Spassky Fischer, Reykjavik 1972

There are only a few occasions when chess could capture the imagination of people worldwide, regardless of whether or not they were chess enthusiasts. 

One such occasion happened on this date 50 years ago. On the first of September in 1972, the American chess grandmaster, Bobby Fischer, defeated the then world chess champion, Boris Spassky, by a 12½–8½ score in an historical world chess championship match that ended the Soviet Union's grip on the world chess title. Before Spassky, there were Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian. (Today, Tal would be considered a Latvian and Petrosian an Armenian. But before Mikhail Gorbachev (d. 30 Aug 2022) broke up the Soviet Union in 1991, they were all considered as Soviets.)

There was an unprecedented worldwide coverage of this match in Reykjavik, Iceland, and even local radio here in Malaysia reported on the results. But I remember preferring to tune in to the BBC World Service on the shortwave transistor radio in order to get the latest news. The next morning, I would go to school - I was in Upper Six at Penang Free School then - to inform my chess club members of the results. Newspapers too were carrying reports on the games and especially the off-the-board dramatics. A few weeks later, I grabbed a copy of this book which had appeared in the bookshops of Penang.