So it was quite surprising to read The Final Years, in which Gardur Sverrisson says Freysteinn had been RJF's close friend since 1958, that he was the foreigner RJF most trusted, and that RJF had said that it was Freysteinn's powers of persuasion, not Kissinger's, that made him decide to fly to Iceland and play the match.

How this strange relationship came about is described in Freysteinn's 2017 biography (a quarter of which is in his own words, the rest in his widow Edda's recollection), entitled "Grettisfang" (his "no de plume" as a freelance chess journalist). They first met in Portoroz (Yugoslavia) in 1958, where the FIDE Interzonal tournament was taking place, with Fischer playing and Freysteinn covering it as a journalist. Early one morning, Fischer came downstairs for breakfast at the tournament hotel and could only find one person on the veranda nourishing himself, i.e. Freysteinn and asking if he could join him? You're welcome, said journalist, be my guest. Continuing at first to eat in silence, Freysteinn could no longer hold his tongue when his guest kept chopping at his food with his fork, US-style, and then trying to hit a bumblebee with it when such an insect approached the table: Young man, here you are in a civilized country and first of all you have to learn how to eat in a presentable manner, with a fork and knife, the European way...and second, observing Fishers scruffy sweater, jeans and sneakers, followed it up with: You also have to learn how to dress properly; get yourself a white shirt and tie, a decent jacket and trousers, fine leather shoes, and make yourself presentable! Far from blowing his top, as you might expect from latter days' Fischer, he got right on it, and proudly reappeared a couple of days later at breakfast looking perfectly smart and handsome! After having received well deserved congratulations and compliments from Freysteinn, Fischer, who by then had discovered that his newfound mentor spoke almost perfect Russian, asked if he could give him some advice of how to improve his own knowledge of the language? No problem was the reply, and if you're interested, I can also put you in the picture how the Russians set about forming their promising chess masters and training them assiduously all the way to the top, in order to become grandmasters, Soviet- and more often than not World Champions?

I'm interested, replied Fischer.