The Orlando Sentinel Orlando, Florida Saturday, July 01, 1972 - Page 20
Tass Hits Fischer's Nerve War
Moscow (AP) The Soviet news agency Tass said Friday there is no certainty that the world championship chess match will be held at all and it blamed the situation on Bobby Fischer, the American who is challenging the Russian titleholder, Boris Spassky.
Tass commentator Allan Starodub noted reports that Fischer is asking for more money to play and waging “a war of nerves” by not yet showing up in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the 24-game match.
“OF COURSE it's his right to appear in Reykjavik just before the first match begins,” Starodub wrote, “but he should have warned the championships organizers in advance — otherwise his step can be regarded as disrespect toward them.”
Recalling that Fischer agreed to Reykjavik as the match site only “one hour before the deadline,” Starodub charged that the American grand master “now again tries to keep everyone in suspense.”
Noting that “unprecedented sums” were involved in the championship, the Tass writer contended there is a “disgusting spirit of gain that Fischer carries around with him.” ([… actually he gave all that money to a “public charity, classified by the IRS as a Section 501(c)(3) organization.”])
“IT IS characteristic that his spokesmen are lawyers and not chess players,” Starodub asserted. ([Unfortunate that Fischer wasn't given warning then, by “chess players” that he was falling into a trap devised by LAWYERS of the Soviet and Icelandic Chess Federations, who drew up said contract, with the fine print permitting a real life “checkmate” of Fischer in a future lawsuit by Chester Fox for 3.3 million. Trust?)]
“Wherever Fischer is, money ranks first, pushing aside all sporting motives.” ([Such as subsidizing players in the Soviet Union, to give them an unfair advantage?])
Starodub added that the drawing for the first move in Sunday's game is to take place Saturday. “So the right to make the first move in the match has not been decided yet but Robert Fischer has already made many ‘moves,’ true not on the chess board but on the business field.” ([True. Protecting himself from capricious Soviet “moves.”)]
STARODUB also complained that the Icelandic Chess Federation took the “unusual” step of selling all television and still picture rights for the championship. ([No. That decision was ordered direct from Moscow. Fischer was telling the press months earlier, the match would be staged in Iceland for the sole intent to censor the match. Purely the will of the Soviet, with Iceland acting the part as pawn.])
“Even the right to report the matches move-by-move action was sold,” he said. ([Of course, that was necessary to curtail coverage, and bury the match a desperate attempt to salvage Soviet prestige, and Fischer knew it.)]
“There has never been anything like this before,” Starodub declared. ([Yes there was starting with Lenin in 1918 shutting down rival newspapers, bringing the Russian people into a state of darkness and submission to his authoritarian regime, where all information is controlled by the State.)] “We guess that these strange conditions were made because Fischer demands more and more money.” ([This attempt to rationalize “why the blame” for Soviets CENSORSHIP should fall on the shoulders of Robert J. Fischer to burden . . . is an exercise in the futility of the use of ludicrously flawed logic.)]
