AThe Sydney Morning Herald Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Sunday, April 30, 1972 - Page 4
Melbourne's 11th-Hour Bid For Top Chess Match
A Melbourne engineer has put in an eleventh-hour bid—to the tune of $110,000—to get an Australian venue for the chess match of the century.
Mr. James Nason, 39, of Eltham, put up the prize money through the Australian Chess Federation yesterday to attract world chess champion Boris Spassky of Russia and challenger Bobby Fischer of America to stage the first round of a title clash in Melbourne.
The offer came after Australian chess officials had given up hope of finding a sponsor willing to foot the bill for an Australian clash between the pair.
The opportunity for Australia to stage what has been described as the greatest chess event of modern times came when International Chess Federation president Dr. Max Euwe, of Holland, visited Melbourne two weeks ago.
He reported a break-down in the existing arrangements where Yugoslavia and Iceland were each to stage 12 games in the 24-game challenge.
Yugoslavia had withdrawn its offer to hold the first stage scheduled to begin on June 22 in Belgrade.
Yesterday the South Australian Chess Federation representative on the world body, Mr G. Koshnitsky, cabled ICF headquarters in The Hague with news of Mr. Nason's offer.
Mr. Koshnitskv said the offer again put Australia in the race to hold the games because of the international organisation's policy of encouraging underdeveloped chess-playing countries.
Optimistic
Mr. Nason said he had decided to put up the prize money during lunch with Victorian chess officials on Friday.
“I am optimistic that we will get the first stage of the games,” he said.
“What matters is getting the games here in Melbourne.
“It will be like getting the Olympic Games. It would be fantastic for the city … that's all that matters.”
Mr. Nason, a bachelor and head of a small engineering company, said that if his bid was successful the event would he staged at the Leonda Reception Centre in Hawthorn, a Melbourne suburb.
Dr Euwe, who is returning to Amsterdam, could not he contacted by “The Sun-Herald” for comment on the offer last night.
In New York, Colonel Edmund Edmondson. the executive director of the US Chess Federation, yesterday expressed interest in the Australian offer.
But he said the ultimate choice would rest with Spassky and Fischer.
In Moscow, the Soviet Chess Federation yesterday declined to comment on the Australian offer.
But a federation official said the Soviet position was that the match must be held in Europe.
