ANew York Times, New York, New York, Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 19
Fischer's Appeal On Forfeit Fails by Harold C. Schonberg
Chess Panel Upholds Ruling Giving Second Game in Match to Spassky
Reykjavik, Iceland, July 14—A four man committee voted today to uphold the decision of Lothar Schmid, the referee in the world chess championship match here, that Bobby Fischer, the American challenger, had forfeited yesterday's game to Boris Spassky, the Soviet titleholder.
Fischer, contending that he was disturbed by film and television equipment ([and the men operating the television equipment]), had not shown up for the game, the second in a projected series of 24. The committee's decision was described as irrevocable ([with 3/4th of the committee prejudicial toward playing Soviet favoritism])
In a letter from Fischer to Schmid protesting the forfeit, the American ended by saying that he would not continue play unless the film and television equipment were removed from the hall, and unless the forfeit was revoked. If Fischer adheres to this position, and if the forfeit is indeed irrevocable, it would seem that the match has come to an end. ([Which is what the Soviets want.])
The next game is scheduled Sunday, and Schmid has said he will also forfeit that game to Spassky if Fischer does not appear.
‘Grossly Below Standards’
Fischer's letter, sent last night, contended that playing conditions were “grossly below the minimum standards.” The organizers of the match, he wrote, were more anxious to placate the “movie-camera gang than to provide playing conditions worthy of the world's chess championship.”
Asserting that he had been distracted during the first game on Tuesday ([by disruptive men operating the cameras]) and the playoff on Wednesday, Fischer, who lost the game, then demanded that all cameras ([and the noisy, disruptive men operating them]) be removed from Exhibition Hall or he would not show up for the Thursday game.
There appears to be an error in a crucial paragraph of Fischer's letter, however. Recounting the events that led to his decision to break up the game, Fischer wrote in his protest:
“When I asked my representative to report the conditions at the playing hall for today's game [the second game, for which Fischer never showed up], I learned at 1 P.m. and was told against at 4 P.M. that all three [camera] shooting sites which had been removed for the adjourned game at my insistence, were in full operating, focused on the playing table, and had been returned to the positions they occupied on the opening day.”
In fact, the television towers had been taken out of the hall for the adjourned game and the cameras had been moved to a position where they were invisible and inaudible. ([But were the men who operate those inanimate devices, “invisible and inaudible”])
Both Positions Given
At a meeting this morning before the four-man committee, Fischer was represented by his lawyer, Andrew Davis, who had arrived from New York a few hours earlier. Mr. Davis stated the American's position. Efim Geller, who is Spassky's second, gave the Russian petition, and the committee retired to arrive at its decision. ([Which would of course, no matter what circumstances, be judged in favor of the Soviets.])
CAPTION: Chester Fox, who has filming rights of the champion chess match, meeting before dawn yesterday with Bobby Fischer, right, at Fischer's hotel in Reykjavik.
Mr. Davis argued that the clock in yesterday's game had been started illegally by the referee. He said that Rule 18 of the agreement on terms of the match, which concerns noise, supports Fischer's position. Noise control, argued Mr. Davis, is a responsibility of the organizers. If the film producers object to the removal of the cameras, he said, they can go to court.
Mr. Geller did not make much of an issue of the noise problem, saying that the matter could be further discussed. But he asserted that under the rules, the referee was correct in starting Fischer's clock because neither the play nor a medical certificate accounting for his absence was present. ([But it was well known Fischer was protesting the disruptive camera men, and in spite of a formal written protest handed in before the deadline, to file protest, that legal document was simply dismissed as if it didn't exist.]) Thus it was the duty of the referee to begin the game by starting the clock. Mr. Geller also contended that Fischer had never been in a hall with better playing conditions, and he questioned the American's sportsmanship. ([Blame the victim of Soviet schemes when Soviet “sportsmanship” has the poorest record in world history. Aside of the record of disinformation and plots to disqualify Fischer, months before the match got underway. Choosing Racist and Anti-American Iceland, to peril Fischer in calculated agenda of manipulation, the end goal being that Fischer's resistance could be worn down and lead to his forfeit, so the Soviet can claim the title by default. Scandals of doping, some athletes mysteriously dying, because the “Winning is Everything” approach justifies sacrificing people's lives, integrity and good sportsmanship to win at all cost, that's the Soviet motto]).
The committee consisted of one American, Fred Cramer; one Russian, Nikolai Krogius, and two ([bitterly Anti-American]) Icelanders, Gudmundur Arnlaugsson and Baldur Moller. Mr. Arnlaugsson is the assistant referee and Mr. Moller is a member of the Icelandic Chess Federation.
Reinspection Proposed
Mr. Arnlaugsson, speaking for the members of the committee after they had made their decision, said that they had no other choice than to support Schmid's ruling about the forfeit and that the decision was final. As for Fischer's protest about noise, they said it was impossible to come to a conclusion about so personal a matter ([Such as breaking the rules, knowingly placing cameras and disruptive crews of men to operate them, that were neither inaudible, nor invisible. “Personal” matter was an obligation “Comrade Arnlaugsson”]). The two players and their representatives were invited once again to inspect the hall.
