a draw because there would have been no way for either side to make any progress.
It is interesting that although many books have been written about this match, none of them had mentioned this particular point that 64. Kb2 instead of 64. Kc3 would have led to a draw.
This illustrates the point that Lombardy knew more about this match than anybody else except for Fischer of course.
Every time this subject came up, I would suggest that Lombardy write a book on the match which I was sure would sell well. Unfortunately, he never did.
Lombardy was notoriously difficult to deal with. He usually round up breaking relations with anybody who tried to help him. He had bad relations with John W. Collins for many years before their deaths. He basically had broken relations with his brother
and with his son Paul at the time of his death.
I kept on good terms basically by never disagreeing with him on any subject.
He would probably have lived longer had he been amenable to compromise.
Near the end of his life, he was $14,000 behind in his rent. He was not broke. He could have paid the rent. He kept insisting that he knew more about landlord and tenant law than the court appointed lawyers did.
The judge on the case went out of his way to help Lombardy, perhaps because he was a Catholic Priest. The courts did more to help Lombardy than anybody I know of in any other case. The judge appointed an attorney to represent Lombardy which was more than
I know of any other judge doing in any other landlord and tenant case. He lived at 12 Stuyvesant Oval, Apt. 6B, New York NY 10009. I visited him there many times. The lawyer worked out a plan by which Lombardy could have kept his Stuyvesant Town
apartment. Instead of following his court appointed lawyer's advice to keep his apartment, Lombardy fired his free lawyer and was quite proud of himself for having done so.
Eventually, the inevitable came and Lombardy was evicted. He became homeless and rode the New York City subways sleeping at night along with many homeless people.
Chess organizer and tournament organizer Steve Immitt felt pity on Lombardy and drove him down to the US Open and Delegate's Meeting in Norfolk Virginia on August 4, 2017. Immitt made a deal to make Lombardy a Delegate from the Great State of New York
and made an agreement that Lombardy would be allowed to speak to the delegates. I came to the meeting just to hear Lombardy speak.
Unfortunately, the speech was an embarrassment. Lombardy spent almost the entire speech talking about Major Edmondson and how Lombardy suspected Edmondson of stealing money $250,000 from the federation. Edmondson had been dismissed as executive director
of the USCF in 1979 and had died on 21 October 1982. However, most agree that it was in many ways Edmondson who made Bobby Fischer the World Chess Champion because it was Edmondson who had negotiated the deals with the Soviet officials and the Eastern
European officials that allowed Fischer to play in the Interzonal and in the Candidates matches that led to the match, because otherwise Fischer had forfeited and not qualified to play.
Edmomdson had left the USCF in 1979, which was 38 years ago, so no doubt many of the delegates had ever even heard of Edmondson or knew who he was. Certainly the man who was chairing the meeting who had just learned how to play chess did not know who
Edmondson was and kept telling Lombardy to stop speaking and to sit down. Turned out that Lombardy had lost his photo ID months ago and had not bothered to replace it. A generous person had offered to let Lombardy stay with him in Chicago in return for chess lessons, but still the problem was how to get Lombardy on an airplane
with no Photo ID. Somehow, Steve Immitt managed to do that at Charlottesville Airport. After that, Lombardy, lived with various chess friends until he reached San Francisco and died at a friends house in Martinez, California on October 13, 2017.
This book lists Bette Marshall as the co-author. She was the wife of Paul Marshall. As she had just learned how to play chess, it is possible to surmise that the design and lay-out of this book is by her but the chess moves are by Lombardy.
I usually write a biography of the authors for any book I reprint. However, when I went to look up Paul Marshall and his widow Bette Marshall, I found that they did not exist. It appears likely that his real name was Paul S Goldberg and he died on 10 May
2012 in Aventura Florida. There is no birth date. He is listed as a music attorney who represented EMI, PolyGram, Atlantic and Jimi Hendrix and was involved in transactions with Michael Jackson. Seems surprising if this was really the same person. Almost
certainly both he and his wife were using pseudonyms.
If is real name is Paul S. Goldberg, he did the right thing by changing his name to Marshall for any dealings with Bobby Fischer, because Fischer did not have any relations with people with Jewish names.
Sam Sloan

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