AThe Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Friday, July 14, 1972 - Page 7
Fischer Boycotts Second Game; Committee to Rule on Forfeiture by Isaac Kashdan
Bobby Fischer apparently forfeited the second game in the $250,000 world chess championship match Thursday when he failed to appear at the auditorium in Reykjavik, Iceland, because of a dispute over ([men disruptively operating]) movie cameras.
He had complained during the first game that the cameras ([operated by disruptive men, in crews as large as three men, positioned a mere 15 feet/5 meters from Fischer to disrupt the match while it was in progress]), used for television coverage of the match were distracting him. ([And that's what the Soviet hired those disruptive men to do, and when Fischer demands they're shut down, voila! The Soviet achieves a black out on coverage of its humiliating defeat.])
Under agreed rules of the match, he ([Fischer]) had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him. But such a protest must be made formally and in writing to the tournament director or to a special appeals committee formed for the match.
No protest, formal or otherwise was made in writing and after world champion Boris Spassky appeared on time and waited the required hour for the challenger to appear, referee Lothar Schmid declared the game forfeit.
Later, however, officials of the International Chess Federation said they had discovered that Fischer was not aware that the protest had to be made in writing and had assumed his oral protest would be sufficient.
The special appeals committee will meet at 10 a.m. today (Icelandic time) to consider the case. It could rule that Fischer's oral protest was sufficient—in which case the forfeit would be nullified and the second game of the 24-game match would be played Sunday.
It could also decide to sustain the forfeit—in which case Spassky would have a 2-0 lead in the match.
In either case, either player could still appeal the decision to the International Chess Federation for final action.
Members of the Icelandic Chess Federation, which is sponsoring the championship match, and representatives of Chester Fox, who holds the television and film rights, will meet with the appeals committee.
At first it was feared that Fischer's forfeiture of the second game might signal the end of the long-awaited encounter between him and Spassky.
Latest Controversy
The dispute over ([disruptive men hired to interfere with the match while in progress and blow Fischer's concentration who were operating the]) cameras was only the latest of a long series of controversies that have plagued ([by and for]) the match organizers for months. Fischer failed to show up July 2 when he was supposed to play the first game, but was granted a delay.
Dr. Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation ([under Soviet coercion in a childish conniption fit, demanding apologies while refusal to admit guilt for the months of scheming meddling or, for choosing a malevolently racist and anti-American hovel as the venue of the tournament who has admitted again and again, it cannot even afford to host the venue without dependence upon having unethically sold photography rights out from under Constitutional law!]), later admitted that this delay was contrary to the match agreement ([which Fischer never signed, due to its unethical nature and so was the promise to offer a “first come, first serve” bid basis, when Belgrade dropped out, and Australia LEGALLY bid $225,000, with a mere $25,000 needed to cover organization expenses… yet, the Soviet rushed in with juvenile antics and childish threats it “would not allow Spassky to play” unless the Soviet got its way to bury the match behind the pleats of the Iron Curtain and to which Dr. Euwe, unethically acceded … among other antics scattered over many months involving corrupt meddling and manipulation by the Soviet]).
If the decision today goes against Fischer, many people who know him feel it is unlikely he will take his seat for the third game. He would be facing a two-point deficit ([which any one with a brain knows this is no accident]) — and he would be playing black. White has an advantage in that it has the first move.
Spassky drew white for the first game. Fischer would have had white in the second, and will have it if the forfeiture is nullified and the Sunday game is designated as the second.
But he would have black again if it officially becomes the third game of the series—and the single game thus far completed is ample evidence that something is wrong with Fischer's play ([try the disruptive, noisy, distractive men in crew numbering up to THREE MEN, stationed 15 feet from Fischer, at the back of the stage, on the roof, all around. In the words of Fischer, what is wrong with Reykjavik? : “…they had these characters there, who instead of having, some kind of video tape film that didn't make any noise, just, nobody around to operate them, just sort of stationless and they just had guys there with film cameras that were worrying, and they were all around me. Making a racket. A nuisance. Too much noise, and visually you could see them moving around.” and according to Paul Marshall the lawyer of Robert Fischer, “Bobby told me, ‘I can't think, it's a distraction.’”]).
His error on the 29th move of that game was one of the worst of his career and made it the easiest of Spassky's four victories over Fischer. The American has never scored over Spassky. ★
Robert Fischer Boycotts Second Match in Protest Against Men Hired to Disrupt Match With Cameras 14 Jul 1972, Fri The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com
