Reno Gazette-Journal Reno, Nevada Wednesday, July 05, 1972 - Page 4
Fischer's Most Excellent Performance
American chess master Bobby Fischer has a reputation as a feisty, immature and self-centered person. ([Yes, because the Soviets weren't fond of losing their titles. Such things were said of their own champions in official Soviet media outlets, when their players failed to bring home the crowns to the USSR]).
Fischer is living up to that image as he prepares to meet Boris Spassky in Iceland in an attempt to wrest the world championship away from the ([Soviet Union's vast worldwide network of human machinery]).
The match had been scheduled to open Sunday, but Fischer refused to board an airplane for Iceland until ([not the sponsor. The author of this column hasn't gathered a correct set of facts to go upon to form a proper opinion]) an investment banker, and chess benefactor in Britain offered him more money. ([But the problems were much deeper than simply money, and Fischer only agreed to play in Reykjavik, Iceland “under protest” and never offered so much as a formalized contract to do so.])
The ensuing uproar threatened to cancel the long-awaited meeting altogether as an angry ([Soviet delegation and Moscow officials]) complained they had not agreed to a postponement ([neither had they officially contested the postponement, either.])
Chances are the match will go on, even if some time off schedule. The meeting has attracted an unusual amount of interest in a rather obscure pursuit. To back out now will be to disgrace the defaulting participant in the eyes of the watching world.
That can't undo the unhappy effects of Fischer's mercenary performance, however, ([nor can Soviets agreeing to continue play, undo the unhappy effects how Iceland was chosen by the Soviet due to its widespread Anti-American and ultra-racist atmosphere for which Fischer has the misfortune of being thrust into by connivance of Soviet organizers. Nor how Belgrade organizers refused to communicate with Fischer man to man, to iron out details from the outstart, all the way back since January 1972, when Spassky was forbidden by the Soviet Union to travel for negotiations preceding the match. Also missing mention here is Belgrade's illegal 35,000 USD demand for a guarantee which the USCF declined to pay. Or, how plots were underway to disqualify Fischer based on a non-stop Soviet rumor mill, replacing the challenger with a Soviet. How the match was put in Iceland to censor coverage due to lack of modern communications, resulting in a black out, when Fischer wanted his friends in the American continents to see the match. Much and much more, remains untold by the author. The rewards Fischer received from winning the 1972 match, can never come close to matching the years of grief heaped upon him by Soviet detractors for years; before, during and after the '72 affair.])
One can't fault Fischer, perhaps, for seeking all the compensation he can get. His is an extraordinary talent in a highly sophisticated game, and the match with the Russian might be compared to a heavyweight fight-of-the-century in the boxing world.
But, for the sake of appearance at least, Fischer should have settled the preliminary arrangements months ago. (SEE ABOVE. Attempts were made by USCF Edmondson who criticized Belgrade and FIDE, et al, for their refusal to sit down with Robert Fischer, face to face, man to man, and work out said differences, months earlier. See Associated Press, April 04, 1972, “Edmondson, who up to last week was Fischer's negotiator, said here Monday that one of the main participants, the Belgrade organizers, withdrew from the initial agreement last week. “How can Mr. Fischer be asked to comply with an agreement already apparently invalidated by the withdrawal of one of the parties?” Edmondson said, “The next step should be contact, and I mean full contact, between the president and the players.” But the European and Soviet parties refused to go about things in an orderly, mature manner.) His last-minute grandstand play discredits ([THE SOVIETS and their lackeys]) and, to some extent, the ([SOVIET UNION]).
Soviet Political Propaganda / Smear Campaign 05 Jul 1972, Wed Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, Nevada) Newspapers.com
