World Chess Championship 1972 World Chess Championship 1972 The World Chess Championship 1972 was a match for the World Chess Championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. The match took place in the Laugardalshöll arena in Reykjavík, Iceland, and has been dubbed the Match of the Century. Fischer became the first American born in the United States to win the world title, and the second American overall (Wilhelm Steinitz, the first world champion, became a naturalized American citizen in 1888). Fischer's win also ended, for a short time, 24 years of Soviet domination
World Chess Hall of Fame D.C.; and Miami, Florida, it moved to St. Louis on September 9, 2011. The brainchild of Steven Doyle, USCF president from 1984 to 1987, the World Chess Hall of Fame was created in 1986 as the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. Opened in 1988 in the basement of the Federation's then-headquarters in New Windsor, New York, the small museum contained a modest collection, including a book of chess openings signed by Bobby Fischer; a silver set awarded to Paul Morphy, American chess player and unofficial World Champion; and cardboard plaques honoring past grandmasters. In 1992, the U.S. Chess Trust purchased