New York Times, New York, New York, Thursday, May 04, 1972 - Page 16
Reykjavik Awarded Title Chess Series
It was Bobby Fischer's move yesterday in the preliminaries for the world chess championship—and the American challenger remained incommunicado on the latest proposal to hold his matches with Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in Reykjavik, Iceland, starting July 2.
A spokesman in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for the International Chess Federation said Fischer had until Saturday morning to accept the terms proposed by the Icelandic Chess Federation for the staging of the entire 24-game series: the winner to get $78,125 and the loser the balance of a prize purse of $125,000.
The spokesman said Fischer would lose his right to challenge Spassky and would be replaced as challenger by Tigran Petrosian, whom Fischer had eliminated in the semifinals, if the American contender failed to accept this ultimatum.
Fischer was said to be still in the Catskills preparing for the match. His lawyer and spokesman here, Paul G. Marshall, was not immediately available.
Soviet hiding the match and pushing the reward ratio down to the lowest bar possible.