Chess Stories

49 years ago this week, the American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer beat defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. It was the most-publicized world championship chess match ever played, and Fischer was the first American to win the title. Why was this one match such an international spectacle in 1972? Partly because chess is a game that's suited to epic storytelling and partly because it was the Cold War. Resident storyteller from BYUradio's The Apple Seed, Sam Payne, explores the story. (AP Photo/J. Walter Green)