Chess in the Cold War
How did Cold War tensions affect the 1972 World Chess Championship?
Section A: Plan of the Investigation
Through much of the 20th Century, the Cold War (mid 1940’s – early 1990’s) created a state of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This tension was sustained through various fronts, such as the nuclear arms race, the space race, and political and military conflicts. This investigation assesses these Cold War tensions as perpetuated in the world of chess.
The peak of competitive chess during the Cold War was in the 1972 World Chess Championship. By examining the match, the conditions surrounding the games, and the players, this investigation assesses: “How did Cold War tensions affect the 1972 World Chess Championship?” This investigation uses sources from chess historians, as well as chess grandmasters themselves.
Section B: Summary of Evidence
In the aftermath of World War II, the beginnings of the Cold War saw to fierce competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, the Soviet School of Chess emerged. This school of play emphasized daring, fast-paced play that came about through rigorous training and study of the game (Kotov). The Soviet School of Chess produced a generation of Soviet chess players whose international dominance would take the world by surprise. In the realm of chess, the start of the Cold War aligned with the birth of FIDE’s (World Chess Federation) World Chess Championship cycle. The emerging dominance of Soviet chess players was evident in their performance in these championships. From 1948 to 1969, the Soviets were undefeated, winning 10 consecutive World Chess Championships and ...
... middle of paper ...
...d ed. Jefferson: McFarland &, 2006. Print.
Gulko, Boris, Vladimir Popov, and Viktor Kortschnoi. The KGB Plays Chess: The Soviet Secret
Police and the Fight for the World Chess Crown. N.p.: Russell Enterprises, 2010. Print.
Helgason, Gudjon, and Brian Church. "Fisher's 1972 Match Was Cold War Battle." USAToday.
USAToday, 19 Jan. 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Johnson, Daniel. White King and Red Queen: How the Cold War Was Fought on the
Chessboard. N.p.: Atlantic, 2008. Print.
Kotov, Alexander. The Soviet School of Chess. London: Hardinge Simpole, 2002. Print.
Schonberg, Harold C. "Cold War in the World of Chess." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 26 Sept. 1981. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
Taylor, Quintard. "United States History: Timeline: Cold War." University of Washington:
Department of History. University of Washington, Spring 2007. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Crockatt, Richard. The fifty years war : the United States and the Soviet Union in world politics, 1941-1991. London; New York; Routledge, 1995.
Isaacs J (2008). ‘Cold War: For Forty-five Years the World Held its Breath’. Published by Abacus, 2008.
SoRelle, Larry Madaras and James. Unit 3 The Cold War and Beyond. McGraw-Hill, 2012. Book.
And the skills we try to learn can be less strenuous to obtain. He takes us back to kasparov and how when he was coming about in the soviet union only a few kids that showed promise could get lessons from a grand master and then be able to access records to famous chess games. Clive Thompson considers the fact that computers have leveled the playing field. Now any kid anywhere in the world that has access to the internet can learn more about chess games. Playing an artificial opponent made the game a little faster and the instincts of a player became fast as well. A player could also experiment and see what the outcome of different moves could be. This also means grandmaster players are being produced at a much younger age than ever before. He makes a reference to grand master Bobby Fischer who became a grand master at age fifteen. He does this to show how with the emergence of computers new grand masters are getting younger and younger. Such as Sergey Karjakin who became grand master in two thousand and two at the age of twelve. This clearly shows how computers speed up the learning
In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and the lessening tension between the US and the Soviets was put on full blast. Due to this, the hockey game between the US and the Soviets in the semifinals wasn't just any game. It was during the Cold War, a period of great tension between the US and the USSR....
Odd Arne Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how the Cold War “shaped the world we live in today — its politics, economics, and military affairs“ (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). Furthermore, Westad continues, “ the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created foundations” for most of the historic conflicts we see today. The Cold War, asserts Westad, centers on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — escalates to antipathy and conflict that in the end helped oust one world power while challenging the other. This supplies a universal understanding on the Cold War (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1).
Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.
Gregory, Ross. Cold War America: 1946 to 1990. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2003.
Hammond, Thomas, Editor. Witnesses to the Origins of the Cold War. University of Washington Press. Seattle, 1982.
With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field. Some of his other works include: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, and The Cold War: A New History. Dr. Gaddis received his PhD from the University of Texas in 1968; he currently is on a leave of absence, but he is a professor at Yale . At the University, his focus is Cold War history. Gaddis is one of the few men who have actually done a complete biography of George Kennan, and Gaddis even won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012.
Glynn, Patrick. Closing Pandora's Box "Arms Races, Arms Control, and the History of the Cold War". New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc. 1992.
Larres Klaus, Ann Lane. (2001) The Cold War: the essential readings. United Kingdom. Blackwell Publishers
Tomkinson, John L. (2008) The Cold War: Themes in Twentieth Century World History for the International Baccalaureate. 3rd edition. Athens: Anagnosis.
...E. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
The New Cold War. Great Britain: Bloomsbury Publishing. Weber, Smith, Allan, Collins, Morgan and Entshami. 2002. Foreign Policy in a Transformed World. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.