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
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess "rook-takes-pawn-check". The book begins with an explanation of the rules of chess. The puzzles focus exclusively on finding checkmate, beginning with mate in one move and moving on to mate in two, three and four. Combinations involving back rank mates are particularly emphasized. The book was originally published in 1966 by Basic Systems Inc, a subsidiary of Xerox. A paperback edition was published by Bantam Books in 1967 and sold 10,000 copies by early 1972. Due to the interest in the 1972 Fischer–Spassky World Championship match, sales increased dramatically and the book was reprinted eight times that year alone. In