New York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, December 21, 1980 - Page 49
Courtroom Chess
It was eight and half years ago that Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky for the world chess championship in Iceland, and Mr. Fischer has never been in another official chess game since then. In July 1979, however, a sequel to the Icelandic encounter remained to be played: Fox v. Fischer in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Chess Fox had sued Mr. Fischer for $3.2 million in damages because the chess grandmaster had barred him from filming the match in Iceland.
“It's getting a beard on it,” Mr. Fox's lawyer, Richard C. Stein, says laughingly of the court case. It came up for trial last winter, he says, and he requested an adjournment because of other pressing business.
Now, he says, he doesn't know when the trial will be held. Like a championship chess game itself, the case has settled into a long waiting pattern.