A major film was The Godfather and on cable televidion HBO was launched becoming the first subscription cable service in the U.S.. The Volkswagen Beetle became the world's best-selling car by the end of the year.
The year was dominated by the Match of the Century when Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the World Champio thus ending 24 years of Soviet dominance. It also generate an unprecedented worldwide interest in chess, particularly in the United States.
In San Antonio, Texas the Church's Chicken International was the strongest tournament held in the US since 1924. It ended in a three-way tie between Tigran Petrosian, Lajos Portisch and the rising star Anatoly Karpov.
Mikhail Tal dominated the Soviet Championship, winning with a score of 15-6.
The 1972 United States Championship and Zonal
Tournament, played in New York City, was a cliffhanger.
The U.S. Championship was an exciting one. Going into the last round six players were still in the running, but Robert Byrne, Lubomir Kavalek and Samuel Reshevsky ended up sharing the title. Byrne qualified for the 1972 Interzonal in Leningras where he had the greatest success of his career, finishing in third place a half point behind Korchnoi and Karpov. He lost his first-round Candidates match to former world champion Boris Spassky by 1.5-4.5 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1974.
GM Robert Byrne (1928-2013), before becoming a professional player, was a university professor from Indianapolis, Indiana. I had the pleasure of meeting Byrne once and found him to be a perfect gentleman with a sense of humor. Reshevsky? Well, I once heard the infamous Norman T. Whitaker declare, “Reshevsky wouldn’t help anybody!”
[Event "United States Championship"]
[Site "New York, NY USA"]
[Date "1972.05.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Robert Byrne"]
[Black "Samuel Reshevsky"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2560"]
[BlackElo "2565"]
[Annotator "Byrne/Stockfish 17.1"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "1972.04.23"]
{C42: Petrov Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. Nxe5 {Instead of the
usual 4.Bd3. Byrne called this a "strange" move that he played because he
couldn;t maje up his mind what to play against the drawish Petrov.} d6 5. Nf3
d5 6. Bd3 Be7 7. O-O Nc6 8. Re1 Nd6 {Reshevsky was not known for his opening
theory and here 8...Bg4 is better.} (8... O-O 9. c3 Bf5 10. Qc2 Re8 11. Nbd2
Nxd2 12. Bxd2 {½-½ Kovacevic,A (2517)-Savic,M (2503) Vrbas SRB 2015}) 9. Bf4
{Preventing 9...Bf5 which now lose a piece to 10.Bxd6} O-O 10. c3 Be6 (10... g6
{As played in Anand,V (2755)-Karpov,A (2688) Bastia 2002 is just a bit better.}
11. Na3 a6 12. Nc2 Bf6 13. Ne3 Ne7 14. Qb3 c6 {White is better/}) 11. Nbd2 Qd7
12. Nf1 f5 {Although this results in a weakening of his K-side it's his most
promising move.} 13. Qe2 {Better that winning the two Bs with 13.Ng5} (13. Ng5
Bxg5 14. Bxg5 f4 {with full equality.}) 13... Ne4 14. Ne5 Nxe5 $14 15. Bxe5 Bf6
16. Bxf6 Rxf6 17. f3 Nd6 18. Qc2 {This move has a twodold purpose; it makes
room to double Rs on the e-file and it prevents ...f4.} Re8 19. Re5 g6 20. Rae1
Bf7 {Byrne recommended 20...f4 keeping white's N out of the game. However,
even Reshevsky's movr is satosfactory, bit white has a clear initiative.} 21.
Ne3 c6 22. Qf2 Kg7 {This is a serious error. Much better was 22///Be3
preventing wjite's next move plus he could follow with ....Ref8 amnd the idea
of ...f4 is still in play.} (22... Rfe6 23. Qg3 {White can now maneuver his N
to g5 by Nd1-f2-h3-g5 with a pronising position.}) (22... Be6 {This is his
most active defense; the immediate threat is to trap the R with 23...Nf7. Also
the idea of advancing his f-Pawn is still a possibility.} 23. Nd1 (23. g4 Nf7)
23... Ref8 {and white has only a slight advantage.}) 23. g4 {Very strong as it
opens lines for attack.} Ne4 {[%mdl 8192] The N looks good on this outpost,
but 23...Be6 was a stouter defense/} (23... Be6 24. gxf5 gxf5 25. Kh1 Kf8 26.
Qh4 Qg7 {and black is hanging on.}) 24. Qg2 f4 {Unfortunately for Reshevsky
this idea comes far too late to be of any value because at this point white
has a winning positon.} 25. Nf5+ {This sacrifice destroys black;s position.}
gxf5 26. gxf5+ Kh8 27. Rxe8+ Qxe8 28. fxe4 Rxf5 29. Qg4 Bg6 30. Kf2 {Taking
the R would be a blunder.} (30. exf5 Qxe1+ 31. Kg2 Qd2+ 32. Be2 Bxf5 {draws.}
33. Qxf5 Qxe2+ {etc.}) 30... Rf7 31. exd5 Re7 {This blunder, losing instantly,
is the result of having a lost position plus being in time pressure.} 32. Bxg6
{A forceful game by Byrbe.} 1-0
