AStatesman Journal Salem, Oregon Wednesday, July 05, 1972 - Page 1
Fischer Finally Is Ready to Play Chess -- So Spassky Says No 05 Jul 1972, Wed Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon) Newspapers.com
Fischer Finally Is Ready to Play Chess -- So Spassky Says No 05 Jul 1972, Wed Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon) Newspapers.com
Fischer Finally Is Ready to Play Chess -- So Spassky Says No
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP)—Now it's Boris Spassky's turn to say no—and the world chess championship is off again.
The Russian titleholder launched his counterattack Tuesday with a stern protest, some sharp criticism, a walkout and a demand for a two-day postponement of the start of the match with American Bobby Fischer.
Fischer slept through it all. He had arrived in the morning from New York and went straight to bed to rest up for the first game, set for 5 p.m.
When Fischer woke up he found that the title series was put off until Thursday at the earliest. It was to have begun last Sunday.
Summing up the day, Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation, said: “When Spassky is here Fischer doesn't come. As soon as Fischer comes, Spassky runs away.”
The Russians turned up in force at noon for what was to be a drawing of lots to decide who would play white, and have the first move in the opener.
They refused to draw with Fischer's second, a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. William Lombardy, and read a statement calling Fischer's delaying holdout intolerable. They protested Euwe's decision to tolerate it.
When Fischer failed to appear Sunday as he should have, Euwe allowed him until noon Tuesday to show up in Reykjavik or forfeit his shot at Spassky.
Fischer's refusal to come by Sunday was based on a dispute with the organizers over money. The argument was settled Monday when British financier James Slater offered to sweeten an already record pot with a donation of 50,000 British pounds—about $130,000. Fischer said he would play.
The Russians said Tuesday that Fischer had violated the rules of the match. They wanted an apology. Euwe reported they had some harsh words for him as well.
“I'm a bad boy,” the 71-year-old Dutchman said with a smile.
Spassky read his statement from what looked like an official document in Russian. It created the impression that he was acting on Moscow's orders.
A dispatch by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, said Spassky had demanded that the International Chess Federation—known as FIDE—take some punishing measures against Fischer on the grounds he had violated the rules of the match. It did not specify what sort of measures should be taken.
Asked about the Tass report, Euwe said no formal request for punishing measures had been received. Besides, he said, “what should I do? Put him in a corner?”
During the days of dispute and bad temper which preceded Fischer's arrival, Spassky had been the picture of courtesy and understanding. When approached by newsmen he had no bad words for Fischer, a man he respects as a chess player. All he would say was that “I came to play.”
There was another indication that Spassky's moves were being plotted in Moscow. After an attempt to come to terms with Fischer's people at a private meeting Tuesday afternoon, Spassky and his second, Yefim Geller, drove grimly to the Soviet Embassy, presumably for consultations.
Asked what Fischer's opinion of the new dispute was Euwe told newsmen, “Mr. Fischer is asleep and is not aware of this.”
He was in a new two-story villa on the edge of town sound asleep in the back bedroom. Fred Cramer, a U.S. Chess Federation official said, “I didn't want to upset Bobby's metabolism by waking him up.”
In New York, meanwhile, Col. E.B. Edmondson, director of the U.S. Chess Federation, said if Fischer or Spassky fails to show up for Thursday's match the title should go to the other by default. he said that if neither showed up,“the title should be declared vacant and they should start all over.” He said he was expressing his opinion as a member of the five-man advisory board of FIDE.
“This has gone far enough,” Edmondson said. “You cannot go on with this kind of charade.”
The waiting for Bobby ended at 6:48 a.m. Tuesday when his Icelandic plane taxied to a stop at the airport five hours and 12 minutes before Euwe's disqualification deadline.
He stayed out of sight in the plane until two lines of police formed a wall to seal him off from newsmen so he would not have to answer questions before he got in a waiting car.
The tall 29-year-old grandmaster lurched out the door of the plane and careened down the steps of the ramp. He nearly bolted when the president of the Icelandic Chess Federation came up on his blind side and offered a welcoming handshake.
He was driven away to the green and buff colored villa under an escort of police cars. A stewardess said Fischer hadn't been able to sleep during the 4-hour, 40 minute flight from New York. “He spent most of his time looking out the window,” she said.
[★]He appeared calm and didn't make any special requests, except for a glass of milk. The former boy wonder, who never used to move anywhere without practicing on a pocket chess board, displayed no interest in the game during the flight.
Fischer had a visit at the villa from the federation physician, Dr. Ulfar Thordarson, whose approval would be needed for a postponement on medical reasons. Thordarson said Fischer was fit to play.
Before he went to sleep, Fischer came out of the house in his stockinged feet to ask the policemen around the house where the rest of his luggage was.
He got his two overweight leather bags, one of them containing tennis gear, but he complained some packages he'd checked in New York were missing.
Once Fischer is rested up and the Russians choose another line of play, the match may then get under way for unprecedented prize money.
The organizers were offering a purse of $125,000 and half the film rights money.
Slater's donation was in addition to this.
