- This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9 1943 –
January 17 2008) was an American-born chess Grandmaster, an Icelandic citizen at the time of his death, who
became famous as a teenager for his chess-playing ability. In 1972, he became the first, and so far the only, American to win the
official World Chess Championship,[1] defeating defending champion Boris Spassky in a match held in
Reykjavík, Iceland. The match was widely publicized as a Cold
War battle. He is often referred to as one of the
greatest chess players of all time.
In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when FIDE, the
international chess federation, would not accept all his conditions. He was stripped of his title as a result, after which he
became more reclusive. He played no more competitive chess until 1992, when he had a rematch with Spassky. The competition was
held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a strict United
Nations embargo. This led to a conflict with the US government, and he never returned to
his native country.
In his later years, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the
Philippines and Japan. During this time he made increasingly
anti-American and antisemitic statements, despite
the fact that his mother and likely biological father were both Jewish. In 2004–2005, after his US
passport was revoked, he was detained by Japanese authorities for nine months under threat of extradition. He was then granted
Icelandic citizenship and released to Iceland by the Japanese authorities. He lived in Iceland from 2005 until his death in
2008.[2]
Early years
Robert James Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Regina Wender, was a naturalized American
citizen of Polish Jewish descent,[3] born in Switzerland but raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She later became a teacher, a registered
nurse, and a physician.[4]
Fischer's birth certificate listed Wender's husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German
biophysicist, as Fischer's father. The couple married in 1933 in Moscow, USSR, where Wender was studying medicine at the First Moscow Medical Institute. They divorced in 1945 when
Bobby was two years old, and he grew up with his mother and older sister, Joan. In 1948, the
family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The
following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Regina
worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse.
A 2002 article by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia
Inquirer suggests that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist, may have been Fischer's biological father. The article quotes
an FBI report that states that Regina Fischer returned to the United States in 1939, while Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered
the United States, having been refused admission by US immigration officials because of alleged Communist sympathies.[5][6][7]
Regina and Nemenyi had an affair in 1942, and he made monthly child support payments to Regina.[8] Nemenyi died in March, 1952.
In May 1949, the six-year-old Fischer learned how to play chess from instructions found in a chess set that his sister bought
at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. He saw his first chess book a month later. For over a year he played chess on
his own. At age seven, he began to play chess seriously,[9]
joining the Brooklyn Chess Club and receiving instruction from its president, Carmine
Nigro. He later joined the Manhattan Chess Club, one of the strongest in the world, in
June, 1955. Other important early influences were provided by Master and chess journalist Hermann
Helms and Grandmaster Arnold Denker. Denker served as a mentor to young Bobby,
often taking him to watch professional hockey games at Madison Square Garden, to
cheer the New York Rangers. Denker wrote that Bobby enjoyed those treats and never
forgot them; the two became lifelong friends.[10]
When Fischer was thirteen, his mother asked the Master John W. Collins to be his chess
tutor. Collins had coached several top players, including future grandmasters Robert Byrne
and William Lombardy. Fischer spent much time at Collins' house, and some have
described Collins as a father figure for Fischer. The Hawthorne Chess Club was the name for the group which Collins coached.
Fischer also was involved with the Log Cabin Chess Club.
Bobby Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as
Barbra Streisand. The student council of Erasmus Hall awarded him a gold medal for his
chess achievements.[11] Fischer dropped out of
Erasmus in 1959 at age 16, the minimum age for doing so, saying that school had little more to offer him.[12]
Fischer did not get on well with his mother, and when he was 16 she moved out of their apartment to pursue medical training.
