New York Times, New York, New York, Wednesday, July 12, 1972 - Page 48
A Fischer-Spassky Chair by Rita Reif
A mate to Bobby Fischer's chess chair was flown to Iceland last night so that Boris Spassky could, if he wanted, have the same swivel-based, leather-covered Charles Eames design that the American chess challenger played in during yesterday's opening game for the world championship.
The first chair was flown to Reykjavik on Friday after Col. Edmond Edmundson, executive director of the United States Chess Federation, an aide, and representatives of Icelandic Airlines spent several busy hours tracking down the chair at Mr. Fischer's request and getting it to the airport.
Yesterday Colonel Edmundson recalled how satisfied the American chess challenger had been last October with the same Eames design when he defeated Tigran Petrosian in the elimination tournament in Buenos Aires.
“Six or eight chairs had been offered to him and none suited,” Colonel Edmundson said. “Then I happened to see this chair elsewhere in the theater [where the match was held] — in an office, as a matter of fact — and I told someone to put that one on the stage and let him try it.”
Mr. Fischer liked it, which is more than could be said for ([the temperamental]) Mr. Petrosian's reaction. The Russian chess player sat in it, rose quickly and gave a firm “nyet,” Colonel Edmundson recalled.
“Nyet” is what Colonel Edmundson expects Mr. Spassky to say, too.
“Spassky would probably not be comfortable in this chair either,” the chess official remarked, noting that Mr. Fischer, at 6 foot 2, is several inches taller and rangier than his opponent. Colonel Edmundson also warned the Icelandic Chess Federation of this when they contacted him Monday and expressed an eagerness to have a second chair flown to Reykjavik.
Nevertheless, Gundmundur Thorarinsson, who heads the Icelandic chess organization, insisted on getting in touch with Herman Miller, the Zeeland, Michigan furnishings manufacturer which makes the chair and operates a showroom here at 600 Madison Avenue (at 58th Street). That's where Colonel Edmundson's aide found the chair last Friday.
Mr. Fischer's chair was purchased for $471.60 (it is $524 retail) through a Miller outlet, R & G Affiliates, 205 Lexington Avenue, by the United States Chess Federation “as a token of our friendship and respect” for the people of Iceland. The second chair is being sent as a gift from the manufacturer.
Eames Not Surprised
As for the designer, Charles Eames, who learned for the first time yesterday of Bobby Fischer's affinity for his chair, he was not entirely surprised.
“When I heard over the weekend that Bobby Fischer was having a chair sent from New York I thought about which chair—if it were one I had designed—would be good for chess players,” he said from his Venice, California office.
