AStar Tribune Minneapolis, Minnesota Sunday, July 02, 1972 - Page 6
Chess Group Seeks Limit On Coverage of Tourney
NYTimes News Service. Reykjavik, Iceland — The Icelandic Chess Federation was engaged Saturday in a battle to prevent television stations and chess clubs around the world from staging play-by-play reconstructions of the scheduled world chess championship matches as they are under way.
Of 85 reports seeking accreditation to cover the matches, only the Associated Press and the New York Times were believed to have refused to sign an agreement demanded by the federation, to limit coverage to not more than three reports per game, and to prohibit their use for simultaneous move-by-move reconstructions.
The Associated Press, it was understood, made a verbal agreement with the federation to hold down its dispatches to five during each game. With this understanding, it was not being required to make the pledge to bar unauthorized reproductions.
A correspondent for the New York Times was informed that he would be barred from using communications facilities in the sports palace. The Times had refused to sign the agreement on the ground it involved prior restraint on reporting.
The Time's correspondent purchased spectator tickets instead of using the press facilities provided by the federation, and was assured by telephone officials here that no one could restrict his recourse to telephone service.
The other major American news service, United Press International, refused to comment on whether it had made any agreement; it had planned play-by-play reports.
The Icelandic Chess Federation took the position that it had put up the highest purse in chess history, $125,000, ([Oh nonsense!!! Aside of the whinings how they can barely “break even” which is factually untrue, Soviets attempting to rewrite history with their overreaching censorship: Australia put up $225,000 … Mexico put up $175,000 … even Belgrade who broke its contractual obligations, withdrew … but up $150,000. Bragging rights are denied. Iceland was cherrypicked because it was a guarantee the Soviet Union could BURY the match.]), for the players, and incurred other costs that would bring its expenses above $200,000. ([And how much did that secret deal to hire noisy camera men to distract Robert Fischer, so naturally, he would then fulfill the Soviet plot to achieve total censorship… and bury the match. Must've been lots, considering Chester Fox later sued Bobby for 3.3 million.)]
To recoup, the federation said, it entered into a contract to grant exclusive film rights to Chester Fox, Inc., and also made an agreement to let the world chess network have all move-by-move broadcasts.
Photographers protested when they were told they would not be allowed even to take cameras into the hall where the match was to be held. ([That's what Soviet Scheming works like, every time Fischer was mocked for speaking the truth it in the news media. He had a point after all.])
