I had learned to play chess from my grandfather and, by the time 1972 came around, I was well into competitions.
I spent a good share of my youth in the summers in the West, Montana and Wyoming. Let’s just say that in 1972 there was one conduit of information about The Match: the newspaper. I would nearly quiver myself into an alternative metauniverse waiting for the days’ notation.
TODAY… the match began. HERE
Fifty years ago.
Some good pictures of Fischer’s grave and church at Laugardælir. Fischer was one of my boyhood heroes too.
https://tinyurl.com/3n6dpwbx
The St Louis chess museum has one of the tables used during this tournament on display. Well worth a visit or two. Wanted to sit down at it but the attendant nearby was dutifully watchful. Maybe next time.
Yes, Fischer converted to the Catholic Church before he died and received a Catholic funeral. Thanks be to God for the salvation of a man so attacked for having his own opinion, whether people liked it or not.