AChicago Tribune Chicago, Illinois Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 172
A Blackout on Chess Coverage From Moscow, Too? Citizens Back Criticism
Either way, the average Russian privately agrees with his government controlled (censored) newspapers. For months the Soviet press has criticized the American challenger as “a money grubbing businessman” ([After Belgrade forfeited hosting the tournament, and Euwe issued statement that bidding would go “first come, first serve” and Australia placed its legal $225K bid, with $200,000 allotted for prize money and a mere $25,000 necessary for organizers expenses, which was snubbed by Soviet Imperial Russia, threatening they “would not allow Spassky to play”. Fischer having seen the honest dollar value of himself and the match vs the actual cost of organizing the match, surely should've seized on his rightful opportunity!]), a chess player who carries around with him “a disgusting spirit of gain.” (any more disgusting than the greedy spirit of gain, exhibited by Belgrade when the Soviet backed a deplorable, illegal demand for “$35,000 guarantee” knowing the US Chess Federation would never produce it?])
“Fischer's nothing more than a capitalist,” one bearded player complained. ([And what of Capitalist Soviets and Icelandic officials working in collusion, to hide the money trail on the gate receipts, claiming the only possible way for them to ever pay for their organization expenses and cover the prize money was to unethically, illegally, in an affront to constitutional “freedom of the press” coverage of the tournament, compromising the tournament by “selling photography and coverage rights” to a Soviet collaborator from New York, who sought to help the Soviets bury the match… forbidding photographers to bring cameras inside the stadium, and requiring signed contract to limit what reporters could cablegram outside of Reykjavik, restricting media coverage from organizations around the world, adhering to a filtered version coming from out of Reykjavik. And what about those gate profits… whatever happened to all that money? The money paid out for unethically purchased “photography and coverage rights” was suppose to cover the cost of prize money plus tournament expenses. So what became of the gate receipts?? No accountability? Pure profits. An example of raging Soviet capitalism at its worst!]) “For him business comes before sports.” ([And wasn't fighting racism supposed to be the #1 priority of Soviet Fascist Imperialism? Yet, the Soviet saw fit to make a chess tournament a priority above its claim to be the shining beacon of “equality” to the world! Knowing Iceland is poisoned by an atmosphere of overtly Anti-American hostility, overtly racist, it's quite evident how the Soviet was kowtowing to racist and chauvinist attitudes to gain advantage for itself in this match. Organizers who would bend over backwards in Soviet favoritism. In the words of Archie Waters, an old friend, a mentor and manager working on Fischer's team, “…Then, the camera panned the huge crowd for reactions and, for one heart-stopping moment -- my daughter exclaimed -- it settled on the only African-American in the auditorium, or anywhere near the auditorium -- me. I was applauding. I had been on Fischer's management team for three vacation weeks in an Iceland city, with its one-story, pastel-colored roofs and mostly blond, blue-eyed residents.”] What a shamelessly racist selection made by the Soviet Union, from all the venues in the world yet the Soviet settled on the most racist, and virulently Anti-American among them all, to antagonize Fischer and his management team.])
--> The news media here haven't devoted much attention to the chess match. <-- ([Something to hide perhaps?? How strange for an empire who claims chess as its “national pastime”.]) However, the average Russian chess player knows Fischer is down two points and that Spassky hasn't even begun to fight. ([So the Russians are not aware of the hiring of disruptive camera men, one such man reported disrupting the match, on the roof while other noisy camera men carrying on their shenanigans at the side of the stage, to distract and blow Fischer's concentration to score illegitimate points? Of course not.])
Confused at first, but willing to accept the American's desire for more money, most of the park players now attribute Fischer's latest demands to fear of defeat at the hands of the world champion. ([Dream on comrades!])
