AThe Province Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Monday, August 30, 1971 - Page 25
Chess Venue Up In Air by Paul Raugust
A toss of a coin may turn out to be the only way that the U.S. and Soviet chess federations will agree on the site of the finals in the world chess championship challengers series.
Delegates of the two chess federations have been meeting in Vancouver during the past week but have been unable to agree on a site for the match between grandmasters Bobby Fischer of New York and Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union.
Ed Edmondson, vice-president of the U.S. Federation, said Sunday that the only thing agreed upon so far is that the negotiations be concluded by Tuesday. If no agreement has been reached by then, World Chess Federation president Dr. Max Euwe of Holland will be asked to flip a coin to settle the issue.
The U.S. wants the match held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while the Soviets are determined it be held in Athens, Greece.
Boris Rodionov, who leads the Soviet delegation in the negotiations, says he is opposed to a site in either North or South America because Fischer has already played two matches in the challenger's series in the America's.
Fischer played Soviet grandmaster Mark Taimanov in Vancouver in May and Bent Larsen of Denmark in Denver, Colorado in July, defeating each by a score of 6-0.
But Edmondson argues that these are the only two matches in the candidates' series' 20-match history to be held outside of Europe.
Edmondson also said that the world federation is almost bankrupt and could well use the 6,000 Swiss Franks the Argentinians offer to pay the federation for the right to hold the match.
This figure is substantially more than what has been offered by the Greeks.
Edmondson and Rodionov planned to mix business with pleasure today as they were to continue negotiations during a sight-seeing tour of Vancouver Island.
Winner of the Petrosian-Fischer match, to be held in late September, will advance against world champion Boris Spassky of Moscow in a 24-game match to be played in the spring of 1972.
