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We plundered the archives of many newspapers, especially Corriere della Sera, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Los Angeles Times, and The Times (London). In Moscow, the archives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Izvestia, Pravda, Vecherniaia Moskva, Shakhmati v SSSR, and 64 were essential reading. We are grateful to the London Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society.
NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF RUSSIAN
In general, we have transliterated Russian names and other words in accordance with the Library of Congress system. However, where we feel an established version of a name is so familiar that changing it might disturb a reader, we have retained that version—for instance, Spassky and Dostoyevsky. We have similarly made changes to assist readers’ pronunciation.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
THE AMERICANS
Bobby Fischer—World championship contender
Pal Benko—Grandmaster, enabled Fischer to enter world championship rounds
Robert Byrne—Grandmaster, coauthor with Ivo Nei of book on match
Fred Cramer—Chief assistant to Fischer in Reykjavik
Brad Darrach—Life reporter and member of Fischer’s Reykjavik team
Andrew Davis—Attorney to Fischer
Ed Edmondson—Executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation and mentor to Fischer
Larry Evans—American grandmaster and former second to Fischer
Regina Fischer—Bobby’s mother
Chester Fox—TV producer with exclusive rights to film the match
Victor Jackovich—Junior diplomat in U.S. Icelandic embassy
Henry Kissinger—U.S. national security adviser
William Lombardy—Roman Catholic priest, grandmaster, and second to Fischer
Paul Marshall—Attorney to Fischer
Paul Nemenyi—Allegedly Fischer’s biological father
Richard Nixon—U.S. president
Anthony Saidy—Chess player, gave sanctuary to Fischer
Don Schultz—Fischer aide and future president of the U.S. Chess Federation
Frank Skoff—Fischer aide and president of U.S. Chess Federation from August 1972
Ken “Top Hat” Smith—American chess and poker player, helped Fischer prepare
Theodore Tremblay—U.S. charge d’affaires in Iceland
Various attorneys, journalists, chess players, commentators, and acquaintances of Fischer
THE SOVIETS
Boris Spassky—World champion
Lev Abramov—Former head of Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport
Sergei Astavin—Soviet ambassador to Iceland
Yuri Averbakh—President of the USSR Chess Federation and of the Trainers’ Council, grandmaster
Viktor Baturinskii—Director of the Central Chess Club; head of the Chess Department, chief trainer, and inspector of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport; former colonel and deputy chief military prosecutor
Yevgeni Bebchuk—Journalist and former president of the Chess Federation of the Russian Federation (a republic of the USSR)
Mikhail Beilin—Former head of the Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport
Isaac Boleslavskii—Grandmaster
Igor Bondarevskii—Grandmaster and trainer to the world champion
Mikhail Botvinnik—Former world chess champion
Valeri Chamanin—Soviet embassy interpreter
Piotr Demichev—Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee secretary responsible for ideology
Anatoli Dobrynin—Soviet ambassador to Washington, D.C.
Efim Geller—Grandmaster, second, and trainer to the world champion
Viktor Ivonin—Deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport, in charge inter alia of chess (deputy sports minister)
Anatoli Karpov—Future world chess champion
Nikolai Krogius—Psychologist, grandmaster, second, and trainer to the world champion, future head of the USSR state chess organization
Ivo Nei—Second and tennis partner to the world champion
Sergei Pavlov—Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport (sports minister)
Tigran Petrosian—Former world chess champion, defeated by Fischer in Candidates
Larisa Spasskaia—Second wife of world champion
Mark Taimanov—Grandmaster, defeated by Fischer in Candidates, concert pianist
Dmitri Vasil’iev—Second secretary, Icelandic embassy
Aleksandr Yakovlev—Acting head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Party Central Committee