St. Joseph News-Press/Gazette St. Joseph, Missouri Saturday, August 07, 1976 - Page 5
Fischer Contacts Soviet Defector
Amsterdam (UPI) — American chess champion Bobby Fischer has sent a telegram of congratulations to Soviet grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi for defecting last month in the Netherlands.
Amsterdam police spokesman Evert Jagerman said the telegram said simply: “Congratulations your choice stop Fischer.”
Fischer and Korchnoi are top seeds for the 1978 world chess tournament against reigning champion Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union. Fischer lost the world title to Karpov by default when he refused to play in the last tournament in a rules dispute.
Korchnoi walked into an Amsterdam police station July 27 and asked for political asylum. The Dutch government granted him a six-month residency permit Wednesday.