Ideas, Openings & Improvement

An American challenger, a Soviet champion, a forfeited game, and a positional masterpiece that decided the match. This was never just a chess result.

A doubled prize fund, a missed opening ceremony, and a phone call from the US National Security Advisor. The match nearly never happened at all.

The best player in the world, at the peak of global fame, simply disappeared. Twenty years later he reappeared once, and it cost him his ability to ever go home.