Her friend Joan Rodker believes that Fischer resented his mother for being a communist activist and admirer of the Soviet Union
under surveillance by the FBI, absent as a mother, and that this led to his hatred for the Soviet Union.[13]
Young champion
Fischer's first real triumph was winning the United States Junior Chess Championship in July 1956. He scored 8.5/10 at
Philadelphia to become the youngest-ever junior champion,[14] a record that stands to this day. In the 1956 U.S. Open Chess Championship at Oklahoma
City, Fischer scored 8.5/12 to tie for 4-8th places, with Arthur Bisguier
winning.[15] He then played in the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956,
scoring 7/10 to tie for 8-12th places, with Larry Evans winning.[16] Fischer's famous game from the 3rd Rosenwald Trophy tournament at
New York 1956, against Donald Byrne, who later became an
International Master, was called "The Game of the Century" by Hans Kmoch. At the age
of 12, he was awarded the US title of National Master, then the youngest ever.[17]
In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York,
losing 0.5-1.5.[18] He then successfully defended his US
Junior title, scoring 8.5/9 at San Francisco.[19] Next, he won the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Cleveland on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier, scoring
10/12.[20] Fischer defeated the young Filipino Master
Rodolfo Tan Cardoso by 6-2 in a match in New York.[21] He next won the New Jersey
Open Championship.[22] From these triumphs, Fischer was
given entry into the invitational U.S. Chess Championship at New York. He won, with 10.5/13, becoming in January 1958, at age 14, the youngest US champion ever (this record
still stands). He earned the title of International Master with this victory,
becoming the youngest player ever to achieve this level (a record since broken).[23][24][25]
US Championships
Fischer eventually played in eight United States Chess Championships, each
held in New York City, winning every one.
His scores were:
- 1957-58: 10.5/13
- 1958-59: 8.5/11
- 1959-60: 9/11
- 1960-61: 9/11
- 1962-63: 8/11
- 1963-64: 11/11
- 1965-66: 8.5/11
- 1966-67: 9.5/11.
There was no 1964-65 US Championship. Fischer missed the 1961-62 event and ones after 1966-67. The total is 74/90, for 82.2%,
with only three losses.
His 11-0 win in the 1963-64 championship is the only perfect score in the history of the tournament, and one of only a handful
of perfect scores in high-level chess tournaments ever, one that has been called
"the most remarkable achievement of this kind."[26]
Olympiads
Fischer had been forced to attend school, and therefore missed the 1958 Olympiad. But
he represented the United States on top board with great distinction at four Olympiads:
| Olympiad |
Individual result |
US team result |
| Leipzig 1960 |
13/18 (Silver medal) |
Silver. |
| Varna 1962 |
11/17 |
Fourth |
| Havana 1966 |
15/17 (Silver) |
Silver |
| Siegen 1970 |
10/13 (Silver) |
Fourth |
His overall total was +40, =18, −7, for 49/65 or 75.4%.[27] He had planned to play for the United States at the 1968 Lugano
Olympiad, but backed out when he saw the playing hall with its bad lighting.[12]
Grandmaster, Candidate
Fischer's victory in the US Championship qualified him to participate in the 1958 Portorož
Interzonal, the next step toward challenging the World Champion. The top six finishers in the
Interzonal would qualify for the Candidates Tournament. Prior to the Interzonal,
he played two short training matches in Yugoslavia. He drew both games against
Dragoljub Janosevic. Then he defeated Milan
Matulovic in Belgrade by 2.5-1.5.[28] Once the Interzonal started, Fischer again surprised the pundits, tying for 5th and 6th places,
with 12/20, after a strong finish.[29] This made Fischer the
youngest person ever to qualify for the Candidates, a record which stood until 2005 (it was broken under a different setup by
Magnus Carlsen), and also earned him the title of Grandmaster, making him at that time the youngest grandmaster in history. He got the Grandmaster
title in the first tournament where he had the opportunity to do so, a feat which is believed to be unique since the title system
was first formalized in 1950 by FIDE.
