Checkmate: How Bobby Fischer Beat the Soviets
It was 50 years ago this summer that U.S. chess player Bobby Fischer concluded the greatest two-year run in the history of world chess, handing the socialist system of the Soviet Union one of its greatest defeats in the Cold War.
Fischer went to Reykjavik, Iceland, in July of 1972 and took the world chess championship away from Soviet player Boris Spassky. He was the first American to win the title (and so far the only one), and the first non-Soviet to win the title since the Second World War. While some point to the victory of the American hockey team in the 1980 Olympics over the Soviet team as the greatest sports victory for America during the Cold War era, the reality is that to the Soviets, having the chess title taken away was a greater disaster.
After Alexander Alekhine died in 1948 while reigning as world chess champion, an international tournament was held to establish a new champion. It was won by Mikhail Botvinnik, and he was followed by a string of other Soviet chess grandmasters. Alekhine was also Russian, but he detested communism and defected to France after the Bolshevik Revolution. Alekhine was found dead, with his head on his chess board, and there has been speculation over the years whether KGB agents might have had something to do with it.
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