When the Cold War came to chess, it hit the United States in the head

No country has adapted to chess as well as Russia, and no power has been as dedicated to it as the Soviet Union, but when the Cold War hit the boards, the United States was on its head.

The dispute took place 50 years ago, with a series of matches held from July 11 to September 1, 1972 and that were worth the world title. There was so much at stake that the episode became known as “the showdown of the century.”

On one side was Boris Spassky, 35, then world champion and born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), in the Soviet Union; on the other appeared the American Robert “Bobby” Fischer, 28, a native of Chicago and a great hope for the western bloc.

Communist hegemony was unquestionable on the boards. From 1948, when Fide (International Chess Federation, in French) regulated the world tournament, all the champions and runners-up had been players from the Soviet Union.

And not by chance. Taking advantage of the fact that Russia’s affinity for chess was stronger than that of any other European people since at least the 16th century, the Communist Party turned this sport into state policy.

As a result, in the 1970s, when Fide counted more than 4 million affiliated players, almost 90% were Soviet.

If anyone could fight this factory of champions, it was Bobby Fischer. Considered by many the greatest phenomenon in the history of chess, the American had an aggressive and creative style, with the power to liquidate opponents with unorthodox sequences of moves.

Charismatic and precocious, Fischer began to attract attention very early on. At 13, he left adults awestruck with the brilliance of his moves; at 14, he became the youngest US national champion.

It didn’t take long for him to become a celebrity. It was rare for him to go a day without receiving fan mail from all over the US and even abroad.

In the early 1970s, he appeared on TV so much that his fame took a leap: he was stopped on the streets of New York to sign autographs. Fischer embodied the hero capable of winning the Cold War for the US – not on a battlefield, but in a contest between intellects.

Hence why the Spassky-Fischer duel aroused an interest that chess had never seen before. Fide received no less than 15 proposals from those interested in hosting the final of the world cup between the two.

Considering the options, they chose Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, which offered a total prize pool of US$ 125,000 (about US$ 900,000 today, or R$ 4.5 million at the current price), not counting TV rights. Before that, the biggest purse in a chess match had been $12,000 — a game by Fischer himself.

When everything was settled, the American, known for his eccentric behavior as well as his genius, showed signs that he was going to give up, indicating dissatisfaction with the financial clauses.

At the eleventh hour, British millionaire James Derrick Slater announced that he would donate $125,000 to double the purse.

And just in case, Henry Kissinger, the US National Security Adviser, called Fischer and asked him to go to Iceland and beat the Soviets at their game.

Fischer went, but not without demanding that an entire row of seats be reserved for him on the plane and fresh orange juice made in front of him on the flight.

When he arrived, he complained about the lighting (very poor), the size of the pieces (very small), the board (stone, he wanted wooden), the TV cameras (they could distract him).

The title would be played in up to 24 matches; a win was worth 1 point, a draw 1/2; whoever scored 12.5 points would be the champion, but Spassky would retain the reign if he finished 12-12.

On July 11, under the scrutiny of about 200 accredited journalists, Spassky won the first. In the next round, Fischer simply didn’t show up and lost by WO, something unprecedented in a championship of this magnitude.

But, after 21 matches, the American became champion on September 1, winning by 12.5 to 8.5. For the feat, he earned just over $150,000 (in the same year, the US Open tennis paid the champion $25,000).

The duel was followed live in several countries. In Brazil, radio bulletins every 15 or 30 minutes updated the status of the match.

The clash of the century sparked a boom in interest in chess around the world – just at that time, Henrique Costa Mecking, known as Mequinho, appeared, the greatest Brazilian chess player of all times.

Communist supremacy took a hit, but only for a short time. In the following world cycle, in 1975, Fischer gave up defending the crown, and the title went to Soviet Anatoli Karpov.

From then until the end of the 20th century, all world chess champions would be from the Soviet Union or Russia.