AThe Times Shreveport, Louisiana Saturday, April 01, 1972 - Page 2
Fischer Balks on Money, Endangering Chess Match
Belgrade, Yugoslavia (AP) — The Belgrade organizers of the scheduled world championship chess match said Friday that Bobby Fischer of the United States has refused to play here and they are cancelling plans for the contest.
Fischer has rejected financial terms of the match, to begin June 22.
In Amsterdam, the World Chess Federation—FIDE—said Friday night it was asking the U.S. Chess Federation to guarantee that Fischer would go ahead with the match with world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
Dr. Max Euwe, FIDE president, also sent a telegram to the Yugoslav Chess Federation asking it to delay any decision on holding the match until after an answer is received from the U.S. federation.
April 4 Deadline
The FIDE secretariat said in a communique that the deadline for receiving the guarantee would be April 4. Failure to receive the guarantee would be regarded as a refusal by Fischer to play the match with Spassky, the secretariat said.
The Belgrade organizers of the contest earlier had set Friday as the deadline for FIDE to guarantee that Fischer would show up for the contest. No guarantee came.
Under an agreement announced by the federation 10 days ago in Amsterdam, the first half of the match was to be held in Belgrade starting June 22. The second half of the 24-game series was to be held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The winner's purse would be $138,500, with 72½ per cent going to the winner and the rest to the loser.
Split Leftover Cash
Fischer demanded that all money left over after the costs of the match were met be split between him and Spassky. The organizers in Belgrade and Reykjavik refused, saying they deserved the profits because they were taking a financial risk.
Fischer told Reykjavik last Saturday that he would not play the match in Iceland because of “unacceptable financial terms.”
Word of his refusal to play in Belgrade for the same reasons was made public on Friday.
E.B. Edmondson, director of the American Chess Federation, said Thursday that Fischer dismissed him as his financial negotiator for the match. He said Fischer planned to conduct his own bargaining.
In announcing they have dropped plans to set up the match as scheduled, the Belgrade organizers said Fischer's financial demands and his dismissal of Edmondson cast doubt on the future of the contest. Noting that FIDE officials failed to produce a pledge guaranteeing Fischer would stick by the terms of the agreement, they declared, “We are not in the position to bear any further risk about organizing the match … in the term between June 22 and July 18.”
There was still a chance the match would be played at another time, under altered conditions.
But observers said Fischer's apparent refusal to abide by the FIDE agreement wrecked his long-sought chance to play Spassky.
The Russians, irritated at the demands of the American player, have started to suggest the title match be played by Spassky and Tigran Petrosian, former Soviet world champion defeated by Fischer last year.
The division of the Spassky-Fischer match between Belgrade and Reykjavik represented a compromise for both players.
Fischer favored Belgrade and its initial financial offer of a record $152,000 winner's purse. Spassky wanted Reykjavik because of its northern climate.