Before the Candidates' tournament, Fischer competed in the 1958-9 US Championship (winning 8.5/11) and then in international
tournaments at Mar del Plata, Santiago, and
Zurich. He played unevenly in the two South American tournaments. At Mar del Plata he finished
tied for third with Borislav Ivkov, half a point behind tournament winners
Ludek Pachman and Miguel Najdorf. At Santiago, he
tied for fourth through sixth places, behind Ivkov, Pachman, and Herman Pilnik. He did
better at the strong Zurich event, finishing a point behind world-champion-to-be Mikhail Tal
and half a point behind Svetozar Gligoric.[30][31]
Fischer had, up to this point, dressed like a normal teenager, in jeans and casual shirts, at chess tournaments, but was
influenced by veteran Grandmaster Miguel Najdorf, whom he met at Mar del Plata, to
improve his appearance. Najdorf dressed well in fine suits. Fischer's strong performances increased his income, and he soon
became known for his elegant dress at major events, built up an extensive wardrobe of custom-made suits, and took considerable
pride in his image as a young professional.[32]
At the age of 16, Fischer finished a creditable equal fifth out of eight, the top non-Soviet player, at the Candidates
Tournament held in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1959. He scored 12.5/28 but was outclassed by
tournament winner Tal, who won all four of their individual games.[33]
Wins Interzonal, Candidates setback, controversy
In 1960, Fischer tied for first place with the young Soviet star Boris Spassky at the
strong Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina, with the two
well ahead of the rest of the field, scoring 13.5/15.[34]
Fischer lost only to Spassky, and this was the start of their relationship, which began on a friendly basis and stayed that way,
in spite of Fischer's troubles on the board against him. Fischer struggled in the subsequent Buenos Aires tournament, finishing with 8.5/19. The tournament was won by Soviet Viktor Korchnoi and Samuel Reshevsky, the many-time US
Champion and one of the world's strongest players, each scoring 13/19.[35] This was the only real failure of Fischer's competitive career. Fischer won a small tournament at
Reykjavik with 4.5/5.[36]
Fischer defeated Klaus Darga in an exhibition game at West
Berlin in 1960.[37]
In 1961, Fischer started a 16-game match with Reshevsky, split between New York and
Los Angeles. Despite Fischer's meteoric rise, the veteran Reshevsky (born in
1911, 32 years older than Fischer) was considered the favorite, since he had far more match experience and had never lost a set
match. After 11 games and a tie score (two wins apiece with seven draws), the match ended prematurely due to a scheduling dispute
between Fischer and match organizer and sponsor Jacqueline Piatigorsky. The
hard-fought struggle, with many games being adjourned, had delayed the original match schedule, causing some logistical
challenges for site bookings. Reshevsky received the winner's share of the prizes.[11] Fischer later made up with Mrs. Piatigorsky by accepting an invitation to
the 2nd Piatigorsky Cup, Santa Monica 1966, which she helped to sponsor.
Fischer was second behind former World Champion Tal at Bled 1961. He defeated Tal head-to-head
for the first time, scored 3.5/4 against the Soviet contingent, and finished as the only unbeaten player, with 13.5/19.[38]
In the next World Championship cycle, Fischer won the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal by 2.5
points, scoring 17.5/22, making him one of the favorites for the Candidates tournament in Curaçao, which began soon afterwards.[39][40] He finished fourth out of
eight with 14/27, the best result by a non-Soviet player but well behind Tigran
Petrosian (17.5/27), Efim Geller, and Paul Keres
(both 17/27).[41] Tal fell very ill during the tournament,
and had to withdraw before completion. Fischer, a friend of Tal's, was the only player who visited him in the hospital.[11]
Following his failure in the 1962 Candidates (at which five of the eight players were from the Soviet Union), Fischer
asserted, in an article entitled The Russians Have Fixed World Chess, which was published in Sports Illustrated magazine, August 1962, that three of the Soviet players (Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, and Efim Geller) had a pre-arranged agreement to draw their games against each other, in order to save energy
and to concentrate on playing against Fischer, and also that a fourth, Victor Korchnoi,
had been forced to deliberately lose games to ensure that a Soviet player won the tournament. It is generally thought that the
former accusation is correct, but not the latter.[42]
(This is discussed further at the World Chess Championship 1963
article). Fischer also 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. Following Fischer's article, FIDE in late 1962 voted a radical reform of the playoff system, replacing the
Candidates' tournament with a format of knockout matches.[43]
Fischer defeated Bent Larsen in a summer 1962 exhibition game in Copenhagen for Danish TV. He also defeated Bogdan Sliwa in a team match against Poland at Warsaw later that year.[44]
Involvement with the Worldwide Church of God
In an interview in the January, 1962 issue of Harper's Magazine, Fischer was quoted
as saying, "I read a book lately by Nietzsche and he says religion is just to dull
the senses of the people. I agree."[45] Nonetheless, Fischer
said in 1962 that he had "personal problems" and began to listen to various radio ministers in a search for answers. This is how
he first came to listen to The World Tomorrow radio program with
Herbert W. Armstrong and his son Garner Ted
Armstrong. The Armstrongs' denomination, The Worldwide Church of God,
predicted an imminent apocalypse. In late 1963, Fischer began tithing to the church. According to
Fischer, he lived a bifurcated life, with a rational chess component and an enthusiastic religious component.
