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The World Chess Championship match between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky in Reykjavík , 1972 , has been dubbed the Match of the Century. It is probably the most well-known world chess championship match, and also the most dramatic. BACKGROUND The match was played at the height of the Cold War . For a long time, the Soviet chess system had had a monopoly on the game at the highest level. Fischer, the highly eccentric young American (29 years old at the time of the match), on the other hand, had been outspoken in his criticism of the system. For instance, he believed that USSR players gained an unfair advantage by agreeing to short draws among themselves in tournaments. Endowed with a fierce fighting spirit and a hater of Agreed Draws , Fischer had campaigned against this practice. He viewed the Soviets as hypocrites. The expectations on Spassky were enormous because for the Soviets, chess was part of the political system, part of life. While Fischer was often famously critical of his home country ("Americans want to plunk in front of a TV and don't want to open a book..."), he too carried the burden of expectation because of the political significance of the match. Fischer failed to arrive in Iceland for the opening ceremony. Then, for several days, it looked doubtful that the match would be played at all, for it was proving impossible for FIDE to accommodate Fischer's myriad of demands, such as banning television cameras and a 30% share of the revenue from spectators. Fischer's behavior was full of self-contradictions, as it had been throughout his chess career. He badly wanted to play the match, but would become extremely stubborn over apparently trivial issues. Finally, after a surprise doubling of the prize fund and much persuasion, including a phone call from Henry Kissinger , Fischer did fly to Iceland. Many commentators, particularly from the USSR, have suggested that all this (and his continuing demands and unreasonableness) was part of Fischer's plan to "psyche out" Spassky. Fischer's supporters say that winning the World Championship was the mission of his life, that he simply wanted the setting to be perfect for it when he took the stage, and that his behavior was not different than it had been in the past ten or fifteen years. Spassky's seconds for the match were Efim Geller , Nikolai Krogius and Ivo Nei . Fischer's was William Lombardy . His entourage also consisted of lawyer Paul Marshall , whose role in the events of the following months would not be insignificant, and USCF representative Fred Cramer , who could best be termed 'complainer' in the light of events to follow. The match referee was Lothar Schmid , without whose extraordinary patience and resourcefulness the match would never have gotten underway. Before the match, Fischer had played five games against Spassky, with two draws and Spassky winning the other three. However, in the Candidates matches en route to becoming the challenger, Fischer had demolished such stalwarts as Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen 6-0 (with no draws), and had won four games in a row in his match against former world champion Tigran Petrosian . He was, therefore, considered the pre-match favorite. FISCHER'S DISASTROUS START
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