Gudmundur Thorarinsson, president of the Icelandic Chess Federation, said every effort would be made to keep the match alive, even if it meant the permanent removal of cameras ([and not what Fischer expected, “…some kind of video tape film that didn't make any noise, just, nobody around to operate them, just sort of stationless” - Robert Fischer, speaking on his desire that automated cameras should have been used to film the match, but oddly denied, rejected, in favor of noisy teams of camera men to disrupt Game #1 and Game #2, in favor of scoring Soviet points.]) He also said that Fischer would not get any part of the purse of $250,000 if he retires from the match.
The rules specify that a player must complete all of the games before sharing the purse. But the rules do not cover the other player in such a case, and Mr. Thorarinsson said that a meeting would have to be held to determine if Spassky would get the winner's share. ([My goodness! Up till this point, the Icelandic Chess Federation has done everything in its power to disrupt Fischer, and now, Thorarinsson is already divvying up the winner's share to the Soviets! It's clear the Icelanders have no intention of allowing the American challenger to win this event.])
Nor do the rules cover the procedure when one player consistently refuses to show up ([when Organizers are breaking the rules and Fischer had the right to file protest, and such a formal written complaint was filed, before the deadline... but organizers broke the rules there too! and simply refuse to acknowledge receipt]) In tournament play, three such occurrences disqualify the player. But this is match play, not tournament play. ([And that's what the Soviets are counting on, aiming for, plots and schemes to disqualify Fischer and replace with a Soviet, had been ongoing for months.])
Spassky Expected Sunday
Schmid said Spassky would be at Exhibition Hall for the Sunday game, and that he hoped the champion would not have to be present, without an opponent, to go through the same charade nine more times to get his winning score of 12 points. Fischer, as the challenger, would need 12½ points to win.
Perhaps the International Chess Federation, Schmid said, could rule that after three consecutive forfeits by Fischer the match will be declared over. ([The Soviets are conspiring for the defaulted title!])
Mr. Davis last night said that the situation was “still up in the air” and he said that it would “come to a head in 48 hours.”
Fischer begins his Sabbath observances tonight and will do nothing for the next 24 hours.
One comment about Fischer's protest letter was made this morning by Spassky, who received the document at breakfast. “Bobby seems to be thinking about everything but chess,” he said. ([Yes, like the man perched on the roof with a camera, as described by Golombek.])
Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 2
Is Robert Fischer and Chess Lovers Getting Rooked by Soviet Schemes?
Fischer Cools It in Iceland
Reykjavik, Iceland (UPI)—The organizers of the troubled Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky world chess championship match fear that the $250,000 match for the world title is already over ([and that's how the Soviets wanted it]), informed chess sources said today.
There is still a faint hope that Fischer may change his mind and decide to play Sunday when the third game is scheduled.
EVEN IF the organizers, the owner of the film and television rights ([which the Icelandic Chess Federation unethically sold rights to]), and Lothar Schmid ([who is guilty of misleading the chess world, that Fischer had the right to protest the presence of disruptive camera men if they were disrupting his concentration, and guilty of not acknowledging submission of a legal written protest before the deadline, --but rather, attempted to hide this fact from the world, too]), the International Chess Federation arbiter, ([and since it was in the agreement, that Fischer has the right to DEMAND removal, yes. Whose unorthodox move to sell the rights, in the first place full up with noisy, disruptive camera men?]) concede to Fischer's demand that all cameras be removed from the hall Sunday, Fischer may stay away.
American chess sources said it's unlikely that the 29-year-old challenger accepts the arbiter's and the match committee's decision to give the second game to Spassky on default. ([And why should Fischer. First, the complaint was a valid one, confirmed by witnesses, camera man dangling at the roof, and another noisy camera crew of disruptive men, located at the side of the stage to distract and disrupt. Second, “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.” -Edmondson, USCF. Third, Fischer's assistant Fred Cramer submitted said objection, in writing before the deadline. Therefore the forfeit was not valid. It was clearly done by the organizers out of playing Soviet favoritism.])
Fischer stayed away Thursday and was disqualified from the match when one hour of the playing time elapsed ([but not mentioned by this biased reporter, that a formal protest against disruptive camera men, was handed in, before the deadline, and the Soviets do not honor rules or ethical play]). He lodged an official protest but the match committee upheld the arbiter's decision to give Spassky the game point. ([Illegally, since a written formal protest was delivered before deadline, against camera men hired to disrupt the game, and then reports filtered back to the United States, censored of any mention about MEN operating the cameras; “instead of..video tape film that didn't make any noise they had guys with film cameras that were..all around..making a racket..and visually you could see them moving around.”- R.J. Fischer])
IT MEANS that Fischer who himself had predicted an easy victory over the 35 year old Russian world champion, now finds himself two points down having played only one match. ([Because Soviets would not permit fair play, knowing they could disrupt the match through numerous technicalities, burying coverage of the match in notoriously Anti-American, and vitriolic Racist, Iceland, far away from protection of American witnesses. The Soviet could mislead the world into the false belief, Fischer was just a troublemaker and strife-stirrer… who walked away after Fischer's resistance was worn down to the barrage of Soviet ultimatums and trickery.])
