Fort Lauderdale News Fort Lauderdale, Florida Monday, July 03, 1972 - Page 2
Fischer, Chess Unit Deadlocked
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — The world chess championship was threatened with collapse today 24 hours before Bobby Fischer's deadline to show up or forfeit his match with Boris Spassky of Russia.
Fischer, the American chess champion, was reported sticking to his demand for more money. He told the New York Daily News he wouldn't yield.
The six-man board of the sponsoring Icelandic Chess Federation was reported unanimously opposed to paying Fischer the extra money.
One board member call Fischer's gambit “a blatant attempt at extortion.”
The board met until the early hours today with Fischer's lawyer, Andrew Davis. A spokesman said there was no progress.
As the deadline approached, the board met again and decided not to concede to Fischer's demands for more money.
Some chess experts who have gathered here from distant parts of the world for what promised to be the match of the century expressed a belief that Fischer, in the end, would sabotage the championship.
Among the more optimistic was Larry Evans, a former American champion. He said, “I say there was a 50-50 chance he will come.” ([Which is saying nothing of importance at all.])
One Swedish expert left for home in disgust.
Icelanders themselves, though they may not believe Fischer will come, have made no great rush to return the tickets they purchased for the match.
Fischer's 24-game match with the Russian world's champion was to have begun yesterday, and the president of the world federation, Dr. Max Euwe, announced if the American challenger failed to show up by noon tomorrow he would risk forfeiting his chance at the title.
Euwe said his personal opinion was that “there will be no play at all.”
The Russians reluctantly accepted Euwe's decision to delay the match. Asked what he thought of the situation, Spassky replied: “I came to play.”
An Icelandic chess player and longtime friend of Fischer, Freystrinn Thorbergsson, flew to New York and said he would try to persuade Fischer to meet the deadline tomorrow.
