| Nobody knew what was about to take place. | | | | States.Chess set sales started to sky rocket. Kids |
| Certainly nobody outside of the most knowledgeable | | | | were sitting out on their front steps and for the first |
| people in the game. But in the summer of 1972, | | | | time in history, weren't playing the popular board |
| Bobby Fischer was about to play in the most famous | | | | games of the day or trading baseball cards, which |
| world chess tournament of all time against Boris | | | | was very popular especially in the summertime, but |
| Spasky of the Soviet Union. What the world was | | | | now they were playing chess. Kids who had never |
| about to witness had never been seen before; the | | | | played the game in their life, were glued to their |
| first United States world chess champion.What most | | | | chess sets and their TV sets to watch the live |
| people don't understand about this tournament, aside | | | | coverage by a man who became a legend in his own |
| from the significance of Fischer becoming the first | | | | right, Shelby Lyman.People waited on Shelby's every |
| United States world champion, is that this tournament | | | | comment along with his guest stars, who were |
| turned chess from a seldom thought of sport to a | | | | known masters and grand masters. It was like |
| craze that literally captured a nation and a world.For | | | | watching a real sporting event as the moves were |
| the people outside of the United States, especially in | | | | wired in to the studio and recreated on the large |
| countries where chess was very popular like the | | | | chess board that was nailed to a wall in the studio. It |
| Soviet Union, it was the shock of Fischer first | | | | was the best entertainment around that summer and |
| competing for the title in the first place and then the | | | | the ratings for the broadcasts were through the |
| ultimate shock of him winning. This alone made | | | | roof. This was unheard of for a publicly owned TV |
| headlines everywhere. Not only wasn't he supposed | | | | station such as PBS.Fischer ultimately won the |
| to win but he was supposed to be beaten badly. And | | | | tournament in 21 games by a score of 12.5 to 8.5. |
| after losing the first two games, the second by | | | | The world was stunned and the United States had a |
| forfeit because he refused to show up, it was | | | | new hero. Sadly, the chess craze in the United States |
| almost certain that his fate was sealed. But Fischer | | | | died shortly after the tournament ended, but for a |
| made a miraculous comeback and stunned the chess | | | | very brief time chess was the king of sports in the |
| world.But in the United States, this tournament itself | | | | United States and Bobby Fischer was its most |
| took on a whole different meaning. Sure, the country | | | | famous hero.We have yet to see anything like that |
| was eager to see if Fischer could do the impossible, | | | | summer since and it is doubtful that we will ever see |
| but something happened that summer that nobody | | | | it again. |
| could have ever foreseen happening in the United | | | | |