New York Times, New York, New York, Tuesday, July 11, 1972 - Page 32
Play May Be Televised
Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky match will be covered on television by W.N.E.T. Channel 13 and by the Teleprompter Corporation on Cable Channel 10, barring legal troubles.
Both channels have been planning to re-create the play in Reykjavik, Iceland, by having a chess expert in a local studio make the moves on a large board, using move-by-move information from the wires of The Associated Press.
However, the Chester Fox Corporation, the organization that has a contract for exclusive television rights to the chess match, has threatened the two stations with legal action ([the Soviet hand as predicted by Fischer, to bury coverage of the match in Iceland which didn't even possess satellite communications…this obstruction to free press was one of the issues raised by Bobby Fischer's lawyer during his “holdout”]) if they broadcast running, move-by-move reports of the match. Fox has also told The Associated Press that it would attempt to limit the number of moves the news service may put on its wire during a given time.
In any event, as of yesterday, both Channel 13 and Channel 10 planned to begin broadcasts of the first game beginning at 1 P.M. today.
For Channel 13, Shelby Lyman, a chess master, will re-create the play on a board in WNET's studios and offer commentary on the game in progress and each player's performance. A similar job will be done on cable TV by Arthur Bisguier, an international grandmaster.
The American Broadcasting Company announced yesterday that it would present a one-hour special Sunday at 5 P.M. as part of its coverage of the 24-game match. The network acquired exclusive television rights to the match through Chester Fox for an undisclosed sum.
Using films and videotapes made in Reykjavik, AC will show the actual first two games, which are to be played today and Thursday, with analyses of key moves and strategy by Larry Evans, a grandmaster. ([Says the LA Times regarding Larry Evans: Fischer “imposed conditions that were unacceptable,” Evans told the World Chess Network in 2004. “Like I couldn't write about his matches” Good! That's because nearly everything you wrote about Fischer in 1972 and thereafter, amounted to slander dreamed up in the imaginative mind of a disgruntled man, not a professional journalist, Knowing Larry Evans will appear before America as a narrator for Wide World of Sports on AC would be good deterrent to feeling of any further obligation with the Soviet-Chester Fox sham!])
Originally, the first games were to have been shown on A.B.C.'s regular “Wide World of Sports” program last Saturday, but the postponements prevented that. The network has contracted for footage to be used on “Wide World of Sports” for a maximum of eight weeks.
