1975 in chess
Events in chess in 1975; Top players FIDE top 10 by Elo rating - January 1975 Bobby Fischer 2780 Anatoly Karpov 2705 Viktor Korchnoi 2665 Tigran Petrosian 2645 Lev Polugaevsky 2645 Mikhail Tal 2645 Lajos Portisch 2635 Bent Larsen 2625 Boris Spassky 2625 Robert Hübner 2615 Chess news in brief In what is an unsatisfactory chapter in the history of the World Chess Championship, Bobby Fischer and FIDE fail to agree terms for a defence of his world title. The American has many requests, including some radical changes to the format of a match between himself and challenger Anatoly Karpov. Most of his demands are met, but there are two outstanding issues which continue to cause an impasse at the FIDE special conference in The Netherlands. Fischer's unresolved demands are firstly, that the match be of unlimited duration and secondly, that the challenger should need to win by two clear games (a minimum of 10-8). After being informed by telephone that FIDE will not accede to his final two demands, Fischer steadfastly holds to the threatened resignation of his title, despite much cajoling by U.S. delegation representative Ed Edmondson and by Florencio Campomanes, the potential match organiser. The title is