![]() ![]() What followed was an unprecedented explosion of interest in the game. The live broadcast of the games on PBS, presented by Shelby Lyman, captivated audiences and made Bobby Fischer a household name synonymous with chess. This July will mark 50 years since the 1972 World Chess Championship match between the enigmatic Brooklynite Bobby Fischer and the Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky, which took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, at the height of the Cold War. Not since an American became world champion in 1972 had there been such a surge of interest in chess. According to Netflix, a then record 62 million households watched the series - about a troubled young woman’s journey to chess stardom - in its first 28 days. A glimpse at the Google Trends history for the word “chess” shows a parabolic move in October 2020, right around the time the hit series “The Queen’s Gambit” was released. While many Americans were confined to their homes during the pandemic, they turned to chess to occupy their minds.
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