# 1972 World Chess Championship

Fischer v Spassky in Reykjavik: the match's turning points on the real match table, and how Fischer came back from 0\-2

By Laura Hales

Topic: History

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/mkFPg8ddRKDe)

## Transcript

### 1. Reykjavík, summer 1972

At the height of the Cold War, the American Bobby Fischer challenged the Soviet world champion Boris Spassky in Reykjavík, Iceland\. The first player to 12\.5 points would be champion\. Fischer was rated the strongest player in the world, yet he had never beaten Spassky\. Drag anywhere off the clock to look around the match table\.

Ratings: Fischer 2785, Spassky 2660\. The prize fund was doubled to $250,000 by the banker Jim Slater after Fischer threatened not to play\.

### 2. Game 1: a bishop trapped

Spassky has White\. In a level ending, Fischer, with Black, takes a pawn with his bishop on h2\. Spassky answers g3, and the bishop is shut in\. Fischer fights on for many moves, but he loses the piece and the game\. Click the chess clock to replay the moves\.

Most masters expected a draw before 29\.\.\.Bxh2\. Fischer resigned on move 56\.

### 3. Game 2: the empty chair

Fischer demanded that the film cameras be removed from the hall\. When they were not, he stayed away from Game 2\. His clock ran for an hour, his flag fell, and Spassky was awarded the game\. Fischer was 0 to 2 down, and many expected him to fly home\.

Game 2 was a forfeit, not a game played on the board\.

### 4. Game 3: the back room

Spassky agreed to play Game 3 in a small room away from the cameras and the audience\. Fischer, with Black, plays the surprising 11\.\.\.Nh5, letting his kingside pawns be broken to win active play\. It worked\. This was his first win against Spassky in his life, and the match turned\.

Some analysts later called Spassky's concession over the room a psychological mistake\.

### 5. Game 6: the surprise 1\.c4

Fischer had opened almost every game of his career with 1\.e4\. In Game 6 he played 1\.c4 instead, steering into a Queen's Gambit that Spassky knew well\. After 19\.Nxe6 fxe6, the push 20\.e4 breaks open the centre, and White's pieces flood in\. Spassky joined the audience in applauding\.

With this win Fischer led 3\.5 to 2\.5, ahead for the first time in the match\.

### 6. The score turns

The results board shows each game as a tile: gold for a Fischer win, red for Spassky, grey for a draw\. From 0 to 2 down, Fischer won five of the next ten games\. By Game 13 he led 8 to 5\.

Spassky won only once more after Game 3, in Game 11\.

### 7. Game 13: pawns beat a rook

Game 13 lasted 74 moves\. Late in the ending Fischer has given up material for a crowd of passed pawns\. His rook is even shut in on g8, yet the pawns roll forward with his king behind them, and Spassky's rook cannot stop them all\. The final push to f2 decides it\.

The former champion Mikhail Botvinnik called it Fischer's highest creative achievement\.

### 8. How Fischer won

Fischer kept surprising Spassky with openings he had rarely played: 1\.c4, Alekhine's Defence, the Pirc\. He prepared alone, yet his work often went deeper than the Soviet team's analysis\. He stayed steady after the 0 to 2 start\. Once ahead, he needed only draws, and seven drawn games in a row followed\.

In all, Fischer won 7 games, drew 11 and lost 3, counting the forfeit\.

### 9. Game 21: a call from the hall

Game 21 was adjourned after 40 moves, with Spassky's 41st move sealed in an envelope\. Fischer was winning the ending\. The next day Spassky did not come back to the board\. He resigned by telephone, and Bobby Fischer became the eleventh world champion, 12\.5 to 8\.5\.

Fischer was the first American\-born world champion\. Click the clock to replay the last moves\.