The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Tuesday, February 01, 1972 - Page 7
Site of World Chess Championships Still Undecided
Amsterdam (UPI) — Ed Edmondson, president of the United States Chess Federation, said today he will go to Moscow in a final effort to agree on a site for the chess match between world champion Boris Spassky and American challenger Bobby Fischer this year.
He said Fischer may accompany him.
Edmondson and Fischer offered their list of preferred sites to World Chess Federation president Max Euwe Monday to meet his Jan. 31 deadline. When Euwe checked it against the list he had received from Spassky he found no common sites.
Spassky's preferences included Iceland, Holland, West Germany and France, in that sequence. Fischer proposed Yugoslavia, Argentina or Canada.
Euwe said he agreed with Fischer that a city in Yugoslavia looked suitable because the nation was chess-minded and its bid topped those of 11 other countries. He said he decided to postpone the deadline until Feb. 10.
“If then, by midnight, there is no agreement between the two parties, I will decide for them,” Euwe said.
The winner will receive nearly two-thirds of the prize money offered by the city getting the final nod. The loser gets the rest.
Edmondson said Yugoslavia offered $152,000 for a match in Belgrade.
Fischer, who refused to discuss the situation with newsmen yesterday, was quoted earlier as saying money was his prime consideration in the choice of site.