AThe Herald-Journal Logan, Utah Tuesday, July 04, 1972 - Page 2
A New Crisis For Chess
Reykjavik (UPI) — The world chess championship match between Bobby Fischer of the United States and World Champion Boris Spassky ran into a new crisis Tuesday when the Russian left a meeting with Fischer's representatives after lodging a protest over Fischer's behavior.
Dr. Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), said he was not sure himself what the situation was.
“What happened was that Spassky lodged a protest against the fact that Fischer did not arrive in time Sunday and he walked out of the meeting,” Dr. Euwe said.
He said the Russian walkout, which he felt was ordered by Moscow, put the match in danger again.
“The situation is critical. I don't know if the match will be played at all,” Dr. Euwe said.
“I am very pessimistic,” he said.
Dr. Euwe said the protest, as he understood it, was aimed only against Fischer's failure to show up Sunday when the match was originally scheduled to begin.
When Fischer arrived from New York early this morning most experts here felt the crisis had been solved and the match would begin with the first game Tuesday night.
The meeting was called for the drawing of lots for Tuesday night's expected game. Spassky showed up but Fischer stayed in his hotel to sleep and sent his second, Father William Lombardy and his lawyers, Paul Marshall and Andrew Davis to represent him.
However the drawing never took place. The Russians instead handed in their protest—in Russian—and left.
Lothar Schmid, the Official Arbiter of the match, said he would need a translation of the protest before acting on it.
Meanwhile Lombardy and Marshall went to Spassky's Reykjavik hotel to try to persuade the Russian to come back into the match.