At the 1967 Sousse Interzonal his religious observances led to problems with the organisers
(see below).
Fischer gave the Worldwide Church of God $61,200 of his 1972 world championship prize money. However, 1972 was a disastrous
year for the church, as prophecies by Herbert W. Armstrong were unfulfilled, and
the church was rocked by revelations of a series of sex scandals involving Garner Ted
Armstrong.[46] Fischer, who felt betrayed and
swindled by the Worldwide Church of God, left the church and publicly denounced it.[47]
Semi-retirement in the mid-1960s
Fischer turned down an invitation to play in the 1963 Piatigorsky Cup tournament in
Los Angeles, which had a world-class field. Instead, he preferred to play at the
same time in the Western Open in Bay City, Michigan, which he won, with 7.5/8. Fischer also won the 1963 New York State
Championship at Poughkeepsie, another minor event, in late summer, with a
perfect 7/7.[11] He won the 1963-64 US Championship
with a perfect 11/11 (see above).
Fischer decided not to participate in the Amsterdam Interzonal in 1964, thus taking himself
out of the 1966 World Championship cycle. He held to this decision even when FIDE changed the format of the eight-player Candidates Tournament from a
round-robin to a series of knockout matches, which eliminated the possibility of collusion. Fischer instead embarked
on a continent-wide tour through the United States and Canada lasting several months, where he played simultaneous exhibitions
and gave lectures. He also turned down an invitation to play for the United States in the 1964 Olympiad.[12]
Fischer wanted to play in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament, Havana 1965, but Americans were not allowed to travel to Cuba at that time. Fischer
had traveled to Cuba to play as a youth, before Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959. Fischer
was able to play by telegraph, staying in New York and playing from the Marshall Chess Club. His games lasted longer because of the transmission delays and receipt of moves
logistics. But Fischer tied for second through fourth places, with 15/21, behind former World Champion Vasily Smyslov, and defeated Smyslov in their game. Chess became a news item in the United States with
this unusual achievement.[48]
Fischer started 1966 by winning the US Championship for the seventh time. He then finished second at the 1966 Santa Monica supertournament, just behind world finalist Boris
Spassky, scoring 11/18. In 1967, he won the US Championship for the eighth and final time before victories over strong
fields at Monte Carlo (7/9) and Skopje (13.5/17).[21] Fischer traveled to the Philippines and played a series of nine exhibition games against Master opposition there, winning eight and
drawing one.[49]
In the next World Championship cycle, at the 1967 Sousse Interzonal, Fischer scored a
phenomenal 8.5 points in the first 10 games. His observance of the Worldwide Church of God's sabbath was honored by the organizers, but deprived Fischer of several rest days, which led to a
scheduling dispute. Fischer forfeited two games in protest and later withdrew, eliminating himself from the 1969 World
Championship cycle.[50]
Fischer won the tournaments at Netanya 1968 (11.5/13) and Vinkovci 1968 (11/13) by large margins.[21] He stopped playing for the next 18 months, except for a win in a New York Metropolitan
League team match over Anthony Saidy.
World Champion
In 1970, Fischer started a new effort to become World Champion. As he became a viable contender, much positive publicity for
chess arose. In 1972, he succeeded in his quest, but forfeited his title a few years later.
