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 Egyptian game called senet, the earliest known board game; a custom-made set of chess furniture that belonged to Bobby Fischer, and the first commercial chess computer. Rotating exhibitions feature items from the permanent collection; the museum also mounts two temporary exhibitions per year. The Hall of Fame also commemorates the careers of its members. There are 52 members in the U.S. Hall of Fame, including Bobby Fischer, John W. Collins, Larry Evans, Benjamin Franklin, George Koltanowski, Sammy Reshevsky, Paul Morphy, and Arnold Denker. There are 19 members in the World Hall of Fame, including José Raúl Capablanca, Anatoly Karpov, Garry