Video: 'The moment when Bobby Fischer was declared the World Champion (1972)'

(Friday, September 1, 1972, 12:50 p.m. GMT; during the World Chess Championship 1972) — American Bobby Fischer single-handedly ended the 24-year Soviet Union’s winning streak in the world of chess today at the Laugardalshöll arena in Reykjavík, Iceland, as he defeated defending world champ Boris Spassky, who resigned before the resumption of Game 21.

The 29-year-old new chess champion from Brooklyn, New York, whose demands for more money and haggling over playing conditions nearly wrecked the match, thus captured the crown he had sought since childhood, combining seven victories with 11 draws to gain the 12½ points he needed.

Video: 'Bobby Fischer - The match with Spassky'

The match, which could have run at 24 games, drew thousands of players, many of them masters, and grandmasters, to Reykjavik, while it lifted chess into the realm of mass appeal in the United States.

Fischer, who at first refused to come to Exhibition Hall today until he had obtained a written statement of resignation from Spassky, was prevailed upon to go. When he came on stage at 2:47 p.m., arbiter Lothar Schmid addressed the audience of 2,500 people.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “Mr. Spassky has resigned by telephone at 12:50.”

Video: 'Chess documentary: Bobby Fischer Against The World (2011) [HD]' (Sept. 1, 1972, at 57:43)

At this point, the audience broke into applause. Fischer, busy signing his score sheet, nodded thanks.

“This is a traditional and legal way of resignation,” Schmid continued. “Mr. Fischer has won this game, No. 21, and he is the winner of the match.”

The final score was 12½ to 8½.

The audience burst into rhythmic applause and rose. Fischer, still busying himself at the chessboard, again nodded, looked uncomfortable, glanced at the audience from the corner of his eyes, and rushed off to his hotel. The audience slowly dispersed.