AYork Daily Record York, Pennsylvania Thursday, July 06, 1972 - Page 32
Fischer 'Sorry' But Match Still Uncertain
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer apologized.
He told Boris Spassky and the Soviet people Wednesday he was sorry if he insulted them by disrupting the world chess championship.
But the word from Moscow was tough, and Thursday's scheduled start of the matches remained uncertain. The Soviet Chess Federation demanded that the American challenger forfeit the first game of the 24-game match because he didn't show up for its scheduled start on Sunday.
Fischer's holdout, however, has brought the winnings—and even the losings—to the highest amount ever in any world championship chess match. The winner will get $231,250 and the loser $168,750. A few thousand dollars and prestige went to previous world champions.
Spassky, the defending champion from Russia, had complained that Fischer's conduct had “insulted me personally and the country I represent.”
The American, in a statement prepared by his lawyers and read by Max Euwe, the president of the International Chess Federation, said he respected Spassky as a man and admired him as a chess player.
The apology was the latest move in a complicated preliminary between the Americans and the Russians before they even got to the Italian marble chess board on the stage at Reykjavik's 2,500-seat Sports Palace.
Fischer's holdout for money postponed the scheduled start of the match Sunday. Spassky's countermove, a protest and a demand for an apology by Fischer, moved the starting date of the series to Thursday.
Officials said they weren't even certain about that.
They had to deal with the demand from the Soviet Chess Federation that Fischer be penalized for his arriving Tuesday, two days late. They wanted Euwe to declare Spassky the winner of the first game.
This would give Spassky a 1-0 advantage in the score at the outset of play. Chess experts said that in such a long match it was a disadvantage that Fischer could probably overcome. The match could last as long as two months.
From the frequent trips by Spassky and his second, Yefim Geller, to the gray three-story Soviet Embassy here, it was apparent the Soviet game was being played on directives from Moscow.
Fischer's apology said, “We are sorry the world championship was delayed. The problems causing the delays were not with world champion Spassky whom I respect as a man and admire as a player.
“If Grandmaster Spassky or the Soviet people were inconvenienced or discomfited, I am indeed unhappy, for I had not the slightest intention of this occurring.”
Though officials were clearly worried at one point that the Russians might pull out, Spassky was not behaving like a man who was on the verge of leaving.
Early in the afternoon he took his borrowed Ford to a car dealer because the right front wheel, he said “makes a funny noise.”
He waited around the showroom, kicking tires like a prospective customer, while mechanics repaired the wheel.
Afterward he drove back to his hotel.
The Russian would not talk about chess or the dispute delaying the match he says he wants to play.
Though Fischer went for a ride around town in a police car Tuesday night, he has spent most of his time holed up in a villa quarantined by a permanent police guard.
From his hideaway, Fischer had a U.S. Chess Federation official wake up one of the match organizers at 6 a.m. wanting to know: “Where's Bobby's car?”
On the long list of his special requirements was a Mercedes-Benz with automatic transmission. Officials say there are none in Iceland.
Then at midafternoon a policeman delivered a walkie-talkie set to Fischer's house presumably so he could confer with his two lawyers without having to use the telephone.