Fischer told an Iceland ([acquaintance that acknowledges rooting for the Soviets]) that he suspects a conspiracy against him ([As soon as the Soviet Union FORCED by threat of ultimatum, the entire match be staged in Anti-American Iceland, the match was foredoomed to troubles; restricted, burying the match and rewrite history]) and that he is no longer interested in the match. ([Fischer said the same thing to Johnny Carson in November 1972, “I might not have gone for the title. It didn't matter to me that much.” but the Soviets continued to disparage Fischer through character assassination which kept him on to take the title from them in 1972])
Fischer, a member of the Church of God—a fundamentalist sect—observes his Sabbath on Saturday and will conduct no business with the organizers today.
Caption: Students in Moscow crowd around chess game in Red Square as two of them replay opening game of Spassky-Fischer match.
Chicago Tribune Chicago, Illinois Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 172
A Blackout on Chess Coverage From Moscow, Too? Citizens Back Criticism
Either way, the average Russian privately agrees with his government controlled (censored) newspapers. For months the Soviet press has criticized the American challenger as “a money grubbing businessman” ([After Belgrade forfeited hosting the tournament, and Euwe issued statement that bidding would go “first come, first serve” and Australia placed its legal $225K bid, with $200,000 allotted for prize money and a mere $25,000 necessary for organizers expenses, which was snubbed by Soviet Imperial Russia, threatening they “would not allow Spassky to play”. Fischer having seen the honest dollar value of himself and the match vs the actual cost of organizing the match, surely should've seized on his rightful opportunity!]), a chess player who carries around with him “a disgusting spirit of gain.” (any more disgusting than the greedy spirit of gain, exhibited by Belgrade when the Soviet backed a deplorable, illegal demand for “$35,000 guarantee” knowing the US Chess Federation would never produce it?])
“Fischer's nothing more than a capitalist,” one bearded player complained. ([And what of Capitalist Soviets and Icelandic officials working in collusion, to hide the money trail on the gate receipts, claiming the only possible way for them to ever pay for their organization expenses and cover the prize money was to unethically, illegally, in an affront to constitutional “freedom of the press” coverage of the tournament, compromising the tournament by “selling photography and coverage rights” to a Soviet collaborator from New York, who sought to help the Soviets bury the match… forbidding photographers to bring cameras inside the stadium, and requiring signed contract to limit what reporters could cablegram outside of Reykjavik, restricting media coverage from organizations around the world, adhering to a filtered version coming from out of Reykjavik. And what about those gate profits… whatever happened to all that money? The money paid out for unethically purchased “photography and coverage rights” was suppose to cover the cost of prize money plus tournament expenses. So what became of the gate receipts?? No accountability? Pure profits. An example of raging Soviet capitalism at its worst!]) “For him business comes before sports.” ([And wasn't fighting racism supposed to be the #1 priority of Soviet Fascist Imperialism? Yet, the Soviet saw fit to make a chess tournament a priority above its claim to be the shining beacon of “equality” to the world! Knowing Iceland is poisoned by an atmosphere of overtly Anti-American hostility, overtly racist, it's quite evident how the Soviet was kowtowing to racist and chauvinist attitudes to gain advantage for itself in this match. Organizers who would bend over backwards in Soviet favoritism. In the words of Archie Waters, an old friend, a mentor and manager working on Fischer's team, “…Then, the camera panned the huge crowd for reactions and, for one heart-stopping moment -- my daughter exclaimed -- it settled on the only African-American in the auditorium, or anywhere near the auditorium -- me. I was applauding. I had been on Fischer's management team for three vacation weeks in an Iceland city, with its one-story, pastel-colored roofs and mostly blond, blue-eyed residents.”] What a shamelessly racist selection made by the Soviet Union, from all the venues in the world yet the Soviet settled on the most racist, and virulently Anti-American among them all, to antagonize Fischer and his management team.])
--> The news media here haven't devoted much attention to the chess match. <-- ([Something to hide perhaps?? How strange for an empire who claims chess as its “national pastime”.]) However, the average Russian chess player knows Fischer is down two points and that Spassky hasn't even begun to fight. ([So the Russians are not aware of the hiring of disruptive camera men, one such man reported disrupting the match, on the roof while other noisy camera men carrying on their shenanigans at the side of the stage, to distract and blow Fischer's concentration to score illegitimate points? Of course not.])
Confused at first, but willing to accept the American's desire for more money, most of the park players now attribute Fischer's latest demands to fear of defeat at the hands of the world champion. ([Dream on comrades!])
The Honolulu Advertiser Honolulu, Hawaii Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 29
Business is Hopping at Chess Counter
New York — (UPI) — Bobby Fischer may be a nuisance to international chess officials but he's a real bonanza to makers of chess pieces and boards and instructors in the ancient game.
Stores in New York City, where there is a big foreign-born population, reported sales of chessmen and boards and books about chess began soaring weeks before the match between Fischer and the Russian world champion, Boris Spassky, started.
The chess men, often with matching boards, sell for anywhere from $5 to $1,000 and occasionally the finer antique shops of Fifty-Seventh Street of upper Madison Avenue have even more expensive sets.
Abercrombie & Fitch, possibly New York's most exclusive store catering to gaming and sports enthusiasts, said the Fischer-Spassky match has produced the same king of stimulated demand for sets that the visit of the American table tennis team to China last winter created for ping pong tables, balls and paddles.
