Asbury Park Press Asbury Park, New Jersey Friday, April 07, 1972 - Page 24
Funds Are Shy For Chess Match
New York (AP) — A spokesman for the U.S. Chess Federation said yesterday the organization does not have $35,000 to guarantee the appearance of Bobby Fischer of the United States at the world champion chess match in Belgrade.
“We can't make such a guarantee for a very good reason. The federation does not have that kind of money,” the spokesman said.
Earlier, a spokesman for the Belgrade match organizers had said, “If the Americans agree to deposit the $35,000 pledge that Fischer will arrive to play his match, we would be ready to get the entire machine rolling again.
Fischer, who is to meet in the match the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky, the current world champion, was not available for comment.
Fischer has agreed to abide by the decision of the International Chess Federation to play half the title matches in Reykjavik, Iceland, and half in Belgrade. But he has been demanding more money.
The financial demands had induced the Belgrade organizers to announce last week they were cancelling plans to hold the match June 22 as planned.
Fischer has insisted that all profits from the match after expenses he divided equally between himself and Spassky.
The original agreement called for 72 per cent of the $138,500 purse to go to the winner and 28 per cent to the loser.
The newspaper Polituka Ekspres which printed the comments of Belgrade spokesman Aleksander Matanovik quoted him as saying only an insurance policy against ill health would be required from Spassky, the current world champion.
“Spassky is a reasonable man,” Matanovik was reported as saying.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Friday, April 07, 1972 - Page 51
Bobby Fischer Item Is Pawn For Joker
Chess Master Bobby Fischer will make a rare television appearance at 5 p.m. Sunday on KMOX-TV when he is interviewed by Mike Wallace on “60 Minutes.” And that is as bad a reason as any to tell a story being spread by Post-Dispatch sportswriter Don Poston. It seems that Fischer was standing in the vast lobby of a downtown, building recently, talking with some other chess players. Before long they were bragging about their accomplishments with knights and pawns, and the situation got so far out of hand that a guard had to eject them. The guard said he couldn't tolerate “chess nuts boasting by an open foyer.”
The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Friday, April 07, 1972 - Page 12
Belgrade Spurns Chess
Belgrade, Yugoslavia (AP) — This city will abide by its decision to withdraw its sponsorship from the world chess championship match between Bobby Fischer of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, a spokesman said today.
The spokesman declared Belgrade would agree to stage the match only if the U.S. Chess Federation deposited a $35,000 guarantee against Fischer's non-appearance. The federation rejected this demand Thursday, saying it did not have the money.
New York Times, New York, New York, Friday, April 07, 1972 - Page 32
Yugoslavia Asks for $35,000 To Insure Fischer's Appearance
The International Chess Federation has asked the United States Chess Federation to post a $35,000 guarantee that Bobby Fischer will appear in Belgrade to compete with Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union for the world championship.
The request was relayed in a cablegram sent from Amsterdam by the secretary of the international federation, H.J.J. Slavekoorde, and received yesterday at the American federation's offices in Newburgh, N.Y. It was made on behalf of the Yugoslavian sponsors of the match, who have threatened to cancel it since Fischer raised objections to the financial arrangements.
John Hudson, administrative director of the American federation, said the nonprofit organization had no way of raising $35,000 and was looking for “an angel” to put up the sum.
It was not clear whether a request for a similar financial guarantee had been asked of Spassky. Mr. Hudson said that the cablegram had indicated that both sides had been asked to deposit $35,000.
However, a sponsor in Belgrade told a newsman there that the Russian had been required to present only an insurance policy against ill health. “Spassky is a reasonable man,” the sponsor, Aleksander Matanovic, was reported to have said. But Fischer caused an uproar by reportedly demanding part of the proceeds in addition to his share of the $138,000 purse, a record for a chess match.
Earlier this week, Fischer notified the international federation, which had threatened to disqualify him, that he agreed to abide by the terms and conditions already set.
The 29-year-old chess genius — the first American to play for the world championship since the elimination system began — has a reputation for imposing conditions upon matches that sponsors refuse to meet, and for refusing to participate if something is not to his liking.
