Recently, a photograph re-emerged on X (formerly Twitter) recording all of the world champions and grandmasters who competed in the celebrated 1970 Match of the Century, which pitted the mighty USSR team against the Rest of the World in Belgrade, Serbia (then, Yugoslavia). The USSR won the contest by a single-point margin, largely due to the excellent score of Paul Keres, who was never world champion, but runner- up in no fewer than four Candidates qualifying tournaments for the world championship. The remaining representatives of the Soviet chess imperium generally underperformed, when compared with pre-match expectations. In particular, the brand new World Champion Boris Spassky suffered a humiliating loss against Bent Larsen, and opted out of his fourth and final game against the Great Dane, being replaced by the reserve,…
