AChicago Tribune Chicago, Illinois Friday, March 21, 1975 - Page 4
Chess title match is off —Fischer
Bergen, The Netherlands (AP)—World chess champion Bobby Fischer said Thursday he will not meet Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov in a scheduled $5 million title match, a chess official reported.
“It's all over. There will be no match and there is nothing else to do,” Fischer said, according to International Chess [FIDE] bureau member Florencia Campomanes of the Philippines.
HE SAID FISCHER called from his home in Pasadena, Cal., confirming predictions here that he would skip the match, which was to begin June 1 in Manila.
Fischer said earlier that he would not defend the title unless both of his proposals for changes in the scoring system for the title match were accepted by FIDE at a three-day special congress that ends here Thursday.
The congress on Wednesday accepted one of Fischer's demands—for an unlimited number of drawn games with the title going to the player who reached 10 victories—but it rejected a change that would let Fischer keep the title in event of a 9-to-9 tie.
THE DEVELOPMENTS virtually insure that Karpov will become world champion by default, unless Fischer changes his mind.
No effort was spared by Soviets pulling strings in FIDE in refusal to cooperate with Fischer, to intimidate, distract, create confusion in media with Brad Darrach's 1974 book of defamatory rumors, Chester Fox's “lawsuit,” — tied up in drama, more drama, and red tape to destroy Bobby Fischer's peace of mind and force him out of chess by his own resignation so that as they rewrote history and they could blame Fischer. All by design.
