During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in almost every arena, space, sports, and of course the military.

Everything they competed in was designed to show the superiority of their respective systems.

In 1972, one of the greatest Cold War rivalries came to a head in Reykjavik, Iceland.

It didn't take place at a sporting event or on a battlefield.

Rather, it took place over a period of two months on a chessboard.

Learn more about the 1972 World Chess Championship, aka the Match of the Century,

on this episode of Everything everywhere daily. This episode is sponsored by Skillshare. To paraphrase the great Napoleon

dynamite, you have to have skills. There's a whole universe of things you can learn to better

yourself and Skillshare can help you do it. Some of the most popular classes on

Skillshare include iPhone photography, Adobe Illustrator, watercolor Painting, Interior Design, and creating videos for

YouTube.

With Skillshare Premium, you can have unlimited access to everything for as low as 825 per month.

Go to Everything Dash Everywhere

dot com slash Skillshare to get a free two-week trial of

Skillshare premium membership or just click on the link in the show notes.

To be completely honest, the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and chess

really wasn't much of a rivalry. The Soviet Union completely dominated the upper ranks of chess for decades.

From 1948 to 2007, every world chess champion, save for one, all came from the Soviet Union or Russia.

In fact, you can take it back as far as 1927, where the champion was a Russian who fled to France

because of the Communist Revolution.

Soviet chess was a machine. They recruited bright players with talent at a very young age.

The Soviets took chess seriously and treated it as a sport, not a game.

...