8 JULY 1972, Page 30

Slater's Gambit

One of the pleasures in reading of Jim Slater's gambit in offering £50,000 which has resulted in Bobby Fischer being persuaded to meet Boris Spassky in Iceland for the world chess championship is to know that there will be some mingy comments from the likes of Dick Clements and the Tribune group estimating how many council houses and schools might have been built (not many at current prices) with the money.