AThe Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, Sunday, August 13, 1972 - Page 70
Offers Pouring In For Bobby Fischer
Reykjavik—Bobby Fischer's New York lawyer flew into Iceland yesterday to discuss a couple of “enormous financial offers” he said he had received for the US chess whiz.
“When you are hot, you're hot and a couple of enormous offers have come in which we'll have to decide on immediately,” said Attorney Paul Marshall as he arrived to confer with Fischer. The US challenger was relaxing on his sabbath after running up a three-point lead over Russian Boris Spassky in their world championship chess match.
Marshall would not disclose the exact nature of the offers but said, “One of them is from the movie world, another from a major television industry. The money is so big that it dwarfs what Bobby will take from winning the world title.”
The total prize money in the current world championship match is $250,000 with the winner getting five-eighths.
With his win in the 13th game Friday, the 29-year-old Fischer took an 8-5 lead, needing only 4.5 more points to lift the title from Spassky.
The 14th game is scheduled for 5 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT) today with Fischer playing white and making the opening move.
Fischer remained secluded throughout the day in his fourth-floor presidential suite observing his sabbath as a member of the Church of God. But before retiring shortly after midnight, Fischer chatted and mixed with friends in the nearby suite rented by Jack Collinge, one of his earliest chess teachers [EDIT: Collins was a mentor, but not a teacher, according to William Lombardy].
U.S. sources said Fischer “joked, demonstrated the game on chess boards and enjoyed himself.”
Marshall said he would not discuss game-by-game television coverage with Fischer.
“That chapter has been closed for good. Bobby desperately wanted this great match to come out to his millions of fans, but twice people lied to him and put in cameras without his approval.”
Only the first and eighth games were televised, and cameras were taken out of the 3000 capacity hall for good after ABC Sports apologized to Fischer for filming without his consent.
US sources said Fischer was not happy with the playing conditions in the hall. But they said German arbiter Lothar Schmid had refused to call another meeting to discuss the matter.
Fischer's aide, Fred Cramer, said, “We are not through yet. There were kids running around in the aisles of the hall during Friday's game, making a lot of noise.”
Fischer wrote an official letter to Schmid Thursday, protesting against the noise. He demanded that children be banned from the ground floor and that seven out of 12 rows of chairs be removed. In his letter Fischer said he could hear “children unwrapping candy, coughing and small pieces of conversation.”
At the other end of town, Spassky went sightseeing yesterday with his wife Larissa.
Mrs. Spassky arrived Friday but was not present at the hall to watch the champion's 69th move blunder and his subsequent resignation six moves later.
Fischer's 43d move clarified
Bobby Fischer's 43d move in the 13th game of the World Chess Championship has caused some confusion. Since the move R-R1 may be made by either black rook the proper notation for this move should be KR-QR1.
