The Emporia Gazette Emporia, Kansas Wednesday, August 23, 1972 - Page 18
Russians Imply Chess Cheating — Fischer Team Laughs At Latest Demands
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer's team responded with laughter and derision Tuesday night to Soviet charges of American electronic and chemical warfare at the world chess championship match. But referee Lothar Schmid said he would treat them seriously, just as he did Fischer's beefs.The 17th game in the 24-game series adjourned for the night with champion Boris Spassky in a favorable position after daringly aggressive play. With Fischer leading 9½-6½, the champion abandoned the caution that has characterized much of his play.
The Soviet's delegation circulated a statement during the game asserting it had received letters saying that “some electronic devices and chemical substance which can be in the playing hall are being used to influence Mr. B. Spassky.”
The statement from grandmaster Efim Geller, Spassky's second, said the letters mentioned in particular Fischer's chair and the special lighting installed at the American challenger's demand.
Geller cited Fischer's refusal to have the games filmed and suggested he didn't want the camera checking on him. “The same could be supposed,” he continue, from Fischer's repeated demands to transfer the game to a private room and to clear the first seven rows of spectators.
Geller also cited the presence of Fischer's aides in the playing hall when the games were not in progress and Fischer's aide Fred Cramer's “demand that Mr. R. Fischer should be given ‘his’ particular chair, though both the chairs look identical and are made by the same American firm.”
The statement said the Russian delegation had asked Schmid and the Icelandic Chess Federation for an examination of the playing hall and the “things in it” and also that “the possibility of the presence of any outsiders in the place allocated to the participants should be excluded.”
Schmid said he would treat the Russian demand “with all seriousness, as I have all the American protests.”
“It sounds a little fantastic,” the referee said, “but there is some truth in it.”