“I would say we had a 40 percent bulge in sales of chessmen and boards,” a store spokesman said.
Brentano's, the exclusive Fifth Avenue bookstore, said its sales of chess sets spurted for weeks before the match but have dropped off since it started. Sales of books about how to play chess, which cost around $8.95 on the average, also have been good. And teachers of chess who charge $5 an hour as a rule have had quite an increase in business. So have those public chess and checker halls that rent boards and a place to play at $1 an hour per player.
IN SUMMER and even in fairly cold weather, chess is player outdoors in New York in Central Park, in Washington Square in Greenwich Village and a number of other parks and squares. Many of the players are immigrants or the children of immigrants from Russia and other east and central European countries where the game is a cult.
The Marion Star Marion, Ohio Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 1
Chess Title Match May Be Off Again: Iceland/Soviets Threatening Prize Money
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — Organizers of the world chess championship have made a new concession to Bobby Fischer ([which is not “New” because it was already in the rules, as stated by Col. Edmondson, “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.”]), but the competition still appears to be on the brink of collapse.
Gudmundur Thorarinsson, president of the Icelandic Chess Federation, said late Friday the film cameras would be removed from the Reykjavik sports hall as demanded by the U.S. challenger.
But Thorarinsson also said the ruling would stand that Fischer forfeited Thursday's second game to Russian defender Boris Spassky by refusing to appear because of the ([excessively disruptive camera men to which a valid protest was filed before the deadline and conveniently being ignored by Soviet organizers.])
The third game is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, Fischer announced he would play only if the cameras ([and the disruptive men accompanying them]) were removed and if the forfeit were erased and the Sunday game was considered the second.
WIth the loss of Tuesday's opener, Fischer trails 0-2 in the 24-game competition. Spassky needs 10 more points to retain his world title. Fischer 12½ to take it. A win counts one point, a draw half a point.
A four-member international ([3 out of 4 who were kowtowing to their Soviet bias]) committee presiding over the championship voted 3 to 1 Friday to reject Fischer's appeal of the referee's decision that the American had forfeited the second match.
Fischer's ([legal demand]) complicated anew the ([unethical, unlawful “arrangement” restricting freedom of the press and to bury the match]) competition and threatened to cost him much of the money he had pried from the organizers in drawn-out negotiations preceding the match. ([What money above the $125,000 bid was ever “pried” from the organizers? It took the outside generosity of James Slater from Britain just to bring the allotted prize money up to the level offered in the Australian bid!])
Thorarinsson said the organizers do not intend to pay the loser's share of the purse if Fischer's non-appearance Thursday causes his disqualification. ([Disqualification?? And why should it when a valid protest was submitted before deadline? “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him” Col Ed Edmondson, USCF])
The loser has been scheduled to get $46,875 from the chess federation. $45,000 from a $120,000 purse offered by London investment banker James Slater and $27,500 from television and movie rights.
Removal of the cameras could eliminate the television and movie cash. ([So then the Soviets have their “excuse” to continue harassment and hounding Robert Fischer with a reported 3.3 Million dollar lawsuit worked up by Chester Fox Inc., for many years to come, post-tournament.])
Charles Fox, a New York promoter who bought the film rights, said “the whole financial structure of the match” depended on the filming. ([No, it did not. No more than the 1971 tournament in Argentina between Petrosian and Fischer, or the match between Larsen and Fischer in Denver, Colorado or the match in Canada between Fischer and Taimanov. How did those matches possibly survive without Soviet Fox and his disruptive camera crew men?])
The Reykjavik public, meanwhile, appeared to be losing patience ([when did they have any “patience” with Americans and Foreigners to begin with? and the Soviet Union organizers chose this hostile haven for this very reason!]) More than half of the 2,500 seats in the arena were empty for Thursday's scheduled match. ([The Anti-American hostility existed long before Fischer, over that NATO base at Keflavik!])
One of the participants on a radio talk show proposed that “Fischer and all the foreign reporters be given eight hours to get out of Iceland or be shot.”
Caption: Will He Play? Bobby Fischer, the U.S. chess master facing world champion Boris Spassky of Russia, received concessions in the rulings of the world championship competition in Iceland, but said he still would not play if Thursday's forfeit loss was counted as a loss in the 24-match championship. (AP) ★
The Ottawa Citizen Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 4
Chess Match Still in Doubt
Reykjavik (Reuter) — Bobby Fischer, U.S. challenger for the world chess title, kept everyone guessing about his intentions today with the third game in his match against the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky a day away.
Whether or not he plans to continue the match—two games down and with Spassky playing white on Sunday—is unclear not only to the organizers and the public but, it also seems, to Fischer's own lawyers, friends and advisers here.
“It is impossible to predict what is going to happen,” the challenger's second, Rev. William Lombardy, said at midnight Friday.
“I simply do not know what he plans to do,” said Fred Cramer, Fischer's chief administrative assistant.
To the suggestion that Fischer is now ranked as probably the most unpopu- ([and Icelanders allowed to issue death threats against Americans and “Foreigners” over radio talk shows ranks Reykjavik, Iceland and Soviet Russia at the bottom of the list of world opinion]) lar man in Iceland, he replied: “As soon as he wins his first game, he will be the most popular.”
