AThe Morning Call Allentown, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 05, 1972 - Page 48
Chess Challenger Agrees To Time, Place for Match
Amsterdam (AP) — That foremost current chess problem—whether and under what terms Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky will meet across the checkered board for the world championship—may have moved a step toward solution Tuesday.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) said it had received a telegram from the U.S. federation stating that the American challenger will meet the Soviet titleholder “at the negotiated time and place.”
But Fischer's demands for a share of the profits in addition to the agreed prize money remain an issue and the organizers in Belgrade, Yugoslavia—one of the two sites for the match—insist on further guarantees.
Fischer's demands prompted FIDE to announce last Friday that lack of a U.S. federation guarantee by Tuesday would be construed as a refusal by Fischer to play the match. The international organization's president, Dr. Max Euwe, said the American challenger could be disqualified.
FIDE's secretariat said Tuesday that a representative of the American federation would meet with the international group to confirm the agreements.
Further complications arose last Friday when organizers in Belgrade withdrew from the initial agreements. The 24-game match is to begin June 22 in Belgrade and finish in Reykjavik, Iceland.
FIDE said Tuesday that Belgrade was sticking by its decision, insisting that FIDE guarantee the match. The Belgrade organizers also said the telegram received Tuesday does not amount to a guarantee from the U.S. federation “that Fischer will play under all stipulations of the March 20 agreement reached in Amsterdam.” E. B. Edmondson, executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation, said Monday in New York that Euwe should get together with Fischer and Spassky to work out the problems. “How can Mr. Fischer be asked to comply with an agreement already apparently invalidated by the withdrawal of one of the parties?” he said. Fischer's attorney, also in New York, declined to comment.
