The Morning Call Allentown, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 18, 1972 - Page 28
Dutch Refuse to Provide Site For World Chess Title Match
New York — The Dutch Chess Union announced Monday that the Netherlands would not be the site of the first half of the world chess championship match this summer between Bobby Fischer of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
The International Chess Federation had asked the Dutch union last week to take over the first 12 games of the match after Belgrade had withdrawn in a dispute over a cash guarantee that Fischer would appear.
The international federation is thus without a site for the first half of the match that is tentatively scheduled to begin on June 22. The second half is scheduled to be played in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The conditions originally agreed upon in February were that prize money of $138,000, offered by Belgrade and Reykjavik, would be split, with 62.5 per cent for the winner and 37.5 per cent for the loser.
Dr. Max Euwe, president of the international federation, said last week that there was not enough time left for a repetition of bidding procedures. He said a site to replace Belgrade would be picked on a first-come, first-served basis, so long as the host country or city agreed to fulfill Belgrade's original commitment.
The Dutch union's decision to remove itself from consideration in the match arrangements was based, according to a report from The Hague, on information that Fischer had refused to play either in Belgrade or Reykjavik.
Fischer could not be reached Monday for comment. Col. Edmund Edmondson, executive director of the United States Chess federation, said, however, that Iceland was still the scheduled site for the second half of the match.