It now is up to Fischer to decide.
If he chooses to continue there is one outstanding problem to settle. Fischer is still demanding the removal of television cameras placed around the stage by U.S. businessman Chester Fox. Fischer says they distract him.
([The men operating the cameras distract him.
“Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand
removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.” -Colonel Ed Edmondson, USCF
“instead of..video tape film that didn't make any noise they had guys with film cameras that were..all around..making a racket..and visually you could see them moving around.”- R.J. Fischer])
But Fox agrees only to reposition them at the sides of the stage so that only the lenses are visible. An Icelandic audio expert made tests Friday with a decibel-measuring machine and concluded that the sound level did not increase when the cameras were running.
([Were “decibel-measuring tests” performed on the disruptive men operating the cameras, too?])
“The ball is now in Fischer's court,” Fox's lawyer, Richard Stein, said Friday night.
A Hornet's Nest of Racist, Anti-American Hostility the Soviet Knowingly Selected for 1972 Tournament 15 Jul 1972, Sat The Marion Star (Marion, Ohio) Newspapers.com
Austin American-Statesman Austin, Texas Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 40
Chess King
Chess champion George Koltanowski analyzes the Spassky-Fischer World Chess Championship in a series of weekly half-hour reviews beginning Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on KLRN-TV, Channel 9. Koltanowski set the world record in simultaneous blindfolded chess play in a 1937 exhibit in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Chess King 15 Jul 1972, Sat Austin American-Statesman (Austin, Texas) Newspapers.com
The Des Moines Register Des Moines, Iowa Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 16
Fischer Walks Alone
Bobby Fischer, the American chess expert, strolls out of his hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland, at dawn Friday after talks with Chester Fox, who holds the filming rights to Fischer's world championship series with Russia's Boris Spassky. Fischer boycotted Thursday's game because of the presence of cameras ([and disruptive men operating the cameras, in crews up to three men.])
Robert Fischer Boycotts Second Match in Protest Against Men Hired to Disruptively Operate Cameras 15 Jul 1972, Sat The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Iowa) Newspapers.com
The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 4
Try to Lure Fischer: Closed-Door Chess Proposal
Reykjavik, Iceland — (UPI) — In a desperate attempt to get American challenger Bobby Fischer to continue his world chess championship match against Boris Spassky, the match committee proposed today that the match be played in a closed room with only the players and judges present.
Judge Lothar Schmid of Germany said, after meeting with Fischer's aides, that any player can request the game be moved from the 3000-seat chess hall to a closed backstage room if he is disturbed by crowd noise.
Fischer refused to play the second game Thursday because the organizers refused to remove all TV cameras from the hall. He said the cameras ([disruptive men operating the cameras]) distracted him.
Members of the match committee ruled that Fischer's no-show forfeited the game and gave the match to Spassky. ([Paul Marshall, Fischer's lawyer said, “At 11:58 P.M., two minutes before the deadline Cramer, handed a formal written protest to Schmid.”])
With the loss of Tuesday's opener, Fischer trails 0-2 in the 24-game competition. Spassky needs 10 more points to retain his world title. Fischer 12½ to take it. Win counts one point, a draw half a point.
The third game is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Fischer announced he would play only if the cameras ([and disruptive men operating them]) were removed and if the forfeit were erased and the game tomorrow considered the second.
Fischer's ([according to Colonel Ed Edmondson of the USCF, “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.”]) threatened to cost him the money the organizers had begrudgingly coughed up in drawn-out negotiations preceding the match.
An Icelandic chess official said the organizers do not intend to pay the loser's share of the purse if Fischer's non-appearance Thursday causes his disqualification. ([And why should it?! As Paul Marshall, Fischer's lawyer said, “At 11:58 P.M., two minutes before the deadline Cramer, handed a formal written protest to Schmid.” Valid and legal, and was illegally forfeited.])
The loser has been scheduled to get $46,875 from the chess federation, $45,000 from a $120,000 purse offered by London investment banker James Slater and $27,500 from television and movie rights.
Removal of the cameras could eliminate the television and movie cash. ([Chump change compared with Slater's contribution! Fischer won't miss it, nor the disruptive camera men.])
Charles Fox, a New York promoter who bought the film rights, said “the whole financial structure of the match” depended on the filming. ([Nonsense! How did they afford to pay for the Vancouver, B.C. Taimanov Fischer tournament, or the Denver, Colorado Larsen-Fischer tournament, or the Argentine encounter between Petrosian-Fischer without Chester Fox?!])
Fox said he had told Fischer in New York last month that the competition would be filmed and Fischer at the time seemed interested only in how much money he would get ([but Fischer was not given prior warning that, “instead of..video tape film that didn't make any noise they had guys with film cameras that were..all around..making a racket..and visually you could see them moving around.”- R.J. Fischer, and in a report by Harold Schonberg, New York Times, July 14, 1972, Paul Marshall informs us, “Iceland promised that he [Fischer] would not know there was filming taking place, so he could concentrate. In two inspections prior to the match, he [Fischer] was not shown the television equipment.”
Robert Fischer Boycotts Second Match in Protest Against Men Hired to Disruptively Operate Cameras 15 Jul 1972, Sat The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com
Star Tribune Minneapolis, Minnesota Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 6
Chess Officials May Bar TV to Save Match
The Rev. William Lombardy, Fischer's second, discounted rumors that the American chessmaster was flying home.
