A roundup of the week Aug. 15-21

CHESS—Former world champion BORIS SPASSKY of Russia defeated Lajos Portisch of Hungary 8½-6½ in Geneva and will now meet Viktor Korchnoi for the right to challenge the current titleholder, Anatoly Karpov of the U.S.S.R., next year. Korchnoi, who defected from Russia in 1976, earlier beat Lev Polugaevsky of the Soviet Union 8½-4½ in the other semifinal candidates' match.

PRO FOOTBALL—Tampa Bay's 10-7 defeat of error-prone Green Bay ended a 19-game losing streak and prompted Coach John McKay to comment, "We didn't exactly run roughshod over them, but at this point I would have taken a forfeit and been happy." Meanwhile, that other recent expansionist team, Seattle, racked up its third exhibition win of the year by edging Super Bowl champion Oakland 12-10; the Seahawks' defense, worst in the league last year, kept the Raiders from scoring in the second half. Unbeaten Denver downed the Falcons 10-2 for the Bronco's first-ever win in Atlanta, and Baltimore took advantage of four Minnesota turnovers as the Colts creamed the Vikings 29-7. Cleveland's Brian Sipe proved he could throw long with a 45-yard strike to Reggie Rucker. Sipe passed for two TDs to lead the Browns to a 19-10 victory over St. Louis. Joe Theismann, still hopeful of winning Washington's No. 1 quarterback spot from Bill Kilmer, set up two second-half field goals by Mark Moseley with long passes to Larry Jones as the Redskins topped Kansas City 13-7, and Miami Quarterback Don Strock hit Nat Moore for touchdown passes of 56 and 69 yards to lead the Dolphins past Dallas 20-14. Terry Bradshaw threw two touchdown passes and Roy Gerela kicked a pair of field goals in the Steelers' 26-13 win over the Jets. New Orleans beat Buffalo 20-17 (page 20), and Chicago scored touchdowns on a pair of fourth-down plays to defeat Houston 14-10. Archie Griffin scored on a six-yard run to climax a 71-yard drive following the opening kickoff, and Cincinnati went on to a 17-13 win over Detroit. The Giants fell to San Diego 29-17, and San Francisco beat Los Angeles 23-14.

GOLF—ANDY NORTH carded a 12-under-par 272 to earn his first tour victory, the $300,000 Westchester Classic at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y. George Archer was second with 274.

Debbie Austin had a two-under-par 70 final round for a 209 total, to win the $50,000 Wheeling (W. Va.) LPGA Classic by one stroke over Hollis Stacy (page 80).

HARNESS RACING—COLD COMFORT ($8.60), driven by Peter Haughton, nosed out stablemate Green Speed, with father Billy in the sulky, to win the $126,000 Harry M. Zweig Memorial Trot in 1:57[4/5] at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.

HORSE RACING—JATSKI ($8), Sam Maple up, was declared the winner of the 108th running of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga when Run Dusty Run, who crossed the finish line first, was disqualified and placed second in the 1-mile $113,600 event (page 18).

Majestic light ($3.40), Sandy Hawley up, tied a track record when he won his third consecutive stakes race, the mile-and-a-quarter $109,450 Amory L. Haskell Handicap, in 2:00[2/5] at Monmouth Park.

SOCCER—The Cosmos and Seattle took giant steps toward the NASL championship by beating, respectively, Rochester 2-1 and Los Angeles 3-1 in the first games of the two-game semifinal series to determine the Atlantic and Pacific Conference titleholders. At midweek the Cosmos earned the right to meet the Lancers by nipping Fort Lauderdale for the second time, 3-2 in a shootout. Pelé scored the first goal, Giorgio Chinaglia the second, and Perry Garbett had the winning point. Rochester advanced to the Atlantic finals playing two men short the entire second half because of ejections, but downing Toronto nonetheless, 1-0. Ibraim Silva scored the only goal. The Aztecs, runners-up in the South in the regular season, became division champs by beating Dallas 5-1, setting a league record by scoring three consecutive goals in 3:29: Miro Rys scored at 78:04, Des Backos at 80:46 and Charlie Cooke, off a George Best assist, at 81:33. The Sounders got into the playoffs by edging the Kicks 1-0 when Tommy Ord hit on a penalty kick after Minnesota's Ron Futcher was called for illegal use of hands in the penalty area. Seattle's Jim McAlister, at 20 the youngest player ever to start for the Sounders, was named NASL Rookie of the Year, and Franz Beckenbauer upset Pelé by 12 votes to receive league MVP honors.

SWIMMING—At the European championships in Jonkoping, Sweden, GERALD M√ñRKEN of West Germany swam the 100-meter breaststroke in a world-record 1:02.86, a quarter of a second under John Hencken's mark, and PETRA TH√úMER of East Germany broke her own 400-meter freestyle world record of 4:09.89 with a 4:08.91 clocking. ULRIKE TAUBER, also of East Germany, broke her own world record by a full second in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:15.95.

At the AAU long-course championships in Mission Viejo, Calif., one world and eight American records were set—all by women—and the 36-member team to represent the U.S. at dual meets in East Germany and Russia was selected (page 76).

TENNIS—WTT: Both best-of-three division championships series—New York vs. Boston and Phoenix vs. San Diego—started with the season's divisional leaders losing at home to runners-up. In the West, Chris Evert drubbed Kerry Reid 6-2 but San Diego beat Phoenix 29-26. In the East, Martina Navratilova of the Lobsters, women's league leader in both singles and doubles, lost her singles match to the Apples' Billie Jean King 6-4 and. with Greer Stevens, was done in by King and Virginia Wade 6-4 in doubles as the Apples topped the Lobsters 29-21. The two Western teams reached the divisional finals by disposing of their opposition in straight matches. Phoenix whipped Sea-Port 30-14 and 27-26, and San Diego overcame Golden Gate 24-22 and 24-21. Both Eastern confrontations took three matches. New York defeated Indiana 33-21, 25-27 and 31-15 while Boston polished off Cleveland 30-26, 20-21 and 28-21.

TRACK & FIELD—ALBERTO JUANTORENA of Cuba ran the 800 in a world-record 1:43.43 at the World University Games in Sofia, Bulgaria, lowering by .07 seconds the mark he set at the Montreal Olympics (page 26). Countryman ALEJANDRO CASANAS trimmed .03 seconds off Rod Milburn's 5-year-old 110-meter-hurdles world record with a 13.21 clocking.

John Walker of New Zealand won the 1,500 in 3:32.7, a half-second above Filbert Bayi's world record, at the Ivo Van Damme Memorial meet in Brussels.

Helena Fibingerova of Czechoslovakia bettered her own world record by 13 inches when she put the shot 73'2‚Öî" at an international meet at Nitra, Czechoslovakia.

VOLLEYBALL—With two weeks remaining in the regular season, Phoenix extended its victory string to six, tying Orange County for the season's longest and moving from last place to second in the Continental Division. Tucson is now in the divisional cellar, having lost 16 out of 19 matches, the latest to Santa Barbara, as Jose Garcia, league leader in spiking, had 36 kills in 55 attempts. In the Western Division, Orange County remained unchallenged.