Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time

THE AMERICANS

Bobby Fischer—World championship contender

Pal Benko—Grandmaster, enabled Fischer to enter world championship rounds

Robert Byrne—Grandmaster, coauthor with Ivo Nei of book on match

Fred Cramer—Chief assistant to Fischer in Reykjavik

Brad Darrach—Life reporter and member of Fischer’s Reykjavik team

Andrew Davis—Attorney to Fischer

Ed Edmondson—Executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation and mentor to Fischer

Larry Evans—American grandmaster and former second to Fischer

Regina Fischer—Bobby’s mother

Chester Fox—TV producer with exclusive rights to film the match

Victor Jackovich—Junior diplomat in U.S. Icelandic embassy

Henry Kissinger—U.S. national security adviser

William Lombardy—Roman Catholic priest, grandmaster, and second to Fischer

Paul Marshall—Attorney to Fischer

Paul Nemenyi—Allegedly Fischer’s biological father

Richard Nixon—U.S. president

Anthony Saidy—Chess player, gave sanctuary to Fischer

Don Schultz—Fischer aide and future president of the U.S. Chess Federation

Frank Skoff—Fischer aide and president of U.S. Chess Federation from August 1972

Ken “Top Hat” Smith—American chess and poker player, helped Fischer prepare

Theodore Tremblay—U.S. charge d’affaires in Iceland

Various attorneys, journalists, chess players, commentators, and acquaintances of Fischer

THE SOVIETS

Boris Spassky—World champion

Lev Abramov—Former head of Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport

Sergei Astavin—Soviet ambassador to Iceland

Yuri Averbakh—President of the USSR Chess Federation and of the Trainers’ Council, grandmaster

Viktor Baturinskii—Director of the Central Chess Club; head of the Chess Department, chief trainer, and inspector of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport; former colonel and deputy chief military prosecutor

Yevgeni Bebchuk—Journalist and former president of the Chess Federation of the Russian Federation (a republic of the USSR)

Mikhail Beilin—Former head of the Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport

Isaac Boleslavskii—Grandmaster

Igor Bondarevskii—Grandmaster and trainer to the world champion

Mikhail Botvinnik—Former world chess champion

Valeri Chamanin—Soviet embassy interpreter

Piotr Demichev—Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee secretary responsible for ideology

Anatoli Dobrynin—Soviet ambassador to Washington, D.C.

Efim Geller—Grandmaster, second, and trainer to the world champion

Viktor Ivonin—Deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport, in charge inter alia of chess (deputy sports minister)

Anatoli Karpov—Future world chess champion

Nikolai Krogius—Psychologist, grandmaster, second, and trainer to the world champion, future head of the USSR state chess organization

Ivo Nei—Second and tennis partner to the world champion

Sergei Pavlov—Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport (sports minister)

Tigran Petrosian—Former world chess champion, defeated by Fischer in Candidates

Larisa Spasskaia—Second wife of world champion

Mark Taimanov—Grandmaster, defeated by Fischer in Candidates, concert pianist

Dmitri Vasil’iev—Second secretary, Icelandic embassy

Aleksandr Yakovlev—Acting head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Party Central Committee

Various apparatchiks, psychiatrists, journalists, and shadowy figures from the KGB

THE ICELANDERS

Gissli Gestsson—Cameraman

Freysteinn Johannsson—Icelandic Chess Federation press officer

Olafur Johannesson—Prime minister

Fridrik Olafsson—Icelandic grandmaster, later clerk to the Icelandic Parliament

Saemundur “Saemi-Rock” Palsson—Fischer’s police bodyguard

Gudmundur Thorarinsson—President of the Icelandic Chess Federation, chief match organizer, and responsible for gaining match for Iceland

Various car dealers, salmon fishers, technicians, scientists, doctors, stonemasons, and blond dancers

MATCH OFFICIALS

Gudmundur—Assistant arbiter (referee)

Arnlaugsson Max Euwe—Dutch president of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and former world chess champion

Harry Golombek—British chess master and vice president of FIDE, The Times correspondent

Lothar Schmid—German grandmaster and chief arbiter (referee)

OTHERS

Leonard Barden—British chess player and journalist, friend of James Slater

Dimitri Bjelica—Yugoslav journalist

Svetozar Gligoric—Yugoslav grandmaster and commentator on match

Bent Larsen—Danish grandmaster, defeated by Fischer in Candidates

James Slater—Multimillionaire British financier

Bob Wade—New Zealand international master, helped Fischer prepare