“I haven't heard anything about that and I hope it's not true,” Father Lombardy said. “Everything is still up in the air. We have settled nothing so far.”
In a seven-page letter to Schmid, Fischer said he was told that the cameras would be silent and invisible but “nothing could have been farther from the facts.”
In his letter, he asserted: “The bungling unknowns who claimed to be professional cameramen were clumsy, rude and deceitful. The only thing invisible, silent and out of sight was the fairness on the part of the organizers.
“I have never compromised on anything affecting playing conditions of the game itself, which is my art and my profession.
“It seemed to me that the organizers deliberately tried to upset and provoke me by the way they coddled and kowtowed to that camera crew.
“I am keen to play this match, and I hope game two will be scheduled for Sunday, July 16 at 5 in the afternoon.”
Fischer declared that when all the camera equipment had been removed “I will be at the chessboard.”
The match committee met for two hours yesterday before announcing that the protest had been ([illegally]) rejected. The committee said its decision had no bearing on the presence of the cameras.
Schmid said Dr. Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation, is returning to Iceland to take charge of the match.
The organizers, bound by a contract with Chester Fox Inc., had refused to remove all the cameras, but did take out one and relocated two others so that Fischer could not see or hear them.
Fischer's aides approached Spassky and his seconds yesterday seeking a settlement of the impasse. Russian informants said Fischer's representatives asked Spassky to agree to cancel the forfeiture of the second game and replay it but Spassky refused.
The Icelandic organizers fear that the match is already over, chess informants said, and they are now making contingency plans to save themselves from a total financial disaster.
Robert Fischer Boycotts Second Match in Protest Against Men Hired to Disruptively Operate Cameras 15 Jul 1972, Sat Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com
The Brattleboro Reformer Brattleboro, Vermont Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 4
Quotes
I have a very high opinion of Fischer as a chess player. He is a great player. The world of chess would be very boring without him. — Boris Spassky, world chess champion, in training in Moscow for match against U.S. challenger Bobby Fischer.
Quotes 15 Jul 1972, Sat The Brattleboro Reformer (Brattleboro, Vermont) Newspapers.com
Tulare Advance-Register Tulare, California Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 6
Another Chess Game Awaiting a Decision
Another Chess Game Awaiting a Decision 15 Jul 1972, Sat Tulare Advance-Register (Tulare, California) Newspapers.com
Tucson Daily Citizen Tucson, Arizona Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 18
Justifiable Walkouts Over Organizers' Many Mischiefs, Frequent in Fischer's Career
New York (AP)—So Bobby Fischer has walked out on another chess match. So what else is new? ([Fails to elaborate on overbearing ultimatums of Soviet organizers, refusing to communicate with Fischer before match. Australia's legal $225K bid snubbed by Russia, threatening they "would not play". USSR selected Anti-American, Racist Iceland who restricted entry of blacks and news coverage. CAMERAS? “At 11:58 P.M., two minutes before the deadline Cramer, handed a formal written protest to Schmid.” - Paul Marshall. “instead of..video tape film that didn't make any noise they had guys with film cameras that were..all around..making a racket..and visually you could see them moving around.”- R.J. Fischer, “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.” -Edmondson, USCF])
Any ideas that the chess wizard of the checkered board had mellowed or outgrown his refusal to compromise on his demand for higher standards were dashed Thursday when he failed to show up for his game against world champion Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Long before the current imbroglio, Fischer, 28, was internationally famous for his chess genius and refusal to be pushed around by pushy organizers, or leaders of state. Ask Fidel Castro.
In 1965, when the U.S. State Department denied Fischer a visa to play in a Cuban tournament, Castro arranged a New York-Havana teletype hookup so the teen-aged marvel could take part. Castro then claimed “a propagandistic victory.”
Fischer promptly cabled his withdrawal unless the Cuban premier guaranteed that his government would “seek and claim no political benefit” from Fischer's participation. Castro reluctantly agreed, and Fischer re-entered and tied for second.
A few years earlier, the teen-aged Fischer, already a grandmaster, walked out on Sammy Reshevsky, himself a grandmaster, during an exhibition tour in a dispute over times. In doing so, he gave up a share in an $8,000 purse ([because the time was illegally changed without Robert Fischer's consent to suit Referee Irving Rivise who was scheduled to appear in San Francisco, California at the U.S. Open the following day. See August 14, 1961, Los Angeles Times, “The time had been advanced, it was explained, to permit the referee and the committee to be on hand for a championship tournament scheduled to open in San Francisco today. A spokesman for the committee said Fischer had protested the starting time was “too early” and that he wanted the match to begin at the time originally scheduled, 1:30 p.m.” https://bobby-fischer-1961.blogspot.com/2018/06/chess-champ-forfeits-by-failing-to.html. William Lombardy describes the situation, “I think there should have been a little more leeway,” Lombardy said. “It appeared that the officials threatened him [Fischer with loss of the game]. I know Bobby well enough to know he would not consent to play any game at 11 o'clock in the morning.” William Lombardy perhaps spoke for many fans when he said, “Reshevsky did not have to accept this forfeit and victory. I feel it is a hollow victory for him. When only two men are involved in a match, it seems that the officials could schedule the games at a time suitable for both players.” Four-time U.S. Champion, 18-year-old Grand-master Fischer complained that he is not given the consideration of more mature players. “They treat me like a kid,” said Fischer of the officials. Apparently, the shifting was done without Fischer's approval, and there was no reason why, as Lombardy stated, agreement could not have been reached with both men involved.])
