I believe Fischer's spit had greater context.

As a soccer incident, Zidane's headbutt vs Materazzi is something that has stuck more to my memory :D

Karpov himself said Fischer was the favorite, and he estimated his own chances at just 40% in 1975.

It depends on the format of such WCC match.

In limited usual 24-games match, Karpov would have been slight favourite.

In unlimited 10(9)-victories match, Fischer would have been slight favourite.

I think Fisher would lose vs Karpov (and probaly any other strong GM) just because he was not brave enough to play chess honestly.

I recognized the first sign of it when Fisher cowardly ceded first desk in match USSR vs Rest of the World (1970) to Bent Larsen.

6-0 to Fischer

NO, Bobby was a true gentleman. At the time, Larsen was in better form than him, and Bobby graciously seeded the top board to him.

1) That's not that clear. Fischer was indeed very strong in the 70's.

The main dispute was if WCC-title belongs to champion himself or to FIDE who has the right to decorate champion with it. Nobody ever disputed e.g. Lasker's rights to bring conditions, but after the WWII, FIDE was influenced by the Soviets heavily and Botvinnik, as mere USSR-citizen, wasn't in position to bring conditions himself. The same approach applies to all USSR players, even comrade Karpov wasn't allowed to express his opinions. All Soviet's WCC demands were decided somewhere in politburo behind closed doors and presented to public as player's honest opinion.

2) Larsen wanted that. Larsen honestly thought he was better than Fischer in 1970 and he had excellent tournament results from past year behind him. The decisive outcome of their candidates match next year (Larsen lost 0:6) was heavily influenced by Larsen's illness and thus didn't reflect the real proportion of their strengths.

Polar_Bear, I'm afraid you are not educated enough to make valid approach (or even guess) about the USSR, soviet chess players as common and Botvinnik personally.

Please say what you know and try to avoid repetition of lying ideological propaganda.

Thanks in advance.

takes own advice well.

Silver_light, I am afraid you are not in position to estimate my knowledge or even dispute my statements.

I have seen soviet players speaking before USSR fell and after. The difference is big and the conclusion is obvious: they were muzzled and watched in the soviet era.

Just compare Kasparov's public statements from the 80's and 1993 onward.

Have you ever heard the name Baturinski?

Did you read Bronstein's books from the 90's?

Baturinsky was the Kremlin's man who made sure that none of the USSR players stepped out of line. But he wasn't involved in Iceland in 1972.

Perhaps the Soviets assumed that they'd win in 1972?