ANew York Times, New York, New York, Monday, July 03, 1972 - Page 1
Chess Title Match Put Off Two Days On Plea by Fischer by Harold C. Schonberg
Reykjavik, Iceland, July 2—The president of the International Chess Federation has granted Bobby Fischer a two-day postponement of his world championship match with Boris Spassky, which was supposed to begin here today. But the president, Dr. Max Euwe, warned the American grandmaster that if he did not show up by noon Tuesday, he would forfeit the match.
Dr. Euwe, a Dutchman who was the world champion from 1935 to 1937, was pessimistic. “I think there will be no play at all,” he said.
Informed at breakfast that Fischer was still in New York, Spassky looked shocked and said: “This is bad for chess.”
As usual, neither Spassky nor any of those who accompanied the Soviet chess star here were available for direct comment on the decision to postpone the match. Dr. Euwe said the Russian had neither agreed nor disagreed with the ruling, but Spassky was quoted as saying that he had waited for more than a week and that he could wait another two days for the start of the 24-game match.
He was doing this, it was said, out of deference to his Icelandic hosts. Fred Cramer, representing Fischer, said that the Russians did not wish to retain the title on a technicality and that they had acted in a sportsmanlike manner.
If Fischer is disqualified, there is likely to be a long series of complicated legal battles.
The Russians, for example, are saying that the match officially started with last night's inaugural ceremony at the National Theater and that the 35-year-old Soviet champion would be the automatic winner by Fischer's disqualification. Thus, they say, he would be entitled to demand his 62.5 per cent of the $125,000 purse and Fischer would be entitled to nothing.
The Americans, however, contend that there can be no legal start to any chess match until the first move is made and the clock that times the players is punched. Dr. Euwe said that there was nothing in the International Chess Federation rules to cover this contingency: no player has ever been disqualified for not appearing for a championship match.
Possibility of Suit
There also is the possibility that the Icelandic Chess Federation will bring a suit against Fischer. The 29-year-old American has never signed a contract—he never signs anything—but he did send the International Chess Federation a telegram saying he would play the match in Iceland, under protest. That telegram would constitute legal acceptance, in the opinion of Dr. Euwe. The Icelandic Chess Federation stands to lose at least $75,000 is the match is not held.
According to Dr. Euwe, there would be no sanction beyond the disqualification—Fischer would not be barred from any future matches or tournaments and would be entitled, if he wished, to compete in the next round of eliminations for the championship.
Dr. Euwe said that as far as he knew, Fischer was remaining in New York because he was unhappy about the financial arrangements. This was confirmed by someone who wanted not to be identified who spoke to Fischer by telephone today. “Bobby sounded calm and reasonable,” the informant said. “His demands are entirely financial.”
Fischer has been asking for 30 per cent of the gate receipts in addition to a share of the purse, and his lawyer, Andrew Davis, has been here for several days. Mr. Davis has been negotiating with the Icelandic Chess Federation.
Last ditch efforts to save the match are in progress. Mr. Davis was still trying to work out a deal with the Icelandic Chess Federation, friends of Fischer are telephoning him, and an Icelandic chess player named Freystrinn Thorbergsson, who claims to be a close friend, flew to New York to try to persuade Fischer to come.
This morning Mr. Cramer said that two telegrams had been sent from New York to the Icelandic Chess Federation and had been lost. One telegram, he said, was from the United States Chess Federation and was a request for a postponement. The other was a doctor's certificate.
Mr. Cramer would not give the name of the doctor, but in recent days Fischer has been seeing Anthony Saidy, a chess master who also is a physician.
Dr. Euwe and Lothar Schmid, the referee, both said that they had not seen any telegrams. In any case, Dr. Euwe explained, the arrival of an unsupported medical certificate was meaningless.
The now-you-see-it-now-you-don't character of the chess match confused not only officials but also the public. Several hundred people showed up at the 3,000-seat sports hall, where tickets are sold for $5 each, and had to leave disappointed.
Icelander Arrives
Thorbergsson arrived here last night and said that he expected to remain in the country for “two or three days,” although he carried no baggage. He would not comment directly on his plan to persuade Fischer to return to Iceland, saying only that “I'll find him. I'm here to see Bobby as a friend.”
Fischer was staying last week at the home of Fred Saidy, Dr. Saidy's father and co-author of “Finian's Rainbow,” the musical about the filching of a pot of gold.
At Fred Saidy's Tudor-style house at 2 Cedar Lane, Douglaston, Queens, a man who declined to identify himself said yesterday that Mr. Fischer “was here until 48 hours ago.” He added that the chess champion would not want to talk to newsmen, and would not say where he had gone. Fischer has not been seen boarding any of the direct New York-to-Reykjavik flights, the next of which leaves at 7:30 tonight from Kennedy International Airport.
Anthony Saidy, reached by telephone, said yesterday that he was not Mr. Fischer's physician, and then added: “It might be of interest that telephone lines from Iceland are tapped.”
Col. Edmond Edmundson, executive director of the United States Chess Federation,s aid yesterday that “the federation always hopes Fischer plays,” but had not taken part in discussions on the match with Spassky.
Two New York television stations were still hoping to present reconstructions and analyses of the games, despite efforts by the Icelandic Chess Federation to bar simultaneous play-by-play dispatches by news organizations.
One was WNET-TV, Channel 13, a public broadcasting station, which presented an analysis yesterday by Shelby Lyman, an American chess master, of a 1970 match between Fischer and Spassky.
The other was Teleprompter Manhattan Cable TV, serving 45,000 subscribers in northern Manhattan, which put on an hour's commentary yesterday by the Rev. William Lombardy, a Roman Catholic priest who is one of 10 American grandmasters.
The Icelandic federation has made an agreement to give the World Chess Network all move-by-move broadcasts. In London, Henry Stampleman, a New York marketing consultant, said the network was a new corporation that he had started to help the Icelandic group get back some of its costs, and that outlets for the broadcasts were still being negotiated.
