AThe Leader-Post Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 11
Chess Championship Game May Be Moved
Reykjavik, Iceland (Reuter) — The organizers of the trouble-hit world chess championship Saturday offered to move the match temporarily into a secluded back room of the playing hall to ensure that American challenger Bobby Fischer continues play.
Fischer has complained that backstage television cameras distract him in the main hall. But in the back room they would not be present.
The organizers' plan was disclosed to the American side at an emergency meeting Saturday—the day before the third game of the series is due to begin.
Apart from Fischer and world champion Boris Spassky, only the two match arbiters and three other functionaries would be allowed in the back room during play.
Although chief arbiter Lothar Schmid of West Germany has authority to take the match away from the giant auditorium if either play requests it on the grounds that he is being disturbed, the move can be only temporary until the disturbance has been removed.
Fischer forfeited the second game of the series Thursday night when he didn't turn up because of the cameras ([However, a valid petition of grievance was filed before the deadline, therefore, no forfeit should have been declared.])
Exclusive rights to visual coverage of the event are held by American businessman Chester Fox, who is not willing to remove the cameras.
They have been repositioned at the sides of the stages so that only the lenses are visible and an Icelandic audio expert concluded after tests that the sound level did not increase when they were used. ([But sound tests were not performed on the disruptive men operating the infernal cameras.])
Paul Marshall, a lawyer for Fischer, arrived from New York today and the American side immediately sought a reconvening of the tournament appeals committee.
U.S. officials said he had fresh evidence to strengthen Fischer's case following the committee's refusal to allow a replay of the second game.
The American side refused to discuss the nature of the “new evidence” or whether it touched upon the forfeiture of Fischer's demands that the television cameras around the stage be removed.
They said only that the evidence was “substantial.” But the sources said it was largely technical evidence about cameras.
The third game was scheduled to start Sunday, with Fischer two games down, but the dispute appears to have put the contest in the balance.
Apart from the four-man appeals committee, the Americans are trying to bring an official of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) into the debate.
In the absence of the FIDE's president, Dr. Max Euwe, who has chosen to remain in Amsterdam, the man being approached in Reykjavik is Canadian millionaire John Prentice, one of the vice-presidents. Prentice is chairman of the board of Canadian Forest Products, Vancouver.
With the abandonment of the world-title series apparently a real prospect, veteran chess experts believe it would wreck the 29-year-old American's career. ([And with all the drama and muddling by Soviets, Fischer has stated on more than one occasion he's grown weary and losing interest as he's not treated with the due respect that owed to him by colleagues.]) They say there are parallels in chess history of players not abiding by the rules or “acting in a willful manner” ([take that complaint up with the Soviets who have kept the match in a mess from the outset]) being shut out by the chess world. ([and soon enough, due to the bad, unsportsmanlike conduct of the Soviets and their affiliates, Fischer will shut out the chess world, for about 20 years.])
