ADetroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan Tuesday, January 04, 1972 - Page 24
Belgrade Bids $152,000 For World Chess Meet
New York —(AP)— The U.S. Chess Federation disclosed Monday that bids opened in Amsterdam for the site of the Boris Spassky-Bobby Fischer world championship chess match next June showed Belgrade the highest bidder.
The Yugoslavian city's $152,000 offer of prize money for the match was reported by E.B. Edmondson of the federation.
FISCHER HAS SAID he would prefer a match in the United States or Canada, but the site was expected to go to the highest bidder.
Fischer won the right to challenge Russia's Boris Spassky, the world champion, when he defeated Tigran Petrosian, also of the Soviet Union, in Buenos Aires last fall.
He said he could not express any opinion on the bids until he had studied them further.
“I like to play in the States,” he said, “but it's a question of money.”
The Chicago Convention Bureau offered $100,000 — the minimum set for the biddings — as did Bled, Yugoslavia.
Other bids reported by Edmondson, who said they were unprecedented, included $120,000 by Sarajevo, Yugoslavia; $125,000 by Iceland, and $150,000 by Argentina.
The total amount of the successful bid will be given to the players, with the winner receiving 62.6 percent and the loser 37.5 percent.
Mr. Edmondson said a total of 15 bids were opened at the World Chess Federation headquarters in Amsterdam and that copies of all bids will be sent to Mr. Spassky and Mr. Fischer.
They have until mid-January to inform Dr. Max Euwe, world federation president of their order of preference. Euwe will compare the preferential list and announce the site, then each player will be allowed one veto of the announced site.
Other bids received before Dec. 31 closing were from West Germany, Brazil, Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Greece, France, Colombia and Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
