AThe Indianapolis Star Indianapolis, Indiana Saturday, April 01, 1972 - Page 2
Chess Group Orders Fischer To Compete
Amsterdam (UPI) — The International Chess Federation (FIDE) said yesterday Bobby Fischer of the United States must meet world chess champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union under the current financial agreement or else be disqualified as a challenger for the world title.
A statement issued by the federation said it has given the U.S. Chess Union and Fischer until Tuesday to guarantee his appearance at the matches, the first scheduled to begin in Belgrade June 22.
“LACKING an answer by that deadline FIDE President Max Euwe will take it as a refusal to play for the title,” the statement said.
A FIDE spokesman call the situation “critical” after Fischer rejected an agreement providing $138,500 in prize money for the match, 62.5 per cent of which would go to the winner.
The FIDE statement came after organizers of the chess match in Belgrade decided to give up arrangements because they could not meet Fischer's financial demands.
Fischer had demanded that all the money left after the organizers covered all expenses of the match in Belgrade should be shared between him and Spassky. The Belgrade should be shared between him and Spassky. The Belgrade organizers offered $152,000 and rejected Fischer's latest demand.
IN BELGRADE, the organizers yesterday to give up further arrangements for the match after FIDE failed to guarantee that the match would be held there.
The decision in Belgrade by the Belgrade Export and Credit Bank and a Yugoslav chess magazine in agreement with the Yugoslav Chess Federation apparently prompted the statement by FIDE in Amsterdam calling on Fischer to make a final decision.
The Spassky-Fischer match was to take place in Belgrade June 22-July 19, while the second leg of the match would be played in Reykjavik, Iceland. This agreement was reached by the interested sides in Amsterdam March 20.
THE Belgrade organizers sent a cable yesterday to FIDE in The Hague informing it that they cannot invest any further money in preparations for the match since Fischer's demands have made it uncertain.
The first leg in Belgrade could take place later this year on assumption that the organizers be given firm guarantees by FIDE and the players, Peter Basaraba, the general manager of the Belgrade Export and Credit Bank, said.
