AAnyone still believe the floods of negative, defamatory verbal assault upon Robert Fischer to destroy national morale whilst heaping praise and political favoritism upon the Soviets in American newspapers… straining at idle gossip about Robert Fischer to spread wild, inflammatory rumors while sparing no expense to cover for Soviet indiscretions, and publishing blatant Soviet bias did any favors for publicizing Chess? Think again. While the Soviets were steadily working to destroy the reputation and popularity of Chess with their vitriolic bias against Robert Fischer, Fischer had worked hard to build up world interest in the game itself. He who says that Fischer did not care what the papers wrote about him (which was the equivalent of Chess itself, since “Chess” was his life) — know nothing about the man.
The Call Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania Thursday, July 20, 1972 - Page 14
Frozen At The Post!
Sports fans by the hundreds have been inquiring as to the reason for The Call's failure to have this column cover the Chess World's Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. Frankly, the editor reacted so lightly to our “Olympics at Munich in '72” campaign, it was felt he would be downright cool to this column's invasion of Iceland. Additionally, The Call's coverage, heretofore, has never gone beyond the 60th parallel of north latitude. So, for this year, the Spassky-Fischer matches will get but routine world coverage. And if both Spassky and Fischer seem unhappy, it could be that they're on a steady diet of the product of Iceland's main farm crop —turnips!
