AEdmonton Journal Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Saturday, July 08, 1972 - Page 2
Fischer, Spassky Rest Up for Match Start Tuesday
Reykjavik (Reuter) — Bobby Fischer, U.S. challenger for the world chess title, and Soviet defending champion Boris Spassky plan to spend most of their time resting to get in mental trim for the start of their match on Tuesday.
While Spassky leaves his hotel only for two daily games of tennis on a court specially set up for him, the American chiefly occupies himself with sleeping and studying chess, sleeping, eating and sleeping some more, according to his second, Rev. William Lombardy.
He said that following Fischer's complaint about the noise made by construction workers outside his house, the organizers had received several offers of other private villas in the island capital.
“It is no secret that Bobby likes to move around,” Rev. Lombardy said Friday night. “I assume he will want to look at these other places as soon as he can find the time.”
Another matter about which Fischer is still not happy is the monopoly on move-by-move coverage of the 24-game championship by an American impresario, who apparently wants to run the match live in closed-circuit broadcasts to cinemas and theatres.
Tournament officials say this is the last outstanding dispute on the horizon but add that they do not consider it to be of such proportions that it will threaten the start of the match.
Meanwhile, Spassky, who in the last week has been on the receiving end of some upsetting psychological warfare on Fischer's part, now seems to be hitting back. ([According to hearsay from an overzealous Soviet third party who presents absolutely no evidence, and should be dismissed because Spassky was not present to make such a statement, in his own words!])
He [Spassky] was quoted in an ([anti-American]) Icelandic newspaper Friday as telling Yugoslav grandmaster Bozidar Kazik that ([the source of the trouble-making rumor]) Fischer had been behaving as he did “because he now realizes that he is going to lose the match.” ([Is zat so? Says “Bozidar Kazik” and his racist crystal ball! Spassky did not say this, and Iceland was a racist, Anti-American haven, chosen to demoralize the opponent to Soviet Supremacy.])
There are not many enthusiasts in chess-mad Iceland who would concur ([yeah, and neither would Spassky who admitted years later, he knew Fischer was the stronger player! but Spassky remarked he “could've resisted better”]) with that assessment. But as a result of Fischer's recent actions, ([decades of disgraceful Soviet propaganda induced Anti-American hostilities need no further explanation]) Spassky has without doubt ([the Soviet chose Iceland for if they had even chosen Adolf Hitler to compete against the American, the Icelanders would've been rooting for the Soviets! That's no overstatement, the Icelandic professional class, which includes many chess enthusiasts reportedly sympathized with the Nazi regime during World War II! This article ends on a note of utter rubbish Soviet propaganda… the “sympathizing with the Soviet” was a given fact, long before Fischer beat Taimanov, Larsen and Petrosian back in 1971. The choice of Iceland for the location of the 1972 match was entirely a strategic one to prejudice the public in favor of the Soviet Union.])
([Iceland was an Anti-American, Pro-Soviet haven so it's no wonder they disliked Bobby. It was chosen by the Soviet for that very strategic reason. Public disdain of the American, Robert Fischer, had nothing to do with anything Bobby did. Icelanders were chauvinists, despising Americans ... and people of color. Why are they praising the USSR/Soviet Union Empire and its racist affiliates? whilst ridiculing Fischer, who brought along the ONLY black guest, present in all the tournament? Archie Waters, Fischer assistant and mentor, reported being the ONLY black man in the stadium, or any where near the arena for that matter. Why doesn't this problem seem to occur to any of them?
Even if Bobby had appeared on time and accepted the deflated prize achieved by Soviet tricks and manipulation and arm-twisting of FIDE officials... the Icelandic public would have still despised Robert J. Fischer because Iceland had a renown, widespread Anti-American, Anti-Black prejudice spanning all the way back to the WWII era. By itself alone gives reasonable explanation Bobby rightfully insisted upon the ante raised to a reasonable payout. Any American forced to spend two months in that icy chauvinist haven should be heftily compensated!!])
