Honolulu Star-Bulletin Honolulu, Hawaii Sunday, July 16, 1972 - Page 85
Third Chess Game Will Start Today
Reykjavik, Iceland (UPI) — Chief arbiter Lothar Schmid said last night television cameras cannot be removed ([Really?! Is that so? This is no doubt why Robert Fischer called Schmid, a “liar” because according to the man who helped draft the rule, “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.” -Col. Edmund Edmondson, USCF]) from the Reykjavik chess hall as American challenger Bobby Fischer has demanded and the third game of the world chess championship will be played today as scheduled.
The game will begin even if Fischer is not present, he said.
FISCHER'S representative, Fred Cramer, said after meeting Schmid and other members of the match governing committee, however, that there was still a possibility of moving Fischer and champion Boris Spassky into a closed room without cameras for at least today's game. He added, however, that he did not know what Fischer would think of this proposal.
“I don't think he has thought much about it,” Cramer said.
Emerging from another meeting with the committee Schmid said, “We can only continue the match under the match rules” which spell out that official cameras for filming will be allowed in the hall. ([Soviet manipulation of the rules to disrupt the match, is really what is implied here.]) The organizers must guarantee that they are neither visible nor audible. ([And will the camera operators, the men, who come in crews up to three men, will they be “neither visible or audible?”])
Schmid rules out the possibility of removing the cameras, although the Icelandic Chess Federation said it would be prepared to discuss this if there was no other solution.
SCHMID SAID the third game, with Fischer holding the black pieces, would begin at 5 p.m. (7 a.m. Hawaii time) today whether Fischer turns up or not.
Fischer did not appear for the second game Thursday because he said the cameras distracted him. ([No, Robert Fischer said THE MEN OPERATING THE CAMERAS distracted him.]) The game was awarded to Spassky by default. ([Although a verbal protest was lodged preceding the opening of the match by Fischer and valid, written petition of Fischer's grievance was delivered by Fred Cramer to organizers before the deadline.])Spassky won the first game and holds a 2-0 advantage in the 24-game match.
Schmid and other chess officials here said that even if the issue about the television cameras were resolved they were still pessimistic about the possibility of continuing the match.
THEY said Fischer would presumably refuse to turn up for the third game today because the match committee rejected his protest against Schmid's decision to give the second game to the Russian world champion when Fischer refused to play.
At a closed door meeting yesterday Fischer's lawyers proposed to the match committee that today's game be designated the second game while the American Chess Federation appeals the decision to give Thursday's game to Spassky.
Depending on FIDE's decision that game could then be replayed or decided at the end of the 24-game world title series, Fischer's lawyers said.
The match committee rejected the proposal.
