139 Facts About Bobby Fischer

Robert James Fischer was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion.

In 1975, Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, chess's international governing body, over the match conditions.

Bobby Fischer subsequently disappeared from the public eye, though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged.

Bobby Fischer's participation led to a conflict with the US government, which warned Fischer that his participation in the match would violate an executive order imposing US sanctions on Yugoslavia.

Bobby Fischer invented Fischer random chess, known as Chess960, a chess variant in which the initial position of the pieces is randomized to one of 960 possible positions.

Bobby Fischer's antisemitism was a major theme in his public and private remarks, and there has been widespread comment and speculation concerning his psychological condition based on his extreme views and eccentric behavior.

Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on March 9,1943.

Bobby Fischer's mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was a US citizen, born in Switzerland; her parents were Polish Jews.

Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, where she met Hans-Gerhardt Bobby Fischer, known as Gerardo Liebscher, a German biophysicist, whom she married in November 1933.

Bobby Fischer engaged in political activism and raised both Bobby and Joan as a single parent.

FBI files note that Hans-Gerhardt Bobby Fischer never entered the United States, while recording that Nemenyi took a keen interest in Bobby Fischer's upbringing.

When Joan lost interest in chess and Regina did not have time to play, Bobby Fischer was left to play many of his first games against himself.

In June 1956, Fischer began attending the Hawthorne Chess Club, based in master John "Jack" W Collins's home.

Bobby Fischer played thousands of blitz and offhand games with Collins and other strong players, studied the books in Collins' large chess library, and ate almost as many dinners at Collins' home as his own.

Bobby Fischer experienced a "meteoric rise" in his playing strength during 1956.

In November, Bobby Fischer played in the 1956 Eastern States Open Championship in Washington, DC, tying for second with William Lombardy, Nicholas Rossolimo, and Arthur Feuerstein, with Hans Berliner taking first by a half-point.

Yet he won the for his game against International Master Donald Byrne, in which Bobby Fischer sacrificed his queen to unleash an unstoppable attack.

Still two months shy of his 15th birthday, Bobby Fischer became the youngest ever US Champion.

Since the championship that year was the US Zonal Championship, Bobby Fischer's victory earned him the title of International Master.

Chess author V I Linder writes about the impression Fischer gave grandmaster Vladimir Alatortsev when he played blitz against the Soviet masters:.

Bobby Fischer demanded to play against Mikhail Botvinnik, the reigning World Champion.

When told that this was impossible, Bobby Fischer asked to play Paul Keres.

Bobby Fischer took them up on the offer, arriving in Yugoslavia to play two short training matches against masters Dragoljub Janosevic and Milan Matulovic.

At the Zurich International Tournament, spring 1959, Bobby Fischer finished a point behind future world champion Mikhail Tal and a half-point behind Yugoslavian GM Svetozar Gligoric.

Bobby Fischer was outclassed by tournament winner Tal, who won all four of their individual games.

Bobby Fischer later attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.

When Bobby Fischer was 16, his mother moved out of their apartment to pursue medical training.

In letters to Rodker, Bobby Fischer's mother stated her desire to pursue her own "obsession" of training in medicine and wrote that her son would have to live in their Brooklyn apartment without her: "It sounds terrible to leave a 16-year-old to his own devices, but he is probably happier that way".

Bobby Fischer played in eight US Championships, winning all of them, by at least a one-point margin.

Bobby Fischer refused to play in the 1958 Munich Olympiad when his demand to play ahead of Samuel Reshevsky was rejected.

Some sources claim that 15-year-old Bobby Fischer was unable to arrange leave from attending high school.

Bobby Fischer later represented the United States on first board at four Men's Chess Olympiads, winning two individual Silver and one individual Bronze medals:.

Bobby Fischer played four games more than Petrosian, faced stiffer opposition, and would have won the gold if he had accepted Florin Gheorghiu's draw offer, rather than declining it and suffering his only loss.

At the 1962 Varna Olympiad, Bobby Fischer predicted that he would defeat Argentinian GM Miguel Najdorf in 25 moves.

Bobby Fischer actually did it in 24, becoming the only player to beat Najdorf in the tournament.

