The 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik between Russian reigning champion Boris Spassky and American challenger Bobby Fischer became a proxy for the Cold War their countries were fighting at the time.

Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer
Hampstead Theatre, London

The 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik between Russian reigning champion Boris Spassky and American challenger Bobby Fischer became a proxy for the Cold War their countries were fighting at the time.

This political subplot was supplemented by espionage drama storylines in which the sides accused each other of trying to gain advantage through electronic bugging, drugged food and drink, hypnosis, mesmerism, and even trick chairs.

These events had the effect of making headline news of a game often seen as cerebral and niche, and have inevitably inspired dramatisations: from the 2014 movie bio-drama, Pawn Sacrifice, to the musical, Chess (1984), written by Tim Rice with Abba songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvæus, in which US and USSR grandmasters refused to be mates.

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