AThe Post-Star Glens Falls, New York Wednesday, July 05, 1972 - Page 1
Chess Match Off Until Thursday
New York (AP)—The director of the U.S. Chess Federation said Tuesday if either Bobby Fischer or Boris Spassky fails to show up for their world championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland, Thursday the title should go to the other by default.
And if neither shows up, said Col. E.B. Edmondson, “the title should be declared vacant and they should start all over.”
Edmondson said he was expressing his opinion not as executive director of the U.S. federation but as a member of the five-man advisory board of FIDE, the international chess federation.
Edmondson delivered his opinion after Spassky, the Russian champion and current world title holder, walked out on the scheduled start of the world championship match Tuesday. The match already had been delayed since Sunday by Fischer's early failure to go to Reykjavik in a holdout for more money.
Spassky said his walkout was to protest failure of the international federation to punish Fischer for violations of its rules.
Edmondson said he believed that Spassky “never would have refused to play today of his own volition,” adding that “it's quite obvious they (the Soviets) don't want the match to occur.”
“But regardless of the motives of the two players,” he added, “This has gone far enough. You cannot go on with this kind of charade.”
Asked what he meant by starting all over if both players failed to appear Thursday, Edmondson said details would have to be worked out by the international federation.
