# 1972 World Chess Championship Fischer against Spassky in Reykjavik, 1972: the key moments of the match replayed on a marble and mahogany set, and how Fischer came back from 0\-2 to win By Laura Hales Topic: History [Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/Gnou4rHbmafV) ## Transcript ### 1. Reykjavík, 1972 In July 1972, in a sports hall in Reykjavík, the American Bobby Fischer sat down against the world champion, Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union\. Soviet players had held the title for 24 years\. For seven weeks, the world followed one chessboard\. Drag anywhere to turn the board\. A win scored 1 point and a draw ½\. The first to 12½ points would be champion\. ### 2. Game 1: the poisoned pawn In a quiet, level endgame Fischer, playing Black, took a pawn with his bishop: 29\.\.\.Bxh2\. White answered g3 and the bishop was shut in at the edge of the board\. Fischer fought on, but the bishop was lost, and with it the game\. Spassky 1, Fischer 0\. Click the glowing white king to watch again\. ### 3. Game 2: an empty chair Fischer objected to the film cameras in the hall and did not come to play\. His clock ran for an hour, the little red flag fell, and the game was scored to Spassky\. At 0–2, many expected Fischer to fly home\. Spassky 2, Fischer 0\. Fischer had never beaten Spassky before this match\. Click the clock to run it again\. ### 4. Game 3: the back room Spassky agreed to play game 3 in a small room behind the stage, away from the cameras\. Fischer, as Black, played the surprising 11\.\.\.Nh5 and let his king’s pawns be broken up in return for time and open lines\. It worked: his first win ever against Spassky\. Spassky 2, Fischer 1\. Spassky later said that by agreeing to the back room he had “essentially signed my capitulation”\. ### 5. Game 6: a new first move Fischer almost always opened with 1\.e4\. In game 6 he played 1\.c4 instead and steered into the Queen’s Gambit Declined, a defence Spassky himself trusted\. The champion now had to guess what was coming next\. Fischer had already levelled the match at 2½–2½ by winning game 5\. ### 6. Game 6: a quiet plan With 19\.Nxe6 Fischer traded his knight for Spassky’s bishop, and 20\.e4 fixed the black pawns in the centre\. Nothing dramatic happened yet: Fischer simply opened lines for his rooks, bishop and queen towards Spassky’s king\. Click the glowing white pawn to watch again\. ### 7. Game 6: the final attack The pressure became an attack\. Fischer gave a rook for a knight, 38\.Rxf6, tearing open the shelter around the black king, and 41\.Qf4 ended all resistance\. Spassky resigned and joined the audience in applauding his opponent’s play\. Fischer 3½, Spassky 2½\. Fischer never trailed again\. ### 8. Game 13: a new defence Fischer kept surprising his opponent\. Against 1\.e4 he chose Alekhine’s Defence, inviting White’s pawns forward so that they could be attacked later\. The knight hopped to d5, and after a long struggle Black won in 74 moves\. Fischer 8, Spassky 5\. ### 9. Game 21: resigned by telephone Game 21 was adjourned after 40 moves, and Spassky sealed his next move, 41\.Bd7, in an envelope\. The next day he telephoned the arbiter, Lothar Schmid, to resign\. Fischer won the match 12½ to 8½, the first American\-born world champion\. The match began on 11 July and ended on 1 September 1972\. ### 10. How Fischer won Fischer came back from 0–2 with surprise openings, calm positions where small advantages could grow, and the stamina to press on in long endgames\. He won seven games and lost only two at the board\. Every one of these games began from this same position\. Your move\. Fischer 7 wins, Spassky 3 \(one by forfeit\), 11 draws\.