ATampa Bay Times St. Petersburg, Florida Friday, June 30, 1972 - Page 46
Organizers Seek To Restrict Coverage Of Chess Match
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Organizers of the Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky world championship chess match will restrict move-by move coverage and photographs of the contenders inside the contest hall, it was announced Wednesday.
The announcement brought protests from news wire services and from two television outlets which are planning in-depth accounts of the 24-game match based on move-by-move reports from The Associated Press. The first game is scheduled for Sunday.
Gudmundur Thorarinsson, chairman of the Icelandic Chess Federation, said the restrictions were decreed because photographic and move-by-move coverage rights had been sold.
Thorarinsson said journalists would be allowed to transmit move-by-move reports only three times during each game between the Soviet world champion, Spassky, and the American challenger. He said newsmen would be required to sign a pledge to abide by the agreement in order to obtain accreditation.
Spokesmen for AP and United Press International said they were lodging protests against any curtailment of news coverage. Joseph G. Groth, general manager of the TelePrompTer Manhattan Cable TV, said in New York: “If this capricious move succeeds, a large and interested segment of the public served by TelePrompTer Manhattan CATV will be deprived of one of the most exciting show-downs in the history of chess.”
The firm has announced plans for a move-by-move analysis of each of the matches, utilizing the AP service and comment from a U.S. chess grand master.
The Icelandic Chess Federation contends that TelePrompTer's use of the AP reports infringes on its property rights, the company said. The federation has sold U.S. broadcast television rights to the American Broadcasting Company.
Spokesmen for Channel 13-WNDT New York, which also has announced plans for telecasts based on move-by-move reports, said it was “absolutely outrageous to attempt to stop the free dissemination of news.”
“We are performing a service for the chess devotee,” the Channel 13 spokesmen said. The station's plans call for five hours of continuous coverage on each day of the match.
ABC plans to use the film to which it has acquired rights on the network's “Wide World of Sports” program.
Roone Arledge, president of ABC Sports, indicated he has no objections to the proposed plans for outside programs on the match.
“I think that would be excellent programming and a good thing for them to do … We're going to do it in a condensed, limited way. As long as we can do what we want to do, we'd be delighted to cooperate,” Arledge said.
