Going, going, gone for $76,275

ANTIQUES: Rock and Chess Memorabilia from the ’60, ’70s Heats Up
By ELIZABETH STEWART — JULY 9, 2011

If you missed this next auction, and you are a chess fan, you will be heartbroken, because you could have bought the chess set used by Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972 at the World Chess Championship in Iceland, signed by both masters. The board and the pieces went for $76,275 at Philip Weiss Auctions in New York in April. There’s nothing special about the wooden board, except for the signatures and the provenance. Just another example why provenance is important and should be noted even in your own collections for future generations.

This chess set is the “back room” board – Fischer had a tantrum when he lost his second match and blamed his loss on the cameras in the main hall. So this, the third match board, was used in a small private room with no cameras. Fischer won, and captured the title. And of course the auction house got a hold of Fischer’s letters to Zita, the love of his life, and auctioned them, too for $9,888.

Source: http://www.thedailysound.com