The Times Shreveport, Louisiana Saturday, July 01, 1972 - Page 12
Fischer's Chance in Chess Tilt Periled
Hamburg, Germany (UPI) —U.S. Chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer may lose his rights as challenger for the world title if he doesn't show up for his Sunday match with Russian World Champion Boris Spassky, the president of the World Chess Federation said Friday.
“If he doesn't show up, he will lose his rights to play in the world championship,” said federation head Max Euwe of Holland. “It won't be my decision alone, but the rules of the game.”
Euwe, World Chess Champion in 1935-37, was here on a business visit and said he planned to fly to the match site in Reykjavik, Iceland, Saturday.
Fischer, canceled or missed three flights to Reykjavik this week from the United States, was last seen Thursday night in a restaurant at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
When discovered by reporters and fans, he ran into a parking lot and disappeared. A spokesman for Icelandic Airlines later said Fischer was not aboard a flight for Reykjavik that night although he apparently had a reservation.
Icelandic Airlines said in New York it had “no information” about whether Fischer would be on one of its three flights Friday night to Reykjavik from Kennedy.
The next flight to Iceland from Kennedy was Friday night — and in the past Fischer, a Brooklyn resident, has refused to fly between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday—the Church of God sabbath.
Meanwhile, a Tass news agency dispatch from Moscow said Fischer's actions made it uncertain whether the series with Spassky “will begin on time or whether it will be held at all.”
Tass also said Fischer was motivated by a “disgusting spirit of gain” ([So is the Soviet. To monopolize all titles in sports, by “any means necessary” and lack of sportsmanship.”]) and confided in lawyers rather than other chess players. ([Trust the Soviet government? Madness.]) “Whenever the matter concerns Fischer, money comes first while sports motives are relegated to the background,” ([Soviet players were subsidized, giving them an unfair advantage by the government, but nobody is complaining about that.]) the dispatch added.
Earlier, sources in Iceland reported Fischer had given an ultimatum to the Icelandic chess Federation that he wouldn't show up unless it agreed to guarantee him 30 per cent of the gate receipts on top of the existing contract giving the winner five-eighths of the prize money.
Euwe said Fischer had “no legal right” to make the demand. ([Nor did Belgrade have a “legal right” to demand a $35,000 guarantee. Fischer forced to agree to a contract he had neither seen nor read.]) “Besides other rights, Fischer was given 30 per cent of all television rights, which will amount to about. $70,000,” Euwe added.
He also said Fischer could be held financially responsible for the cost of setting up the Iceland match if he does not show up. ([Really? According to organizers, they wouldn't stand to lose anything IF the match were cancelled.])
