Bobby Fischer has probably attracted more attention and aroused keener interest than has any other world chess champion. His pictures have appeared on the covers of the most prestigious magazines, and hundreds of articles and books have been written about him. In the United States there has even been a novel about him, Master Prime, and in Hungary a feature film was made, where Fischer's role was played by the famous Russian actor Kaidansky.
Indeed, the American is a unique phenomenon in the history of chess. Nevertheless, the heightened interest of the general public in Fischer is due not only to his outstanding talent and phenomenal successes, but also to the fact that he managed, in the apt words of grandmaster Bisguier, 'to beat the Russians at their own game.' And Anatoly Karpov is correct, when he writes: 'Chess is indebted to Fischer for the fact that he generated interest in it throughout the world. Chess was popular in the Soviet Union and in several other countries, but it didn't enjoy world-wide popularity, because there was a lack of competition. To the world it was all the same who gained the chess crown - Spassky or Petrosian, who won the Candidates Tournament - Tal or Keres, Bronstein or Korchnoi. But when Fischer began his triumphal ascent to the chess summit, the Sport took on a political aspect - who would win, the lone Fischer, or the serried ranks of Soviet grandmasters? The favourite scenario of the man in the street: one against many! This generated so much interest, that for a time chess become the no.l Sport in the world.'
In the context of the cold war between East and West, Soviet ideology sought to turn the chess battles with Fischer into political battles, a struggle of two worlds, two Systems.
