Chess right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion, Armenian Tigran Petrosian, a player renowned for his defensive and positional skills, held the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor, Boris Spassky from Russia (champion 1969–1972), won games in both positional and sharp tactical style. The next championship, the so-called Match of the Century, saw the first non-Soviet challenger since World War II, American Bobby Fischer, who defeated his Candidates opponents by unheard-of margins and clearly won the world championship match. In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when FIDE did
World Chess Championship 1963 as Geller was a candidate at Zurich in 1953 and Filip at Amsterdam in 1956. The favourites were Tal (the recently dethroned World Champion) and Fischer, based on his powerful Interzonal showing. Botvinnik also picked Tal, as did a poll of Russian readers, narrowly ahead of Fischer. Former world champion Max Euwe picked Petrosian. Keres said Fischer deserved to be favourite but had faith that a Soviet player would win; and similarly Alexander Kotov and Svetozar Gligorić thought one of the Soviets would win ahead of Fischer. American magazine Chess Life picked Fischer ahead of Tal. Of the others it