From: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: chess news        4/5
Date: 17 Aug 92 03:12:45 EST
Reply-To: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Executive Networks Information

>>> Continued from previous message
   While the choice of venue for the match may seem odd, the
Yugoslav government  will no doubt welcome any opportunity to end
their ostracism, and at least  temporarily switch the focus of
attention away from the war in Bosnia.
   And in a clear attempt to get good international press, the
organizers have  sent invitations to journalists in Europe to
witness the event.

   Rump Yugoslavia is now reeling from the effects of United
Nations Security  Council trade, oil and air embargoes because of
the support it has given to  Serbs involved in the ethnic war in
the break-away Yugoslav state of  Bosnia-Herzegovina.

   "I think there is something awful about it because it is in
Serbia," said a  Brussels-based  chess  expert. "But I really don't
think politics should mix  with art or  chess. "

   Today, a senior International  Chess  Federation (FIDE) official
in Geneva  refused comment on whether the match would be
sanctionedby the world body. "The  match will be beneficial to
chess, " is all Casto Abundo, FIDE's permanent  secretary would
say.

   The total stake is $5 million, the minimum sum that could tempt
Fischer out  of his self-imposed retirement. He has refused to play
in public since he became  world champion, but up until last month
he still held the highest  chess  rating  ever recorded.

   The winner of the ten-game series, will take home about $3
million.
   The first five games will be held in Svetistefan, "the most
prominent resort  on the Adriatic Coast," the invitation said. The
Adriatic sea is believed to be  a gateway for ships breaking U.N.
sanctions. Currently a number of NATO warships  are in the Adriatic
to monitor those ships plying this route to Montenegro.

   The hotel has also assured those who might be afraid of unrest
in the country  that the hotel is connected by a "closed
passageway" to the Sava Congress Center  in Belgrade, where the
last five games will be played.
   With apparent lack of irony, the invitation sent to reportersby
the Hotel  Belgrad Inter-Continental, said, "we do believe that you
will want to be present  and reporting from the spot."

   The hotel is catering specifically for journalists, promising
such facilities  as satellite television, telex, facsimile,
computers, direct dialling telephone  facilities; as well as typing
and translation services.

   "We look forward to welcoming you," wrote Gordana Sikuljak,
sales manager of  the hotel.

   William Hartston, a  chess  correspondent with the "Independent"
newspaper in  Britain still can't believe that the match-up will
take place and only when it  actually gets started, will he
consider making the trip.

   "It's the biggest story to hit  chess  in 20 years; it's what
every  chess   player has been dreaming about, but one has to have
mixed feelings about it. I  don't even know what the political
situation is concerning the match, or whether  it would be
sanctions busting to cover it."

                           The Reuter Library Report

                       August  11, 1992, Tuesday, BC cycle


HEADLINE: SPASSKY VOWS TO SEND FISCHER BACK TO OBSCURITY IN  CHESS
DUEL
 BODY:
    Chess  grandmaster Boris Spassky has vowed to send reclusive
former world  champion Bobby Fischer back to obscurity when the
American plays his first  public match in 20 years next month, a
Belgrade newspaper said on Tuesday.

   ''I will put him back to where he recently came from -- the
past,'' Spassky  was quoted by the daily Vecernje Novosti as
saying.

   Fischer is due to play the former Soviet champion, who he beat
to win the  World title in 1972, in a $5 million series starting on
September 2 on the  exclusive Montenegrin resort island of Sveti
Stefan.

   Fischer, the only American to win the world title, vanished from
public view  in the early 1970s shortly after beating Spassky. He
refused to defend his title  and the crown went to Anatoly Karpov.

   His promised return to public competition has been hailed as a
sensation in  the  chess  world and a coup for its Belgrade
promoters amid United Nations  sanctions against Yugoslavia.

   The newspaper said both grandmasters had arrived at Sveti
Stefan. But it  added that they had not yet met and any former
friendship between them seemed to  be at an end.
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