The road to the world championship
The 1969 US Championship was also a zonal qualifier, with the top three finishers advancing to the Interzonal. Fischer,
however, had sat out the US Championship because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. To enable Fischer
to compete for the title, Grandmaster Pal Benko gave up his Interzonal place. This unusual
arrangement was the work of Ed Edmondson, then the USCF's Executive
Director.[12]
Before the Interzonal, in March and April 1970, the world's best players competed in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match in Belgrade,
Yugoslavia, often referred to as "the Match of the Century." Fischer agreed to allow
Bent Larsen of Denmark to play first board for the Rest of
the World team in light of Larsen's recent outstanding tournament results, even though Fischer had the higher Elo rating.[51] The USSR team won
the match (20.5-19.5), but on second board, Fischer beat Tigran Petrosian, whom
Boris Spassky had dethroned as world
champion the previous year, 3-1, winning the first two games and drawing the last two.[52]
Following the Match of the Century, the unofficial World Championship of Lightning Chess (5-minute games) was held at
Herceg Novi. Fischer annihilated the super-class field with 19/22(+17=4-1), 4.5 points ahead
of Tal. Later in 1970, Fischer won tournaments at Rovinj/Zagreb
with 13/17 (+10=6-1), and Buenos Aires, where he crushed the field of mostly Grandmasters
with no losses: 15/17 (+13=4). Fischer had taken his game to a new level. He defeated Ulf
Andersson in an exhibition game for the Swedish newspaper 'Expressen' at Siegen 1970.[53]
The Interzonal was held in Palma de Mallorca in November and December 1970. Fischer
won it with a remarkable 18.5-4.5 score (+15=7-1), 3.5 points ahead of Larsen, Efim Geller,
and Robert Hübner, who tied for second at 15-8.[54] Fischer finished the tournament with seven consecutive wins (one by
default).
Fischer continued his domination in the 1971 Candidates matches. First, he beat Mark
Taimanov of the USSR at Vancouver by 6-0. A couple of months later, he repeated the
shutout against Larsen at Denver, again by 6-0.[55] Just a year before, Larsen had played first board for the Rest of the World
team ahead of Fischer, and had handed Fischer his only loss at the Interzonal. "The record books showed that the only
comparable achievement to the 6-0 score against Taimanov was Wilhelm Steinitz's 7-0 win
against Joseph Henry Blackburne in 1876 in an era of more primitive defensive
technique."[56]
Fischer won a strong lightning event in New York in August 1971 with an overwhelming score of 21.5/22.[57]
Only former World Champion Petrosian, Fischer's final opponent in the Candidates matches, was able to offer resistance in
their match played at Buenos Aires. Petrosian unleashed a strong theoretical novelty in the first game and had Fischer on the ropes, but Fischer defended with his
customary aplomb and won the game. This gave Fischer a streak of 20 consecutive wins (no draws) against the world's top players
(in the Interzonal and Candidates matches), the second longest winning streak in
chess history after Steinitz's 25-game streak from 1873 to 1882.[58] Petrosian won decisively in the second game, finally snapping Fischer's
winning streak. After three consecutive draws, Fischer swept the next four games to win the match 6.5-2.5 (+5=3−1). The final
match victory allowed Fischer to challenge World Champion Boris Spassky, whom he had never
beaten before (+0=2−3).
World Championship Match
-
Main article: World Chess Championship
1972
Fischer's career-long stubbornness about match and tournament conditions was again seen in the run-up to his match with
Spassky. Of the possible sites, Fischer preferred Yugoslavia, while Spassky wanted
Iceland. For a time it appeared that the dispute would be resolved by splitting the match
between the two locations, but that arrangement fell through. After that issue was resolved, Fischer refused to play unless the
prize fund, which he considered inadequate, was doubled. London financier Jim Slater responded by donating an additional US$125,000, which brought the prize fund to an unprecedented
$250,000. Fischer finally agreed to play.
The match took place in Reykjavík, Iceland, from July through September 1972. Fischer lost
the first two games in strange fashion: the first when he played a risky pawn-grab in a drawn endgame, the second by forfeit when he refused to play the game in a dispute over playing conditions. Fischer
would likely have forfeited the entire match, but Spassky, not wanting to win by default, yielded to Fischer's demands to move
the next game to a back room, away from the cameras whose presence had upset Fischer. The rest of the match proceeded without
serious incident. Fischer won seven of the next 19 games, losing only one and drawing eleven, to win the match 12.5-8.5 and
become the 11th World Chess Champion.
