Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fishcer, renowned and controversial chess player, died yesterday at the age of 64. Robert James Fischer was born March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. His mother divorced his father when Bobby was two years old. Later, it was determined that the father listed on Fischer’s birth certificate may not have been the biological father. Bobby grew up with his mother and older sister Joan.

In 1949, the Fischers moved to Brooklyn, New York where Bobby learned to play chess from instructions found in a chess set. At age seven he joined his first chess club. Bobby dropped out of high school at the age of 16 (he was at the same high school as Barbra Streisand).

In 1956, he won the United States Junior Chess Championship to become the youngest ever champion. At 12 years of age, he was awarded the title of US National Master, the youngest to that point to receive the title. In January, 1958, Fischer became the youngest ever US Champion at age 14. The record still stands.

At age 16, Fischer finished fifth in the world at an International Chess Tournament. Between 1960-62 Fischer tried repeatedly to win an International Tournament but always came up a little short. He stayed in semi-retirement until 1968, playing in a few tournaments.

In 1972, Fischer played against Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in Iceland. The Tournament took place from July to September. He lost the first two games, but went on to win the Tournament. He gave $61,200 to the Worldwide Church of God to which he had converted earlier. Fischer would later denounce the Church, when it became embroiled in scandal.

Fischer was scheduled to defend his title in 1975 against Anatoly Karpov, but the commission would not meet his demands for number of games and Fischer ended up resigning his World Title. He would not play competitive chess again for almost 20 years.

In 1992, Fischer reemerged again and challenged Spaasky to a “Revenge Match of the 20th Century. ” The match took place in Yugoslavia despite the United Nations embargo on sporting events. The winner would receive two-thirds of $5,000,000. The US Treasury Department warned Fischer that his participation was illegal, but he instead spit on the notice given to him. Fischer won the match easily - 10 wins to 5 with 15 draws.

Even though Fischer was Jewish, he made disparaging remarks against Jews and denied that the Holocast had happened. He believed that he was the “victim of an international Jewish conspiracy.” After 9/11 Fischer was quoted on radio interviews as happy the event had happened, hoped for President Bush’s death and a military coup that would execute hundreds of thousands of American Jewish leaders.

Fischer was arrested in Japan due to an expired passport. Even though he was wanted back in the United States for his chess game in 1992, he was not deported and renounced his US citizenship. Japan had him deported and he moved to Iceland to seek political asylum. Iceland did not believe that Fischer should have received such harsh treatment from the US and granted him full citizenship. This prevented the US from seeking extradition from Iceland since Iceland will not deport its own citizens.

Fischer, who was not one to seek Western medical treatment, died of kidney failure in Iceland on January 17, 2008.