AThe Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, July 07, 1972 - Page 1
Fischer Apologizes; Chess Match Will Begin Tuesday by Stephens Broening
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer apologized in writing Thursday to Boris Spassky for “disrespectful behavior” that threatened their world championship chess match.
Subsequently, Moscow's Tass news agency said “all demands of the Soviet delegation have been satisfied.”
It was announced that the first game would be played Tuesday.
Fischer, the American challenger, and Spassky, the Soviet world champion, met Thursday night to draw for the first move in the $300,000 series of 24 games. Fischer drew the black pawn, giving Spassky the first move with white and a slight advantage.
The draw was done the same way park-bench chess players would do it. Spassky took two pawns, one white, one black, juggled them behind his back then extended his closed hands to Fischer.
Without hesitation, Fischer hunched forward and pointed a finger to Spassky's right hand. With a smile Spassky opened it.
Fischer delayed the opening of the match, which was to have begun last Sunday, in a holdout for more money. More prize money was donated, but Spassky then demanded a written apology for Fischer's conduct before the champion would play.
In his letter to Spassky Fischer called his attempt to grab a share of gate receipts “my petty dispute over money,” and asked the Russian to accept his “sincerest apology.”
Harry Golombek, an official of the International Chess Federation—FIDE—announced that both players had agreed to begin play on Tuesday.
The brief ceremony Thursday night was the first face-to-face meeting between the two contenders in the pre-game preparations. Like everything else it started late.
Spassky was the first to arrive, coming 10 minutes before the scheduled start. The first question the Russians with him asked when they got backstage was, “Has Fischer come?”
The answer was no. Fischer showed up 22 minutes late.
Wearing a light-green three-piece suit, Fischer sat at the board chatting with Spassky before the ceremony began. There were no handshakes.
When he walked onstage at the Sports Palace, Fischer moved briskly to the side of the board with the white pieces. He lifted the white queen, tested its weight. Then he did the same with all 16 pieces as he kept one hand stuffed in his pocket.
He sat down bending his tall frame into an armchair. Spassky, a shorter man, followed suit, putting his elbows on the edge of the table.
Fischer's holdout for more money was made when the stakes were to be an official purse of $125,000 and a share of television and film receipts.
He decided to come—arriving Tuesday—only after British financier James Slater stepped in with a donation of $130,000.
The prize pot totals $255,000 of which the winner will take five-eighths and the loser three-eighths. In addition, the players will get a share of the sale of TV and movie rights, estimated at perhaps $27,500 each.
In his letter to Spassky, who demanded a written apology for Fischer's conduct before he would sit down at the chess board, the American champion called his attempt to grab a share of the gate as “my petty dispute over money.”
Nevertheless, he took issue with a demand by the Soviet Chess Federation that he be penalized with the loss of the first game for his tardy arrival.
“If this forfeit demand were respected,” Fischer wrote, “it would place me at a tremendous handicap.”
Described Wednesday as being “very upset” by the tangled prelude to the match, Spassky appeared calm and fit Thursday as he played his daily round of tennis.
Fischer remained out of view at one of the hideaways provided him by the organizers.
[Caption: THE WAITING GAME. Russian Grand Master Efim Geller shows his many moods at a press conference in Reykjavik, Iceland Wednesday. Geller called the press conference to request an official reprimand of Bobby Fischer's activities by the International Chess Federation.]
