A woman wears a mask and goggles to protect herself from ash caused by volcanic activity Friday April 16, some 120km east of the capital Rejkavik, Iceland.

Fischer became an icon in 1972 when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century.

With the pound at a multidecade low and British banks requiring ever-larger injections of taxpayer cash, it is no wonder that observers have started to refer to London as “Reykjavik-on-Thames.”