Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan Wednesday, August 04, 1965 - Page 4
U.S. Checks Chess Champion
Bobby Fischer, 22-year old chess champion from Brooklyn, does not qualify as a journalist, the State Department has ruled. Therefore, he will not be allowed to compete in a tournament in Cuba.
Fischer had been invited to the Havana Tournament in August, at which players from both sides of the Iron Curtain will compete.
Fischer's lawyers noted that chess carries worldwide prestige and his participation would serve the best interests of the United States.
“Wouldn't it be a fantastic American victory should he carry all the marbles home from Cuba?” asked the lawyers in a letter to State.
State agreed it certainly would be but stuck by a 1961 ruling limiting Cuban travel to journalists, businessmen with Cuban interests and relatives of critically ill Cubans.
Fischer's argument that he was a journalist since he would cover the tournament for Chess Life and Saturday Review was disallowed by State.