ANew York Times, New York, New York, Friday, July 14, 1972 - Page 29
Counsel for Fischer Will Fight Forfeit by Martin Arnold
Bobby Fischer's attorney flew last night to Iceland to try to get chess officials to lift yesterday's forfeit against the American grandmaster. If he does not succeed, the attorney said, he will sue to force them to lift the forfeit.
The attorney, Andrew Davis, said that he did not know whether Fischer would agree to continue in the world championship chess match with Boris Spassky if the forfeit—imposed because Fischer failed to show up for the game—is allowed to stand. He left last night at 9:30 on an Icelandic Airlines flight from Kennedy International Airport.
Mr. Davis said in an interview that his argument would be that, since chess officials agreed “at the 11th hour” yesterday to the removal of television cameras ([the disruptive men operating said cameras]), to which Fischer objected, they in effect conceded that Fischer had made a good point in demanding their removal. Therefore, he said, they had no right to rule that the American had forfeited the game when he failed to appear.
He said that he would make the appeal to Lothar Schmid, the 44-year-old German who is referee of the match. As referee, once the match started, Schmid is the ultimate arbiter of disputes between the contestants. It was he who awarded the forfeit victory yesterday to Spassky.
Mr. Davis said that since chess officials finally agreed to the removal of the television cameras “It was really very punitive to lace into him [Fischer] that way.” “I hope I can normalize the situation,” he continued.
He said that if he could not, there were, he believed enough forums through which he could file suit against the various chess officials, but that he hoped it would not come to legal action.
Mr. Davis said he had not spoken to Fischer on the phone yesterday, and probably would not speak to him until he arrived in Iceland this morning.
He said that it was possible that Fischer would decide to continue the match despite the forfeit, but that the forfeit “so buoyed up Spassky that it would make it very difficult” for Fischer to win. With the score at 2-0, Spassky needs only 10 more points to win, Fischer needs 12½.
According to Mr. Davis, Fischer's agreement with the television producer is that “if there was to be television filming it would be so protected as to be unnoticeable by the players.”
Instead, “it was seen and heard and was otherwise noticeable,” he said. “When this was pointed out to them they agreed at the 11th hour to do something about it.”
But “by the time they decided to honor the [Fischer] requests, they had already started Bobby's clock. A forfeit is not the way to penalize him, especially when they complied with his request about the television filming.
“The noise from the television ([camera men crews]) was noticeable to Bobby,” he said. “It's obvious he is very sensitive to noise and distractions.”
Mr. Davis, 39 years old, has been Fischer's attorney for 10 years. He is in general law practice with his father, Harold Davis, with offices at 116 John Street.
