Fischer checkmates Soviet chess empire to claim world title

Excerpts from HT’s reports on the American defeating Russia’s Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War to become world champion

- HT Correspondent

On September 1, 1972, America’s Bobby Fischer stepped into immortality as he dethroned Russia’s Boris Spassky to become the world chess champion, concluding a politically charged and globally watched 2I-game duel that transformed the 64 squares into a Cold War battleground.

HT chronicled the "Match of the Century” ~ played in Reykjavik, Iceland -which became as much a clash of cultures as of personalities: the outspoken and eccentric Fischer versus the measured and grounded Spassky. The Soviet chess machine was at the height of its dominance, having held the world title for 24 years. It fell to 29-year-old Fischer, a chess prodigy-turned-phenom, to snap that monopoly.

“Lam tired of being the unofficial champion,” HT quoted him as saying months before the match. “Itis nice to be modest, but it would be stupid if did not tell the truth. I should have been world champion 10 years ago.”

But the 24-game match didn’t begin on a promising note for the challenger. He lost the first game, complaining that the cameras were too close and distracting, He then forfeited the second game in protest. As HT reported, these decisions were typical of Fischer's volatile behaviour.