11 July 1972 - Fischer vs. Spassky Chess Championship

50 years ago, the Cold War played out in Iceland. Fischer vs. Spassky | World Chess Championship 1972

For a chess match, this generated a whole lot of attention in the US. And it inspired some people to learn the game, at least a little.

The match was held at the Laugardalshöll arena in Reykjavík, Iceland. The first game was played on July 11th.

Fischer's remarkable run in the Interzonal and Candidates' matches were he won 20 games in a row (the final seven in the Interzonal in Spain, two 6-0 match routs against Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen, and the first game in the finals against Tigran Petrosian).

But after winning The Candidates Tournament, he threatened not to attend the Championship. So the State Department got involved.

Fischer threatening to not attend the match at all, even eliciting the intervention of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who phoned the American to plead with him to attend.

Then there were accusations at the match itself of bugs, altered chairs, complaints about the cameras, etc., and Fischer forfeited the 2nd game.

In the end, Fischer won 12½ to 8½.