1972 Fischer vs Spassky – Rare Footage from the Match of the Century

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The 1972 World Chess Championship, with Fischer facing off against Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky, embodied the Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In addition, the tales of the World Chess Championship in Reykjavík, Iceland, in the summer of 1972 are numerous and fantastic. Fischer arrived late to the first game, forfeited game two, inspected television cameras and lights, insisting that they were making too much noise or contained devices that were intended to distract him, and had special chessboards created for the match. It was debated if this was “normal” Fischer conduct or if he was intentionally attempting to cause a psychological breakdown of his opponent.

The match was organized as the best of 24 games. Fischer won the match 12 ½-8 ½, becoming the 11th World Chess Champion and the first American-born player to do so—ending 24 years of Soviet reign of the World Chess Championship.

Though Fischer’s later years were marred by controversy and involved little chess play, his legacy on American chess is indelible. His thrilling rise to the top of the world of chess and his landmark victory in what became known as the “Match of the Century” greatly increased the popularity of chess in the United States. In 1972, the year that he clinched the world chess championship title, membership in US Chess was 30,844. In just one year, that total nearly doubled, rising to 59,250 members. Many of these new chess players would go on to become future U.S. Champions, authors, inductees into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame, and major supporters of the game.

Films such as Searching for Bobby Fischer, Bobby Fischer Against the World, and the Broadway Play Chess the Musical would continue to bring Bobby and his accomplishments into the mainstream