AFlorence Morning News Florence, South Carolina Tuesday, July 11, 1972 - Page 2
Fischer's Demands Met; Chess Tourney Set Today
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer didn't like the site, the money or living with the Chinese. ([Neither did the Soviets. That huge $225,000 bid by Australia and Mexico's $175,000 sent shivers up the Soviet's Draconian authoritarian spines … “Chinese???”. It's a historical fact, Fischer married a woman of Asian ancestry, however, the Icelanders are feverishly racist, and forbid entry of anyone considered a darker shade of brown, for “fear of living with” them..])
He objected to the lighting and the playing table.([so did the Russians.])
He demanded a German sports car with an automatic transmission ([because the Soviet-spawned Icelanders think a mule-drawn cart, or perhaps a nice pair of walking shoes should suffice more suitably for the American, whilst their own champion demanded the extravagance of a four wheel drive]).
He didn't like the chess board, either, but Icelandic and Russian officials had beaten him to the punch with their own objections on that point.
Fischer has gotten most of what he wanted, and on Tuesday at 5 p.m.—1 p.m. EDT—he will emerge from his seclusion ([where he has been reported well-rested, and in good spirits and ready to go, go, go, so where the author got “moody” at is a complete mystery, or “living with the Chinese” as seen above? Who knows? But nobody has seen Bobby reportedly since the early morning of Monday]), to play Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union for the world championship of chess.
The match, in 24 games, ought to last about two months, and in it two men will be matching their wits in the kind of intense commitment and concentration that few other endeavors require.
At stake for Fischer, a 29-year-old American, is a chance to be rich ([but he didn't care about the money and gave the bulk of it away to the church he followed with unwavering belief, faith, and sincere devotion]), and to gain the allegiance of the American public for the game which has totally absorbed his intelligence ([so true, for had his intelligence been more evenly spread, life-wide, he might would have questioned the doctrines of Armstrong before 1972-1976, and escaped the cult's tentacles so much sooner]).
For Spassky, 35 years old, and the men behind him, Soviet national prestige is involved.
Since 1948, Russians have dominated the game so completely that no foreigner, until Fischer, has ever made it to the finals. Experts on Soviet life consider chess to have become a pawn of Soviet policy.
The fact that the challenger is an American at the peak of his powers may help explain why Spassky was reported to be “nervous and upset” on the eve of the match. ([Not forgetting to mention, Spassky himself reported by 1985, Moscow was breathing down his back. Spassky laid the blame on Moscow, not Fischer.])
Fischer's Demands Met; Chess Tourney Set Today 11 Jul 1972, Tue Florence Morning News (Florence, South Carolina) Newspapers.com
