AOrlando Evening Star, Orlando, Florida, Saturday, April 01, 1972 - Page 1
Chess Czars Threaten To Disqualify Fischer
Amsterdam (UPI) — The International Chess Federation (FIDE) offered American grand master Bobby Fischer a final choice today—either face world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union under current financial conditions or be disqualified as a challenger.
FIDE issued its ultimatum in a midnight statement after Fischer rejected the payment arrangements agreed for the championship games to be played in Belgrade and Reykjavik this summer.
THE STATEMENT gave Fischer until Tuesday to guarantee his attendance or lose his chance at the title.
“Lacking an answer by the deadline (FIDE President Max) Euwe will take it as a refusal from Fischer to play for the title,” the statement said.
The controversy flared after the Belgrade organizers told FIDE that “due to the uncertainty still going on … it is impossible to carry out all of the organizational preparations such a match would require.”
THE YUGOSLAV Export and Credit Bank and a Belgrade chess magazine made the highest big to stage the match —$152,000—but Fischer turned the offer down, demanding that all profit made from the meet, after deduction of organizational costs, should be paid the players.
To end the financial bickering over the title match, FIDE decided the location at a meeting in Amsterdam March 20. It informed the organizers that first part of the 24-match series would be played in Belgrade June 22 through July 15, with the second part to be played in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Three days later, Fischer told the organizers their offers were too low and that he would not play Spassky under those conditions.
IF FISCHER refuses to play, Spassky would play the next contender in line, Tigran Petrosian, a Russian who held the world title from 1962 to 1969.
The Belgrade organizers said the match still could be played in Belgrade later this year if FIDE gave them a guarantee the contestants would play for the $152,000 offer. But the June date definitely could not be met, they said.
Fischer earned the right to play Spassky by beating opponents, including Petrosian, in a series of elimination matches.
