NEIGHBORS / SHORT TAKES : Chess Checkers : Members of a local club have their eye on a match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer that has revived interest in the game.

Irv Besen won’t try to predict the outcome of the classic chess rematch between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, going on now in Yugoslavia. But he does have a very definite opinion on the competition.

“I think it will tickle pink every chess player in the United States to see Fischer win this thing,” said the director of the Ventura County Chess Club. “There are people on the other side of the fence, but they’re in the minority.”

This is Fischer’s first public chess match since he and Spassky played for the world championship 20 years ago. Fischer won, but later was stripped of the title for refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. Besen said Fischer’s return has set the chess world buzzing.

“We were all hoping he would come back, but it was looking bad after 20 years. Until the last minute, we couldn’t convince ourselves that it would happen,” he said. “You’ve got to be worked up about it.”

Besen and his fellow county chess players are trying to keep track of the match, but it’s tough. “They play at a level where guys of my caliber are doing a lot of guessing,” he said. “I think we can expect when it’s over a lot of books will be written on it. Then guys like me will be able to understand what happened.”

Though Besen, 70, already has a great interest in chess--he’s been playing for 57 years--the rematch has increased the popularity of the game. If you’d like to join the local club at its Tuesday meetings in Ventura, give Besen a call at 644-5050.

By the way, the local chess club is officially known as the Ventura County Chess Club, but Besen thinks of it as the Ventura Chess Club. “It’s a little easier to endorse on a check,” he said.

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And now for the ultimate in Ventura County conservation.

The plastic trash bags that will be used for Saturday’s countywide beach cleanup are smaller than last year’s. Why? To save on plastic.

Aside from that, the biggest change in this year’s local Coastal Cleanup from last year’s is that there is actually plenty of trash on county beaches.

“Last year, we had two-thirds of what we had the year before. We speculated that last year’s (decreased) tonnage was because of the gloomy summer,” said Kitty Dill of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District. “This year we had gorgeous weather.”

Better weather means more beach-goers, which means more beach litter. Dill said the Ventura Port District has received complaints. “There is a lot of trash out there,” she said.

Dill, the county cleanup coordinator, said she fears that people who came out to clean beaches in 1991 and didn’t find a whole lot of garbage, will be inclined to stay home this year. “I’m getting people saying, ‘Our beaches were too clean last year; give us dirtier beaches.’ ”

Fear not.

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You know those Halloween Adventures stores that pop up annually this time of year? Well, they’re back in the county--with outlets in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. And this being an election year, political costumes are the in thing.

“We’re trying to find the Ross Perot outfit,” said owner Lenny Goldman. “If we get the mask, which we think we can, we’ll dress him up in a chicken suit.”

Of course, Dan Quayle won’t go unscathed. Goldman said there is a mask on the market that looks quite a bit, if not exactly, like the vice president. “We’ll dress him up in a sack of potatoes and spell potato with an ‘e,’ ” he said.