The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Saturday, April 01, 1972 - Page 79
Bobby Fischer Gets Chess Match Ultimatum
Amsterdam (UPI) — The International Chess Federation (FIDE) offered U.S. grand master Bobby Fischer a final choice today — either face world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union under current financial conditions or be disqualified as a challenger.
FIDE issued its ultimatum in a statement after Fischer rejected the payment arrangements agreed for the championship games to be played in Belgrade and Reykjavik this summer.
The statement gave Fischer until Tuesday to guarantee his attendance or lose his chance at the title.
“Lacking an answer by the deadline (FIDE president Max) Euwe will take it as a refusal from Fischer to play for the title,” the statement said.
The controversy flared after the Belgrade organizers told FIDE that “due to the uncertainty still going on … it is impossible to carry out all of the organizational preparations such a match would require.”
The Yugoslav Export and Credit Bank and a Belgrade chess magazine made the highest bid to stage the match — $152,000 — but Fischer turned the offer down, demanding that all profit made from the meet, after deduction of organizational costs, should be paid the players.
To end the financial bickering over the title match, FIDE decided the location at a meeting in Amsterdam March 20. It informed the organizers that first part of the 24-match series would be played in Belgrade June 22 through July 15, with the second part to be played in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Fischer told the organizers their offers were too low and that he would not play Spassky under those conditions.
