Controversial and reclusive American chess master, Bobby Fischer has died in Reykjavik at the age of 64. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080118/ap_on_re_eu/obit_fischer Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Fischer and Boris Spassky play their last game together in Reykjavik, Iceland, August 31, 1972
He was a strange man. He was born in America and educated there but really badmouthed it later in his life he even became a citizen of Iceland denouncing his American citizenship. Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008)[1] was an American chess Grandmaster who became an Icelandic citizen in 2004. Fischer became famous as a teenager for his chess-playing ability, and in 1972 became the only US-born chessplayer to become the official World Chess Champion. In 1975 he refused to defend the title when FIDE, the international chess federation, did not accept all his conditions for a title defense. He is a regular candidate in discussions of who is the greatest chess player of all time. Fischer never returned to the United States after his 1992 rematch with Spassky. He lived in Hungary and later Japan, where he was detained by Japanese authorities in 2004-2005 after his U.S. passport was revoked. He was granted Icelandic citizenship, and lived in Iceland from 2005 until his death.[3][4] In the final decades of his life, he became well-known for his anti-American and anti-Semitic statements. WIKI
A rare true genius. Grand master at 15. Seemed extremely unbalanced but alot of very gifted people are.
how do you mean? he was grand champion for a long time. pretty amazing in modern times. kinda sad that his legacy is that he got beat by a computer. kasparov and fischer never played, did they?
Fischer's mother, and perhaps his father, were Jewish. But he turned into a flaming anti-Semite in his declining years.
Yeah, I have just read that his biological father was the Hungarian born Paul Nemenyi, thus making him a full Jew. I assume he was aware of his lineage...
was any part of his life normal? Do you think he was ever once of those children who wished he was average?
No, that's really not his legacy. He's the strongest player in the history of chess with an unequalled tactical genius. The program that beat him was programmed to beat him and only him. This is very different than in ordinary chess tournaments among human players where the winner must beat many opponents with contrasting styles and experience. Deep blue would not survive long in such tournaments.
