In 1972 the American Bobby Fischer took on the Soviet Boris Spassky for the world chess championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. The match became a symbolic clash between the US and the USSR, locked in a cold-war struggle for dominance. Fischer's convincing and thrilling victory made him a household name across America and propelled chess to new heights of popularity. When he abdicated his crown a few years later and went into self-imposed exile, the technically proficient but dry Soviet player Karpov became world champion, and the sport went into decline. In 1985, the brilliant Garry Kasparov wrestled the title from Karpov (in a rematch of their drawn controversial 1984 battle) and began a reign of dominance that would transform chess, both on and off the board. Kasparov's break with FIDE, his battles with Deep Blue, and his scintillating style of attack made chess interesting to the non-expert again. While Kasparov lost his title to Kramnik in 2000, he remained among the top players in the world until his retirement in 2005. Today he focuses his efforts on a different sort of struggle.
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