The Cold War trappings helped serve to make the result somewhat of a media sensation. This
was an American victory in a field that Soviet players had dominated for the past quarter-century, players closely identified
with, and subsidized by, the Soviet state. The match was called "The Match of the Century", and received front-page media
coverage in the United States and around the world. With his victory, Fischer became an instant celebrity. Upon his return to New
York, a Bobby Fischer Day was held, and he was cheered by thousands of fans, a unique display in American chess.[59] He received numerous product endorsement offers (all of which he
declined) and appeared on the covers of Life and Sports Illustrated. With American Olympic swimming champion Mark Spitz, he also appeared on a Bob Hope TV special.[60] Membership in the
United States Chess Federation doubled in 1972[61] and
peaked in 1974; in American chess, these years are commonly referred to as the "Fischer Boom." Spassky, referring to professional
chess, later summarized: "He made chess popular, briefly, and he made us all rich men."[62]
Fischer won the 'Chess Oscar' award for 1970, 1971, and 1972. This award, started in
1967, is determined through votes from chess media and leading players.
Fischer was also the (then) highest-rated player in history according to the Elo rating
system. He had a rating of 2780 after beating Spassky, which was actually a slight decline from the record 2785 rating he
had achieved after routing Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian the previous year. Because of his accomplishments up to this point in
his life as a pioneer of professional chess, the select list of people who have beaten Bobby Fischer in chess, the fame he
brought to himself and the game in the 1970s, and the epoch of IBM Deep Blue in the last
1990s (after which those few who ever had a higher rating than Fischer's peak can then be defeated by a machine), some leading
players and some of his biographers rank him as the greatest player who ever lived.[63][64][65][66] Many
other writers say that he is arguably the greatest player ever, without reaching a definitive conclusion.[67][68][69][70][71][72][73]
Forfeiture of title to Karpov
Fischer was scheduled to defend his title against challenger Anatoly Karpov in 1975.
Fischer had played no tournament games since winning the title, and he laid down numerous (a total of 64) conditions for the
match. While most of them were purely game-oriented in nature, some were as bizarre as a requirement for everyone entering the
room where the game is conducted to have uncovered heads. Fischer made the following three principal demands:
- The match should continue until one player won 10 games, without counting the draws.
- There is no limit to the total number of games played.
- In case of a 9-9 score, champion (Fischer) retains his title.
Fischer claimed the usual system (twenty-four games with the first player to get 12.5 points winning, or the champion
retaining his title in the event of a 12-12 tie) encouraged the player in the lead to draw games, which he regarded as bad for
chess. Fischer instead wanted a match of an unlimited number of games. However, a match based on the first two conditions could
take several months (In 1927 the Capablanca-Alekhine match continued for 34 games until Alekhine won his sixth game). Many argued
that this would be an exercise in stamina rather than skill. The FIDE commission headed by FIDE president Max Euwe and consisting of both US and USSR representatives, ruled that the match should continue until six
wins. However, Fischer replied that he would resign his crown and not participate in the match. Instead of accepting Fischer's
forfeit, the commission agreed to allow the match to continue until nine wins, leaving only one of the 64 conditions set by
Fischer unsatisfied. FIDE postulated that the player achieving nine victories first would win the match, eliminating any
advantage for the reigning champion (Fischer). Most observers considered Fischer's demand of his win in case of 9:9 draw to be
unfair.[citation needed] It meant that Fischer only
needed to win nine games to retain the championship, while Karpov had to win by a 10-8 score. Because FIDE would not agree to
that demand, Fischer resigned in a cable to FIDE president Max Euwe on June 27, 1974:
- As I made clear in my telegram to the FIDE delegates, the match conditions I proposed were non-negotiable. Mr. Cramer informs
me that the rules of the winner being the first player to win ten games, draws not counting, unlimited number of games and if
nine wins to nine match is drawn with champion regaining title and prize fund split equally were rejected by the FIDE delegates.
