Chicago Tribune Chicago, Illinois Saturday, February 12, 1972 - Page 60
Fischer Reneged on Iceland Tourney, Soviet Chess United Says by James Yuenger, Chief of Moscow Bureau
Moscow, Feb. 11 — The Soviet Chess Federation today accused American Bobby Fischer of reneging on an agreement to play Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R. for the World Chess Championship beginning June 25 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
It was the first disclosure that Reykjavik, with an offer of $125,000, had won the spirited bidding to sponsor the match. It still is uncertain whether Fischer and Spassky will, in fact, player there.
Spassky, current world champion, had listed Reykjavik as one of four cities acceptable to him. Others were Amsterdam, Paris and Dortmund, Germany. He specified that he wanted to play in a moderate climate.
Fischer had proposed Chicago, Buenos Aires, Montreal, and Belgrade and Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. The Russians claimed among other things that Chicago's $100,000 bid had missed the deadline set by the International Chess Federation. In an official protest, the Russians also charge that Max Euwe, head of the international federation, had permitted the American challenger to violate rules established for arranging the match.
They complained that Fischer proposed his list of acceptable sites on Jan. 31, four days after the deadline set by Euwe. But that Euwe let the violation pass.
In a press conference at Moscow's Central Chess Club, the Russians said that Col. E.B. Edmondson, president of the United States Chess Federation, signed a preliminary agreement here last Monday on the date and site of the match. They circulated copies of that agreement today.
They assumed Edmondson was Fischer's fully authorized agent because he had come here directly from Reykjavik, where he had seen Fischer.
The Russians said they learned yesterday in a wire from Edmondson that Fischer had rejected the agreement.
In careful diplomatic language, the Russians indicated that they were fed up with Fischer, whose temperament is legendary. He has already been given many concessions in preliminary challenge matches, they said.
“Soviet chess players took Robert Fischer's religion [he is not Jewish, nor is he a Seventh Day Adventist] and other habits into account,” [(but not account enough for the Soviets to have abstained from their decades-long historical acts of antisemitic discrimination against Reshevsky and Fischer, deeply rooted in the ideology underlying USSR politics.)] the U.S.S.R. protest said, “although sometimes it led to disruption of the rhythm and schedule of games to which they were accustomed.”
They said tradition accords the reigning champion preference in selecting the site of a major match, and they criticized Fischer for having said publicly that he wants to play where the money is best.
Belgrade made the biggest bid of $152,000 for the match, but Spassky said he didn't want to play there because it would be too hot in summer.
The agreement signed here last Monday stipulates that the winner will receive 62.5 per cent and the loser 37.5 per cent of the $125,000 that Reykjavik put up. The two players also would split 60 per cent of the subsequent television and movie revenues from the match, with the winner getting three-quarters of that sum. If they draw, this would be split 50-50.
“The U.S.S.R. Chess Federation thinks the time has come to bring to light the course of the talks about the world championship so the public gets a correct view,” the protest said.
But Russian officials said there had been no talk of either side “vetoing” any one of the 14 cities seeking the match.
