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Chess by Isaac Kashdan Sun, Apr 16, 1972 – 138 · The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com
Yugoslavia Asks Fischer For Bond
The match for the world chess championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the U.S. and titleholder Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union has run into another snag from its Yugoslav sponsors.
Officials of the Yugoslav Export and Credit Bank, which originally offered a record $152,000 as a purse for the match, have declared that they are ready to withdraw as a result of additional financial demands made by Fischer.
They have asked that each player post $35,000 as a guarantee that he will appear for the first game in Belgrade on June 22 and complete the match in accordance with the agreement reached last month.
At this writing the Soviet Chess Federation had deposited the amount in behalf of Spassky. The U.S. Chess Federation, which had previously cabled that Fischer would play, had not replied to the latest demand.
There is considerable speculation as to what might happen if Yugoslavia is out of the picture. Iceland, which had bid $125,000, for the entire match, and is to stage the second half on the current agreement, might be willing to take over.
Whether Fischer would agree is questionable, since Iceland had been the first choice of Spassky, who stated that its climate is most similar to his native Leningrad.
A number of other countries had been interested when bids for the match were requested late last year. Whether any of them would be ready to undertake the organization with so little time left, is doubtful.
If the match does not go through, and the International Chess Federation rules that Fischer is at fault, then he may lose the opportunity that he had earned by sensationally brilliant play over the last two years.
In that case the challenger would be Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union, former world champion who has already played two matches with Spassky, winning in 1966 and losing his title in 1969.