Since then, he has played Reshevsky and even shaken hands with him. He has also shown an immense interest in making money, and many chess people cite this desire as the cause of his current intractability. ([Failing to mention however, most of his earned money, was charitably donated to his church, afterwards. And speaking of “walk outs” don't fail to mention Tunisia… how Fischer was in the lead, and organizers knowingly scheduled tournament matches in a way to impinge on Fischer's observance of the Saturday Sabbath, knowing he would rather walk out, refuse to play than dishonor his religious beliefs. The Anti-Semitic organizers put Fischer in a position, irreconcilable with practicing his faith.])
On the other hand, observers are at a loss to explain why Fischer has jeopardized his twin desires — to win the world championship and earn a huge purse — just when they appeared within his grasp. ([See above. In his letter to the organizers in Reykjavik, Iceland, Fischer asserted: “The bungling unknowns who claimed to be professional cameramen were clumsy, rude and deceitful. The only thing invisible, silent and out of sight was the fairness on the part of the organizers.
“I have never compromised on anything affecting playing conditions of the game itself, which is my art and my profession.
“It seemed to me that the organizers deliberately tried to upset and provoke me by the way they coddled and kowtowed to that camera crew.
“I am keen to play this match, and I hope game two will be scheduled for Sunday, July 16 at 5 in the afternoon.”
Fischer declared that when all the camera equipment had been removed “I will be at the chessboard.” and in an interview of November 1972 Fischer explains “I was more disappointed than anybody that this thing wasn't televised because, you know, there was a lot of publicity and a lot of money involved and I wanted the people to see me in action. Let's face it. But they had these characters there, who instead of having, some kind of video tape film that didn't make any noise, just, nobody around to operate them, just sort of stationless and they just had guys there with film cameras that were worrying, and they were all around me. Making a racket. A nuisance. Too much noise, and visually you could see them moving around.” Why couldn't the organizers simply make the necessary effort to make the conditions of the tournament, tolerable for play to proceed on time??])
Knowledgeable chess watchers also point out that Fischer's behavior is consistent with that of any other genius. He combines the single-mindness of an ant with the creativity of Beethoven.
It has been suggested that part of Fischer's VERY PREDICTABLE disposition lies in the fact that he is firmly self-adjusted person, refusing to be pushed around or expected to change himself to suit stubborn organizers.
“If he were,” says Col. Edmund Edmondson, president of the American Chess Federation, “he wouldn't be a chess genius.”
Fischer's headstrong attitude is regarded by experts as important as his consummate skill in demolishing opponents. One man described the phenomenon as “Fischer-fear”.
“There is some strange magnetic influence in Bobby.” said the Soviet grandmaster Yuri Averbakh. “His opponents are spiritually wrecked after the first couple of games.”
Meanwhile, Spassky, the Russian world champion remains on top of the tournament, 2-0, and shows no symptoms of “Fischer-fear.”
Robert Fischer Boycotts Second Match in Protest Against Men Hired to Disruptively Operate Cameras 15 Jul 1972, Sat Tucson Citizen (Tucson, Arizona) Newspapers.com
The Leader-Post Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 11
Chess Championship Game May Be Moved
Reykjavik, Iceland (Reuter) — The organizers of the trouble-hit world chess championship Saturday offered to move the match temporarily into a secluded back room of the playing hall to ensure that American challenger Bobby Fischer continues play.
Fischer has complained that backstage television cameras distract him in the main hall. But in the back room they would not be present.
The organizers' plan was disclosed to the American side at an emergency meeting Saturday—the day before the third game of the series is due to begin.
Apart from Fischer and world champion Boris Spassky, only the two match arbiters and three other functionaries would be allowed in the back room during play.
Although chief arbiter Lothar Schmid of West Germany has authority to take the match away from the giant auditorium if either play requests it on the grounds that he is being disturbed, the move can be only temporary until the disturbance has been removed.
Fischer forfeited the second game of the series Thursday night when he didn't turn up because of the cameras ([However, a valid petition of grievance was filed before the deadline, therefore, no forfeit should have been declared.])
Exclusive rights to visual coverage of the event are held by American businessman Chester Fox, who is not willing to remove the cameras.
They have been repositioned at the sides of the stages so that only the lenses are visible and an Icelandic audio expert concluded after tests that the sound level did not increase when they were used. ([But sound tests were not performed on the disruptive men operating the infernal cameras.])
Paul Marshall, a lawyer for Fischer, arrived from New York today and the American side immediately sought a reconvening of the tournament appeals committee.
U.S. officials said he had fresh evidence to strengthen Fischer's case following the committee's refusal to allow a replay of the second game.
The American side refused to discuss the nature of the “new evidence” or whether it touched upon the forfeiture of Fischer's demands that the television cameras around the stage be removed.