Bobby Fischer had planned to play for the US at the 1968 Lugano Olympiad, but backed out when he saw the poor playing conditions.

In 1974, Bobby Fischer was willing to play the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France, but FIDE rejected his demand to play in a separate room with only Bobby Fischer, his opponent, and spectators.

Bobby Fischer lost only to Spassky; this was the start of their lifelong friendship and rivalry.

In 1961, Bobby Fischer started a 16-game match with Reshevsky, split between New York and Los Angeles.

Reshevsky, 32 years Bobby Fischer's senior, was considered the favorite since he had far more match experience and had never lost a set match.

Bobby Fischer was second in a super-class field, behind only former world champion Tal, at Bled, 1961.

Bobby Fischer was the first non-Soviet player to win an Interzonal since FIDE instituted the tournament in 1948.

Bobby Fischer's victory made him a favorite for the Candidates Tournament in Curacao.

Bobby Fischer stated that he would never again participate in a Candidates' tournament, since the format, combined with the alleged collusion, made it impossible for a non-Soviet player to win.

Bobby Fischer defeated Bent Larsen in a summer 1962 exhibition game in Copenhagen for Danish TV.

Later that year, Bobby Fischer beat Bogdan Sliwa in a team match against Poland in Warsaw.

Bisguier was in excellent form, and Bobby Fischer caught up to him only at the end.

Only Bent Larsen, always a Bobby Fischer detractor, was unimpressed: 'Bobby Fischer was playing against children.

Bobby Fischer declined an invitation to play for the US in the 1964 Olympiad in Tel Aviv.

Bobby Fischer wanted to play in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament in Havana in August and September 1965.

Bobby Fischer reconciled with Mrs Piatigorsky, accepting an invitation to the very strong second Piatigorsky Cup tournament in Santa Monica.

Bobby Fischer won the US Championship for the eighth and final time, ceding only three draws.

Communications difficulties with the highly inexperienced local organizers were a significant factor since Bobby Fischer knew little French and the organizers had very limited English.

Since Bobby Fischer had completed fewer than half of his scheduled games, all of his results were annulled, meaning players who had played Bobby Fischer had those games cancelled, and the scores nullified from the official tournament record.

Bobby Fischer then stopped playing for the next 18 months, except for a win against Anthony Saidy in a 1969 New York Metropolitan League team match.

In 1970, Bobby Fischer began a new effort to become World Champion.

Bobby Fischer won the title in 1972, but forfeited it three years later.

Bobby Fischer had sat out the US Championship because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund.

Benko, one of the three qualifiers, agreed to give up his spot in the Interzonal to give Bobby Fischer another shot at the World Championship; Lombardy, who would have been "next in line" after Benko, did the same.

In 1970 and 1971, Bobby Fischer "dominated his contemporaries to an extent never seen before or since".

Bobby Fischer "crushed such blitz kings as Tal, Petrosian and Vasily Smyslov by a clean score".

Right after the Olympiad, Bobby Fischer defeated Ulf Andersson in an exhibition game for the Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Bobby Fischer was backed by the firm guidance of Botvinnik, who "had thoroughly analysed Fischer's record and put together a 'dossier' on him", from when he was in talks to play Fischer in a match "a couple of years earlier".

Bobby Fischer was next scheduled to play against Danish GM Bent Larsen.

Just a year before, Larsen had played first board for the Rest of the World team ahead of Bobby Fischer, and had handed Bobby Fischer his only loss at the Interzonal.

Bobby Fischer is a great chess player but no genius.

Bobby Fischer's response to Petrosian's elaborately plotted 11th move in the first game is an example: Russian experts had worked on the variation for weeks, yet when it was thrown at Fischer suddenly, he faced its consequences alone and won by applying simple, classic principles.

Bobby Fischer gained a far higher rating than any player in history up to that time.

Bobby Fischer's results put him on the cover of Life magazine, and allowed him to challenge World Champion Boris Spassky, whom he had never beaten.

London financier Jim Slater donated an additional US$125,000, bringing the prize fund up to an unprecedented $250,000 and Bobby Fischer finally agreed to play.

Bobby Fischer had developed his tennis skills to a good level, and played frequently during off-days in Reykjavik.

