AThe South Bend Tribune South Bend, Indiana Sunday, July 02, 1972 - Page 70
ABC Sports To Telecast Chess Event
ABC Sports has acquired the exclusive rights to televise the World Chess Championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the United States and champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
The coverage on ABC will be the only telecasts of the competition available in the United States.
Highlights of championship games, possibly as many as 24 in all, will be seen on “ABC's Wide World of Sports.” The championship will run a maximum of eight weeks; the first telecast will air at 4 p.m. July 8.
The World Chess Championship will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, a country of devoted chess aficionados. This marks the first time in history the matches will be played outside the Soviet Union.
The first game will be played Sunday, July 2; the second on Tuesday, the third on Thursday. Thereafter, games will be played every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday for eight weeks.
A maximum of 24 games will be played. As soon as one competitor earns 12½ points, the championship is decided and play is terminated. One point is awarded for a victory, a half point for a tie. Defending champion Spassky needs only a 12-12 tie to retain his world title.
Fischer, a prodigy who stunned the world by winning the United States national championship at the age of 14, has faced Spassky only five times in his career and has never won, losing three games and tying twice between 1960 and 1970. Yet, following his relatively easy succession of triumphs in preliminary competition, Fisher is probably the favorite.
Spassky is the latest tin a long line of Russian champions. A representative of the Soviet Union has held the World Championship for the past 23 years.