They said only that the evidence was “substantial.” But the sources said it was largely technical evidence about cameras.
The third game was scheduled to start Sunday, with Fischer two games down, but the dispute appears to have put the contest in the balance.
Apart from the four-man appeals committee, the Americans are trying to bring an official of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) into the debate.
In the absence of the FIDE's president, Dr. Max Euwe, who has chosen to remain in Amsterdam, the man being approached in Reykjavik is Canadian millionaire John Prentice, one of the vice-presidents. Prentice is chairman of the board of Canadian Forest Products, Vancouver.
With the abandonment of the world-title series apparently a real prospect, veteran chess experts believe it would wreck the 29-year-old American's career. ([And with all the drama and muddling by Soviets, Fischer has stated on more than one occasion he's grown weary and losing interest as he's not treated with the due respect that owed to him by colleagues.]) They say there are parallels in chess history of players not abiding by the rules or “acting in a willful manner” ([take that complaint up with the Soviets who have kept the match in a mess from the outset]) being shut out by the chess world. ([and soon enough, due to the bad, unsportsmanlike conduct of the Soviets and their affiliates, Fischer will shut out the chess world, for about 20 years.])
The El Dorado Times El Dorado, Arkansas Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 4
Pro Fischer
On Wednesday, July 12, I was shocked by an article on your editorial page. Under the column “The News-Times Forum” appeared an editorial which was obviously written to win awards for poor taste. Perhaps if the author had collected his wits before setting his pen to the paper this article would not have been so supercilious or so abounding in ignorance.
The article began with a personal smear of Bobby Fischer apparently because his behavior did not conform to your code-of-conduct for an ideal person. It was said that Fischer's demand for more money was “super-arrogant nonsense” to everyone but himself. Apparently, others, besides myself do not feel this way since Fischer's demand for more money was met.
The greatest insult of the article was paid to the honorable game of chess itself. Its reference to chess as “shoving a bunch of toys around” shows the level of culture the author has reached. Chess is one of the oldest and most popular games of the world and its origin dates back as far as 600 A.D. Anyone who plays the game seriously would be appalled by such an immature assertion that a player would “lick his chops in fiendish anticipation of crushing an opponent's ego.” Chess is a skillful game of strategy and analytical ability, and no pleasure is derived from disgracing or demoralizing the opposition ([explain that to the Soviet Russian Chess Federation who specialty is poor sportsmanship.])
I would like to sum up my view of the article on Bobby Fischer by saying that it was petty, untrue, and should be dismissed as a hastily thrown together piece of rubbish. - C.E.M.
Pro Fischer 15 Jul 1972, Sat The El Dorado Times (El Dorado, Arkansas) Newspapers.com
The Star Press Muncie, Indiana Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 16
WIPB Program to Review Fischer-Spassky Match
Each Monday at 6:30 p.m. for as long as the match continues, chess champion George Koltanowski and reporter Jim Benet will review the previous week's games and events in the controversial world championship chess match between Bobby Fischer of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
“The Fischer-Spassky World Championship Chess Match: A Weekly Review” will be seen locally on WIPB-TV, Channel 49.
Koltanowski, a world blindfold chess champion, will analyze the key game of the preceding week, demonstrating the alternative strategies that either player might have taken at crucial points in the game.
JIM BENET, reporter for KQED San Francisco and a specialist in education topics, will digest the news surround the two highly-unpredictable contestants and will interpret the rules decisions made during the course of the match.
The weekly review series is intended to enable chess players at whatever level to enjoy and appreciate the Iceland Match Play at the Grand Master level. Since programs will be taped on Fridays, they will not contain the results of the Sunday games in the match.
Koltanowski, who has played four times in the chess olympics, has written books on chess in English, French and Flemish. He set the world record in blindfold simultaneous exhibition at Edinburgh, Scotland in 1937. He currently writes a chess column for the San Francisco Chronicle.
WIPB Program to Review Fischer-Spassky Match 15 Jul 1972, Sat The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana) Newspapers.com
Edmonton Journal Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 13
World Chess Iceland
“I don't like your shirt.”
World Chess 15 Jul 1972, Sat Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) Newspapers.com
The Sydney Morning Herald Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 6
Heading for Reykjavik, I suppose? ([The Soviet Union unduly mixing Chess with Politics, and dragging Robert Fischer into the NATO squabble rife with bitter Anti-American hostility, but the papers are guilty of keeping Americans in the dark about this history of Keflavik. That was part of the Soviet master plan. Raking the coals of a Soviet-Icelandic vs. American-NATO squabble over the chessboard, and Fischer is expected to burden the responsibility for politics he neither voted for, and quite possibly had very limited knowledge of! The Soviet chose Iceland, knowing it was pushing Fischer into a hornet's nest of Racism and Anti-American intolerance. The Soviet Propaganda goes so far as making pawns of the American servicemen at Keflavik, who regularly on the receiving end of the brunt of Anti-American hostilities and discrimination, with Soviet propaganda alleging even American soldiers were supposedly backing the Soviets and ridiculing their own champion, to knock the support base from under the American. Isolate Fischer in Iceland in Soviet territory, then gang up and bully the American, behind the headlines]).
Heading for Reykjavik, I suppose? 15 Jul 1972, Sat The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) Newspapers.com