Bobby Fischer had arranged for exclusive use of his hotel's swimming pool during specified hours, and swam for extended periods, usually late at night.

Bobby Fischer was offered numerous product endorsement offers worth "at least $5 million", all of which he declined.

Bobby Fischer was scheduled to defend his title in 1975 against Anatoly Karpov, who had emerged as his challenger.

Bobby Fischer, who had played no competitive games since his World Championship match with Spassky, laid out a proposal for the match in September 1973, in consultation with FIDE official Fred Cramer.

Bronstein felt that Bobby Fischer "had the right to play the match with Karpov on his own conditions".

Soviet GM Lev Alburt felt that the decision to not concede to Bobby Fischer's demands rested on Karpov's "sober view of what he was capable of".

Years later, in his 1992 match against Spassky, Bobby Fischer said that Karpov refused to play against him under Bobby Fischer's conditions.

Bobby Fischer moved to the Los Angeles area and associated with the Worldwide Church of God for a time.

On May 26,1981, while walking in Pasadena, Bobby Fischer was arrested by a police patrolman, because he resembled a man who had just committed a robbery in the area.

Bobby Fischer, who alleged that he was slightly injured during the arrest, said that he was held for two days, subjected to assault and various types of mistreatment, and released on $1,000 bail.

Bobby Fischer published a 14-page pamphlet detailing his allegations of police misconduct, saying that his arrest had been "a frame up and set up".

In 1981, Bobby Fischer stayed at the home of grandmaster Peter Biyiasas in San Francisco, where, over a period of four months, he defeated Biyiasas seventeen times in a series of speed games.

Bobby Fischer honestly believes there is no one for him to play, no one worthy of him.

Bobby Fischer emerged after twenty years of isolation to play Spassky in a "Revenge Match of the 20th century" in 1992.

Bobby Fischer demanded that the organizers bill the match as "The World Chess Championship", although Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE World Champion.

Bobby Fischer insisted he was still the true World Champion, and that for all the games in the FIDE-sanctioned World Championship matches, involving Karpov, Korchnoi, and Kasparov, the outcomes had been prearranged.

Yet the games reminded many fans of how out of place Bobby Fischer was in 1992.

Bobby Fischer was still playing the openings of a previous generation.

Bobby Fischer was, moreover, the only strong player in the world who didn't trust computers and wasn't surrounded by seconds and supplicants.

Bobby Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws.

Yasser Seirawan believed that the match proved that Bobby Fischer's playing strength was "somewhere in the top ten in the world".

Bobby Fischer is the most misunderstood, misquoted celebrity walking the face of the earth.

Bobby Fischer stated that standard chess was stale and that he now played blitz games of chess variants, such as Chess960.

Bobby Fischer visited the Polgar family in Budapest and analyzed many games with Judit, Zsuzsa, and Zsofia Polgar.

From 2000 to 2002, Bobby Fischer lived in Baguio in the Philippines, residing in the same compound as the Filipino grandmaster Eugenio Torre, a close friend who had acted as his during his 1992 match with Spassky.

On May 21,2001, Marilyn Young gave birth to a daughter named Jinky Young, and claimed that Bobby Fischer was the child's father, a claim ultimately disproven by DNA after Bobby Fischer's death.

Shortly after midnight on September 12,2001, Philippines local time, Bobby Fischer was interviewed live by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio station of the Bombo Radyo network.

Bobby Fischer resisted arrest, and claimed to have sustained bruises, cuts and a broken tooth in the process.

At the time, Bobby Fischer had a passport that, according to US officials, had been revoked in November 2003 due to his outstanding arrest-warrant for the Yugoslavia sanctions violation.

Bobby Fischer said that his cell was windowless and he had not seen the light of day during that period, and that the staff had ignored his complaints about constant tobacco smoke in his cell.

Tokyo-based Canadian journalist and consultant John Bosnitch set up the "Committee to Free Bobby Fischer" after meeting Fischer at Narita Airport and offering to assist him.

Bobby Fischer applied for German citizenship, on the grounds that his father was German.

Bobby Fischer stated that he wanted to renounce his US citizenship, and appealed to US Secretary of State Colin Powell to help him do so, though to no effect.

