AThe Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake City, Utah Saturday, February 19, 1972 - Page 4
Russian Group Protests Sites for Chess Matches
Moscow (AP) — The Soviet Chess Federation has protested the selection of two cities as host to the world championship chess match between the Russian titleholder, Boris Spassky, and the American challenger, Bobby Fischer, Tass said Friday night.
The official news agency said the federation lodged the protest with Prof. Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), who lives in Amsterdam.
To settle an impasse on the site for the match, Euwe announced Feb. 14 that both Reykjavik, Iceland, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia, would play host to the 24-game match. Euwe said in a communique the first 12 games would be played in Belgrade and the other 12 in Reykjavik.
No Possibility
Spassky had listed Reykjavik as his first choice and Fischer had listed Belgrade. Euwe said he was forced to split the match between two cities because there was no possibility the men could agree on a single compromise city.
“To hold the match in two cities is against the rules of the International Chess Federation,” Tass claimed.
In view of this, the agency said, “the Soviet Chess Federation on Feb. 17 lodged a protest with Mr. Euwe and reaffirmed its position expressed in the statement of the USSR Chess Federation at a Moscow press conference” Feb. 11.
The president of the Soviet federation, Dmitry V. Postnikov, said at a news conference the Soviets had protested previous “nonobservance” of FIDE “regulations and procedures.”
Belgrade Too Hot
He added that the Soviet side would not consider itself bound by a FIDE decision on the match site if, in their view, the federation's rules were further violated.
Soviet chess officials have said Belgrade is not suitable because of the hot climate.
