3911A (right): White mates in five moves (by Fritz Giegold, Munchner Presse 1929). Virtually a single line of play ... Illustration: The Guardian
More than half a century on, the Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky series at Reykjavik in 1972 remains the most famous of all world championship matches. It triggered a global chess boom, not least in Britain where, for a brief period, a galaxy of talent made England the No 2 chess nation behind the Soviet Union.
On Friday, the annual Reykjavik Open starts at the Harpa conference centre in the heart of the city with a full complement of 420 players, ranging from elite grandmasters to ordinary amateurs, nearly a tenth of them British. The excursion on the tournament’s free morning includes a visit to Fischer’s grave. It is also 60 years since the first Reykjavik Open in 1964 was won by Mikhail Tal, who along with Spassky was Fischer’s great contemporary rival, with a stunning 12.5/13 total.
