ATimes Colonist Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Tuesday, August 10, 1965 - Page 5
Castro Plays Smart To Checkmate U.S.
NEW YORK (AP) — Refusal of the United States government to allow chess champion Bobby Fischer to go to Cuba for an international tournament is viewed by Prime Minister Fidel Castro as “a propagandistic victory for Cuba.” dispatches from Havana say. Castro is “delighted” by the government's refusal and has taken personal charge of arranging for Fischer's participation by telephone from New York. The U.S. state department, in rejecting an application from the 22-year-old chess champion to travel to Cuba, said permission is granted only to journalists, businessmen with long-standing interests in Cuba and persons on humanitarian missions. A Havana source said Castro decided to pay the heavy expenses necessary to maintain open telephone and telegraph lines eight hours daily during the month-long tournament, which begins Aug. 25. According to Cuban officials, Fischer will dictate plays to an international referee in New York who will transmit them by an open telephone line to Havana. Plays by his opponents will be relayed the same way.
