AThe New York Times New York, New York Wednesday, August 04, 1965 - Page 34
Bobby Fischer Checkmated
There was something especially ridiculous about the State Department's denying passport authorization for Bobby Fischer, the United States chess champion, to go to Cuba. “He does not fall within the department's established criteria,” a spokesman solemnly explained.
Just how the Brooklyn grand master would be contaminated by playing in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament in Havana, along with players from a great many countries, defies imagination. The only danger he could run would be from his own uncertain temperament, but that is something he risks in every tournament.
In order to bar Bobby Fischer, the State Department is even breaking its own rules, since accredited journalists have always been allowed to go to Cuba and Mr. Fischer has credentials from Saturday Review and Chess Life. It now seems that one has to be a “bona fide journalist” and not just a journalist.
So to the rejected categories of American teachers, students, scientists, authors and artists we must now add chess players. This is the reductio ad absurdum of a policy that harms the United States a lot more than it does Cuba.
