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Chess had headline coverage in those days, didn't it, as a result of the Cold War and all of that. Some of the allegations of foul play from those days were incredible, for instance:
Thus the little episode in which there is an argument about the chairs on which the players will sit actually took place in Reykjavik. The Russians claimed that the chairs must have had some kind of ray, or something, that was beamed at Spassky and addling his brain. The Icelanders gravely took X-rays of both chairs, taking them apart in the process, and found no foreign substance except wood filler. The Icelanders and the press were enchanted; the whole episode was howlingly funny, and even the Russians themselves were embarrassed.
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