APittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday, September 03, 1965 - Page 8
Not Checkmated
HIGH SATRAPS of the U.S. State Department must squirm in their striped pants every time they see a picture of U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer participating in an international match in Cuba by telephone.
Mr. Fischer is the only player in the Capablanca memorial chess tournament who is not on the scene. Refused permission by the State Department to go to Havana, Fischer would not be check-mated that easily: after assurance by Cuban officials that no propaganda campaign was to attend the tournament, he agreed to participate by long-distance telephone.
There is a strange inconsistency in whatever policy the State Department follows in deciding who goes where abroad. Presumably, it wished to protect Mr. Fischer from the wiles of communism or Castroism or something. Yet, only a few days ago. a group of U.S. basketball players drubbed the Russians in a game played in Czechoslovakia, and a U.S. track and field team competed in Poland and in Moscow itself. What is so much worse about playing chess in Havana?
If the State Department believes there is any propaganda advantage to be gained by keeping Mr. Fischer safely within the continental United States, it may be right. But, unfortunately, it's all to the other side.
