The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Friday, July 07, 1972 - Page 1-32
Chess Match Starts Tuesday; Spassky Wins Draw, 1st Move by Harold Dondis
Reykjavik, Iceland — With the nerve-rasping preliminaries of psychology and diplomacy cleared away, Russia's Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, the reluctant American, are set for the chess match of the century.
That much was settled yesterday, but in keeping with the patient patterns of the ancient game, Boris and Bobby aren't exactly rushing into anything, even now.
The two masters allowed, with courtly deliberation, that they will be prepared to make the first moves on the board next Tuesday at 1 p.m. EDT).
The agreement between the rival geniuses lifted the state of tension among officials of the International Chess Federation as well as the seemingly irritated Icelandic organizers, who expected confrontation to take place last Sunday.
The key to the resolution was a “Dear Boris” letter sent by the 29-year-old Fischer to the 35-year-old Spassky.
Among other things, Bobby apologized for what he termed his “petty dispute over money” which had threatened cancellation of the 24-match classic.
Bobby was perhaps indulging in a nice bit of understatement. The estimated prize value is between $250,000 and $300,000.
Spassky did not respond directly. His satisfaction with the conditions was expressed by his “second” Efraim Geller.
In all of this, was a good deal of face-saving and perhaps in the case of the American contender at least a little face-losing.
Bobby lost another minor point yesterday also.
This came about when the rivals met for the first time during the preliminaries, including the draw for precedence.
Fischer was 20 minutes tardy for this ceremony, but there was a polite ambiance as the two expressed satisfaction after inspecting the championship board, the lighting and other facilities on the stage of the hall where a capacity of 3000 is expected for the great event.
Spassky held a chess piece in either hand and when Fischer pointed to the left, the black piece was revealed.
By retaining the white piece, Spassky was assured of making the first move of the opening game on Tuesday.
