In July 1972, the American chess wunderkind Bobby Fischertook on the Russian world champion Boris Spassky for the highest chess prize in the world. The Russians had held the title since the Second World War, so the volatile, antagonistic Fischer's victory dealt a huge symbolic blow to Soviet claims of the supremacy of their whole way of life. As a new book about this historic match is published, Susan Hitch looks at how a niche game, watched byveryfew, became a crucible forthe tensions and hostility of the Cold War. Producer Phil Tinline