Bobby (Robert James) Fischer

Posted by Tel Asiado Mar 9, 2008

Great Thinkers Datebook: March 9

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (1943-2008), controversial American chess player, was born in Chicago, USA. He was an Icelandic citizen at the time of his death in January 17, 2008.

Fischer was the US chess champion, 1958-1960 and 1962-1963; and world champion 1972-1975. He was named an international grand master in 1958 but in 1975, he refused to defend his world's title.

Bobby Fischer became the first Western chess player to make a living by simply playing chess. Early in his career, he won both the US junior and senior chess titles, aged 14, and dictated terms of playing conditons including the finance aspects.

Despite his many phobias, including hidden cameras, glaring lights, restless opponents and shiny chess pieces, among others, his brilliance over the chess board led to his achieving the highest results rating in the history of chess.

In 1972, he won the world championship title with Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland, and after that withdrew from competitive chess. In 1975, failure to agree terms and conditions for a defence resulted in stripping a title by default. He was suppose to fight against Anatoli Karpov.

Bobby Fischer lived in seclusion for the next two decades, but in 1992 he beat Spassky in an exhibiton match in Yugoslavia, violating an American economic sanction against that nation and prompting American officials to issue a warrant of his arrest. He was unable to return home to US and remained in Eastern Europe until his death last January, two months ago.

To some chess buffs, Bobby Fischer will always be the greatest chess player of all-time.

Sources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers (2002)

Illustrated Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Clark, Chancellor Press (1994)