AThe Berkshire Eagle Pittsfield, Massachusetts Friday, February 18, 1972 - Page 16
A Mighty Stalemate in the Chess World
A stalemate in chess occurs when a player cannot move any piece except his king and cannot move his king without putting it in check, the result being a draw. A stalemate in setting up a site for a world chess championship match occurs when our king, Bobby Fischer, and their king, Boris Spassky, cannot agree on which city should have the honor.
Honor doesn't have too much to do with it because Fischer has made it plain that the honor should go to whichever city guarantees the most money for the players—five-eighths to the winner and three-eighths to the loser.
Belgrade, Yugoslavia, came up with the highest bid, $152,000, a good move as far as Fischer was concerned, but Spassky held out for Reykjavik, Iceland, which had offered a mere $125,000. It seemed that the Russian defender is as interested in playing in a climate closest to his native steppe, Leningrad, as he is in the rubles.
In order to get things moving again, the International Chess Federation has ruled that the match, scheduled to start in June, will be split between Belgrade and Reykjavik, 12 games in Yugoslavia and whatever is needed of the other 12 in Iceland. Splitting the difference in the bids brings the figure to $138,500, which is better than a fool's mate.
However, neither party has indicated whether or not this move is acceptable. There are the pawns of Montreal, Buenos Aires, Sarajevo, Amsterdam, Paris and Dusseldorf still on the board. Fischer is brooding in his castle and the Russians are looking for rookery. It could be that when the match does come off, it will be anti-climactic.
