Austin American-Statesman Austin, Texas Wednesday, June 13, 1979 - Page 57
Bobby Fischer Not Fond of Journalists
When sportswriter and TV personality Dick Schapp recently requested an interview with Bobby Fischer, he received a standard rebuff. He could interview Fischer, he was told, but he would have to pay $50,000.
Schapp's experience reminds me of an incident described to me, a couple of years ago, by the eminent Soviet grandmaster, Alexander Kotov, an ardent admirer of Fischer:
Several years before, Dimitri Bjelica, a Yugoslav chess journalist on assignment at an international tournament, was awakened from a deep sleep by an insistent pounding on his door. It was 3 a.m., but Bjelica somehow managed to get to his feet, stagger across the room, and open his hotel room door. Standing in the hallway was a very awake and a very angry Bobby Fischer.
“Could you answer a question for me?” Fischer inquired of his friend. “I suppose so,” the semi-comatose Bjelica replied. “Do you think it is possible,” Fischer asked, “that a court of law might, on the grounds of extenuating circumstances, find a person not guilty — if that person had murdered a chess journalist?”
Bjelica paused, while he furtively looked at Fischer's face — as to ascertain whether he was the journalist in question. Finally he answered: “It's possible Bobby.”
Whereupon he closed the door and staggered back across the room to his bed.