Bobby Fischer lived a reclusive life in Iceland, avoiding entrepreneurs and others who approached him with various proposals.

Bobby Fischer developed a friendship with Magnus Skulason, a psychiatrist and chess player who later recalled long discussions with him on a wide variety of subjects.

On December 10,2006, Bobby Fischer telephoned an Icelandic television station that had just broadcast a chess game in which one player blundered such that his opponent was able to mate on the next move.

Bobby Fischer pointed out a winning combination that could have been played instead of the blunder or the other attempted move, but had been missed by the player and commentators.

In 2005, some of Bobby Fischer's belongings were auctioned on eBay.

On January 17,2008, Bobby Fischer died at age 64 from degenerative kidney failure at the Landspitali Hospital in Reykjavik.

Bobby Fischer originally had a urinary tract blockage but refused surgery or medication.

Bobby Fischer's estate was estimated at 140 million ISK.

Marilyn Young claimed that Jinky was Bobby Fischer's daughter, citing as evidence Jinky's birth and baptismal certificates, photographs, a transaction record dated December 4,2007, of a bank remittance by Bobby Fischer to Jinky, and Jinky's DNA through her blood samples.

However, Magnus Skulason, a friend of Bobby Fischer's, said that he was certain that Bobby Fischer was not the girl's father.

Bobby Fischer's nephews were ordered to pay Watai's legal costs, amounting to ISK 6.6 million.

Bobby Fischer associated with the Worldwide Church of God in the mid-1960s.

In 1972, one journalist stated that "Bobby Fischer is almost as serious about religion as he is about chess", and the champion credited his faith with greatly improving his chess.

Towards the end of his life, Bobby Fischer became interested in Catholicism.

Bobby Fischer bought his friend Gardar Sverrisson a copy of "Basic Catechism: Creed, Sacraments, Morality, Prayer" so Gardar could explain the religion better to him.

Bobby Fischer requested a Catholic funeral, and this final service was presided over by Catholic priest Jakob Rolland.

Bobby Fischer made numerous antisemitic statements and professed a general hatred for Jews from at least the early 1960s.

Bobby Fischer championed a brand of antisemitism that could only be thought up by a mind completely cut off from reality.

Bobby Fischer openly denied the Holocaust, and called the United States "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards".

Between 1999 and 2006, Bobby Fischer's primary means of communicating with the public was radio interviews.

Bobby Fischer participated in at least 34 such broadcasts, mostly with radio stations in the Philippines, but in Hungary, Iceland, Colombia, and Russia.

Bobby Fischer was upset that UBS had liquidated his assets and closed his account without his permission.

Bobby Fischer's library contained antisemitic and racist literature such as Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and The White Man's Bible and Nature's Eternal Religion by Ben Klassen, founder of the World Church of the Creator.

Bobby Fischer was at Bobby's bedside as a friend, to try to do anything he could for him.

Bobby Fischer was renowned for his opening preparation and made numerous contributions to chess opening theory.

Bobby Fischer was one of the foremost experts on the Ruy Lopez.

Bobby Fischer was a recognized expert in the black side of the Najdorf Sicilian and the King's Indian Defense.

Bobby Fischer used the Grunfeld Defense and Neo-Grunfeld Defense to win his celebrated games against Donald and Robert Byrne, and played a theoretical novelty in the Grunfeld against reigning world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, refuting Botvinnik's prepared analysis.

Bobby Fischer later played the King's Gambit as White in three tournament games, winning them all.

In 1988, Bobby Fischer filed for for a new type of chess clock, which gave each player a fixed period at the start of the game and then added a small increment after each completed move.

An example of Bobby Fischer's patented clock was made for, and used in, the 1992 rematch between Bobby Fischer and Spassky.

Kasparov wrote that Bobby Fischer "became the detonator of an avalanche of new chess ideas, a revolutionary whose revolution is still in progress".

Bobby Fischer, who had taken the highest crown almost singlehandedly from the mighty, almost invincible Soviet chess empire, shook the whole world, not only the chess world, to its core.

Bobby Fischer started a chess boom not only in the United States and in the Western hemisphere, but worldwide.

Bobby Fischer played 752 tournament games in his career, winning 417, drawing 251, and losing 84.