ASt. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Saturday, August 07, 1965 - Page 4
A Brilliant Defensive Move
The State Department will not let Bobby Fischer, the American chess champion, go to Cuba to play in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament. We try hard, if somewhat unsuccessfully, to appreciate the department's solicitude for Americans prone to rush in where even angels fear to tread. But why fear for our somewhat idiosyncratic Grand Master? Hasn't he taken care of himself in many a tournament?
The department's ever available spokesman explained that Fischer “does not fall within the department's criteria.” While journalists may cover the tournament and Mr. Fischer is a correspondent of Chess Life, it seems, in the eyes of the department, that does not make him a bona fide journalist.
The ways of diplomacy may be devious, but they are not always unfathomable. Clearly the State Department, considering its many difficulties, does not want to add to anti-American resentments by having young Mr. Fischer humble the chess masters of the world. A devious but brilliant bit of diplomacy, even if it may go unrecognized.
