A([It surely would be enlightening to read the “reports” Spassky is referring to. Perhaps like the “reports” Vlastimil Hort was referring to, when he was wrongly informed that Fischer “refused” to play, in direct contradiction with New York Times, April 05, 1972, “Fischer Announces He is Ready to Play” (a rumor to the contrary spread by Fischer detractors with no foundation in reality). Spassky has been told, apparently, that Fischer had made remarks he ‘feared Russian players’… which is ridiculous. It was solely Organizers of the coming tournament who had ulterior motives and that's an established fact. Organizers, “Old Hands” Ken Smith called them, were plotting to disqualify and replace Fischer with Petrosian. Spassky seems blissfully unaware of these facts likely due to being isolated and in a state of carefully guarded censorship.])
The Orlando Sentinel Orlando, Florida Saturday, June 17, 1972 - Page 7
Spassky: Fischer 'Livening'
Moscow (UPI) — Boris Spassky, the world chess champion, said Friday he felt sorry for American challenger Bobby Fischer because of his “persecution mania” but considered him a “remarkable” player without whom the world of chess would be “very dull.”
“If I had the freedom to choose my challenger I would ask for Fischer,” Spassky told a news conference. Their world championship matches start July 2 at Reykjavik, Iceland.
SPASSKY, 35, was reluctant to comment on the 29-year-old Fischer's boasts that he would win the championship and his accusations that the Russians had plotted to deprive him of the title by arranging to hold the games in Iceland.
But, after repeated questioning, he said Fischer's “remarks make a strange impression. He appears to have a persecution mania and thinks Soviet chess players want to harm him. There is nothing to it and I feel sorry for Fischer.”
Spassky also defended Fischer against charges of an overriding interest in making money from chess.
“IN MY opinion, although he is anxious to make money out of chess that is not the only thing he cares for,” Spassky said. “His talk about money may be only an effort to assert his individuality in a country like the United States where there is a lot of money.”
Spassky refused to predict the outcome of their match. “I do not know who will win but I am certain it will be an interesting and important event,” he said. When the two grand masters last met in West Germany in 1970 Spassky won three games and the other two were drawn.
BUT IN a conversation with a Western newsman several days ago Spassky said that unlike Fischer he did not set out to be a world champion and that he would be “the happiest man alive if I were no longer champion.” “I like to play chess for fun and not fame,” he said. “My idea of a pleasant evening is to share some wine with friends and play chess. Sometimes I lose on purpose to please my friends.
“I look forward to Reykjavik as if it were a holiday.”
On June 25, the Orlando Sentinel begins a five-part series by Larry Evans on the “Chess Match of the Century.”
Bobby Fischer Declares He is “Ready to Play”! (New York Times,April 05, 1972)
“Refuses to Play” ??? (April 26, 1972) Who said?? Ah, the Soviet Rumor Mill… “The World Chess Federation should take tougher measures against American challenger Bobby Fischer to force him into playing, Vlastimil Hort, Czechoslovaki's chess grand master in Prague. Fischer has refused to play world champion Boris Spassky of Russia because............................”
