ADetroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan Saturday, April 29, 1972 - Page 40
Another Chess Bid
James Mason, a Melbourne entrepreneur, Friday offered to put up $122,000 to stage the first leg of the world chess championship in Australia between Bobby Fischer of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
The offer was cabled to Prof. Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Amsterdam. If accepted the match would take place in Melbourne.
Belgrade organizers backed out of their original agreement to hold the match there when Fischer demanded a larger share of the profits from the match.
Iceland has offered to stage both matches in the series. A spokesman for FIDE Friday said the offer, received two days ago, was being made on condition that “both Spassky and Fischer are firmly prepared to play the entire match in Iceland.”
Meanwhile in Moscow, a Soviet newspaper Friday accused the head of FIDE of unscrupulous bias in favor of Fischer. Sovietsky Sport, a daily sports newspaper, said the attitude of FIDE President Euwe had been “obviously tendentious” to the disadvantage of Spassky.
The paper's chess commentator said Euwe proved his bias when FIDE took no action against Fischer for the breakdown of the arrangements. ([Why should Euwe have taken action against Fischer who broke no rule, when it was Belgrade who broke the contract and demanded an illegal 35K “guarantee” from the players. Upon a failure to receive the extorted funds, Belgrade broke its end of the contract, altogether.])
