AThe Sydney Morning Herald Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Monday, April 03, 1972 - Page 1
Fischer Near To Self-Checkmate
U S grandmaster Bobby Fischer will be automatically disqualified tomorrow from the final of the world chess championship unless the US Chess Federation can guarantee his appearance in the contest.
The president of the International Chess Federation, Dr Max Euwe, said this in Canberra last night.
Dr Euwe said that Fischer “cannot keep fooling around.” Overseas reports say Fischer is baulking at the terms of the agreement for his match with the world champion, Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, and is demanding that he and Spassky share in the profits of the match, beyond the prize money.
Dr Euwe said he had sent a telegram through his office in The Hague late last week asking the US Chess Federation to “clear up the situation.”
If there was no reply on his desk tomorrow the matter would be considered negative. It was up to all national chess federations to guarantee their players' presence, or withdraw.
He said that the rules provided that a player's presence must be guaranteed three months before a match.
The world championship, scheduled for June 22, was now less than three months off.
If Fischer was disqualified it would be through application of the rules.
If the US federation could not guarantee that Fischer would play he would be replaced.
The agreement to which the US body was a signatory was valid and Fischer would “have to stick to it.”
“It will be a great pity if he does not play, but it will be his own fault.
“It makes it impossible for us all,” Dr Euwe said.
Dr Euwe is in Australia to meet chess officials, give exhibitions and lecture.
The Australian Associated Press reported from New York yesterday that the executive director of the US Chess Federation, Mr E. B. Edmondson, would discuss the problem with Fischer at the weekend.
The report said that if Fischer was disqualified, the match would be between Spassky and another Russian, Tigran Petrosian, a former world champion, whom Fischer defeated in the semi-finals.
Fischer was set to play Spassky in a 24-game match beginning on June 22 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and continuing in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The two host countries refused Fischer's demand for a share in the match profits. Fischer responded by refusing to play there.
Fischer Near To Self-Checkmate Mon, Apr 3, 1972 – Page 1 · The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) · Newspapers.com
The Mercury Pottstown, Pennsylvania Monday, April 03, 1972 - Page 28
Chess President Urges Bobby Fischer to Play
Canberra, Australia (AP) — The president of the international Chess Federation said Sunday night that American grandmaster Bobby Fischer “cannot keep fooling around” if he wants to play the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky for the world championship of chess.
Dr. Max Euwe said Fischer will be disqualified automatically if the U.S. Chess Federation does not guarantee his appearance for the 24-game match against Spassky. It is set to be played in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and Reykjavik, Iceland, beginning June 22.
Fischer has been reported demanding that he and Spassky share in the profits of the match in addition to receiving prize money. The organizers in both countries have said no.
Courier-Post Camden, New Jersey Monday, April 03, 1972 - Page 12
U.S. Champ Eyes World Chess Title
Though an American was hailed as the world's best chess player 114 years ago, Robert J. Fischer may become the first player officially to bring the title to the United States.
Brooklyn-born Bobby Fischer, 28, is given a good chance to defeat reigning champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in their 24-game match scheduled to begin June 22 in Belgrade.
Fischer and Spassky will play three games a week. After 12 games, the match will move to Reykjavik. The winning player will receive almost two-thirds of the $138,500 prize money offered by the Yugoslav and Icelandic capitals for the international championship bout.
IF FISCHER wins, he will be the first non-Russian to hold the world chess title since World War II. Even the prewar champion, who retained the title from 1927 with only one two-year lapse, was a Russian emigre, Alexander Alekhine.
Chess never has been as popular in the United States as in the Soviet Union, where the government rewards Spassky with a handsome salary and spacious Moscow apartment.
Yet when international chess matches were in their infancy, Paul Morphy of New Orleans defeated all his opponents here and abroad to be acclaimed the world champion of the game in 1858. He held his title four years, then retired from competition.
THE FIRST recorded international tournament may have been a match between Italian and Spanish players in 1566, but chess itself dates from antiquity. India generally is credited with creating chaturange or “four arms,” the game that evolved into to-day's chess.
In the Indian version, the king and his counselor took the field flanked by their elephants, cavalry, and war chariots. The fourth arm of the army, the foot soldiers, were ranged in front.
Victorious Persian armies took the game home with them. Checkmate, signaling the end of the game, comes from Persian shah mat, mean-ing “the king is dead.”
MOSLEM conquerors learned the game in the seventh century and it traveled with them to Spain. Because the Koran forbade images, they substituted abstract pieces for the carved figures previously used. Pieces whose V - cut tops were supposed to suggest elephant tusks looked like bishops' mitres to European eyes, and became bishops. The war chariots were turned into boats in Russia and towers in Europe.
The counselor was a messenger, a wise man, or a court jester before it became a queen. A rule change allowing a pawn advanced to an opponent's rear rank to be promoted to queen alarmed purists in the Middle Ages, who pointed out the move could make the king a bigamist.
CHESS players in China were more pragmatic. In the Chinese game a captured pawn is dead, as is true elsewhere. But a captured general goes back into play—now working for the other side.
Chess frequently has involved high stakes and high tempers, and was described by a 17th-century writer as “a testy cholericke game and very offensive to him that looseth the mate.”
The author may have had in mind King Canute, said to have been so furious at losing a game that he had the hapless winner beheaded.
Star-Phoenix Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Monday, April 03, 1972 - Page 2
Fischer Pushing His Luck
Canberra, Australia (Reuter) - American chess player Bobby Fischer could be automatically disqualified from the final of the world championship, Dr. Max Euwe, International Chess Federation president said here Sunday.
He said Fischer would be automatically disqualified if the United States Chess Federation cannot provide certain guarantees by today.
“Fischer cannot keep fooling around,” Euwe warned, referring to overseas reports that Fischer is balking at the terms of the agreement for his match with world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, and is demanding he and Spassky share in match profits beyond the prize money.
Euwe said he had sent a cable through his office in The Hague late last week asking the American body to clear up the situation.
If there was no reply on his desk today the matter would be considered negative.
He said it is up to the national federations to guarantee their players' presence or pull out, and rules provided a player's presence must be guaranteed three months before a match.
The world title match was scheduled for June 22.
“It will be a great pity if he does not play, but it will be his own fault,” said Euwe, who is visiting Australia to meet chess officials, give exhibitions and lecture.
