March 29, 1972 The Signal, Chess by George Koltanowski, Santa Clarita, California

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Chess Wed, Mar 29, 1972 – 4 · The Signal (Santa Clarita, California) · Newspapers.com

The Tale Of Two Sites
As of this writing, the sites for the World Championship chess match between Boris Spassky of the USSR and Bobby Fischer of the U.S. would appear to be Belgrade, Yugoslavia and Reykjavik, Iceland. If we seem cautious in mentioning this, it is because we understand that Bobby is unhappy with this two-site compromise. And when Bobby is unhappy, things can change in the chess world.
Why two sites to begin with? Simple. Both Fischer and Spassky were asked to give their preferences from among the 20 or so cities that had bid for the honor. The trouble is that Fischer's choices were not Spassky's — and Spassky's were not Fischer's. Fischer was very strong for Belgrade for two reasons. One was that Bobby is something of a hero in Yugoslavia. The other was that Belgrade had been top bidder with $152,000 in prize money.
Spassky, on the other hand, had no special desire to play in a country where his opponent was an idol.

One place Boris Spassky played last year was Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition, which drew no fewer than 224 players. Winners were Pal Benko and Robert Byrne of the U.S., Spassky placing third. He drew one game with Sam Day of Canada, who did very well. Here's another game from the same tournament.