By so doing FIDE has decided against my participating in the 1975 world chess championship. I therefore resign my FIDE world
chess champion title. Sincerely, Bobby Fischer.[74]
Former US Champion Arnold Denker, who was in contact with Fischer during the Karpov
match negotiations, claimed that Fischer wanted a long match to be able to play himself into shape after a three-year
layoff.[10] Karpov became World Champion by
default in April 1975. In his 1991 autobiography, Karpov expressed profound regret that the match did not take place, and claimed
that the lost opportunity to challenge Fischer held back his own chess development. Karpov met with Fischer several times after
1975, in friendly but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to arrange a match.[75] Garry Kasparov has argued that Karpov would have had a good
chance to defeat Fischer in 1975.[76][77] It was noticeable that Fischer had only mentioned resigning his "FIDE"
title. He insisted he was still the true world chess champion, and that for all the games in the FIDE-sanctioned World
Championship matches, involving Karpov, Korchnoi and Kasparov, the outcomes had been
pre-arranged. He explained his attitude toward Kasparov in his only interview with Russian journalists (translated from
Russian)[78]
Interviewer: Kasparov considers you one of the greatest chess players in history.
Fischer: This is not a reason for me to change my opinion about him. Anyone who prepares matches in advance and, especially,
who plays contractual games, is a liar and a dealer. I just call Kasparov a criminal. I know that now he tries to do politics, to
go against Putin. For me, Kasparov's campaign against Putin is sufficient cause to give President Putin a vote of confidence and
full support.
Throughout his chess career, Fischer used the older descriptive chess
notation system when recording his games, never switching to the modern algebraic system.
Sudden obscurity
After the World Championship, Fischer did not play another serious game in public for nearly 20 years. He did not defend his
title and public perception was reflected in the decline of interest in chess in the West in the following years.
In 1977, Bobby Fischer played three games in Cambridge against the
MIT Greenblatt computer program. Fischer won all the games.[79][80]
On May 26, 1981, a police patrolman arrested Fischer on the
sidewalk of Lake Street in Pasadena, claiming that he matched the description of a man who had just committed a bank robbery in
that area. During the arrest, he was slightly injured. He was held for two days and subjected to further assault and
interrogation. He was released on $1000 bail and the matter was later dropped. Two weeks later, he published a 14-page
pamphlet detailing these experiences and expressing outrage that the arrest had been
pre-arranged.[81][82][83]
In the early 1980s, Fischer stayed for extended periods in the San
Francisco-area home of his friend, the Canadian Grandmaster Peter Biyiasas. In
1981, the two played 17 five-minute games. Despite his layoff from competitive play, Fischer
won all of them, according to Biyiasas, who lamented that he was never even able to reach an endgame.[82][83]
Spassky rematch
After twenty years, Fischer emerged from isolation to challenge Spassky (then placed 96-102 on the rating list) to a "Revenge
Match of the 20th century" in 1992. This match took place in Sveti Stefan and
Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, in spite of a
severe United Nations embargo that included sanctions on
sporting events. Fischer demanded that the organizers bill the match as "The World Chess
Championship," although Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE World Champion. The purse
for this match was reported to be US$5,000,000 with two-thirds to go to the winner.
Fischer won the match, 10 wins to 5, with 15 draws. Many grandmasters observing the match said that Fischer was past his
prime. In the book Mortal Games, Garry Kasparov is quoted: "He is playing OK.
Around 2600 or 2650. It wouldn't be close between us." Fischer never played any competitive games afterwards.[84][85]
The US Department of the Treasury had warned Fischer
beforehand that his participation was illegal as it violated President George H. W.
Bush's Executive Order 12810[86] that implemented United Nations
sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia.[87] In front of the international press, Fischer was filmed spitting on the US
order forbidding him to play. Following the match, the department obtained an arrest
warrant for him. Fischer remained wanted by the United States government for the rest of his life and never returned to
the United States again.
Life as an émigré
Fischer again slid into relative obscurity. With his new status as fugitive from American justice, his rhetoric and vitriol
against the US intensified. For some of these years Fischer lived in Budapest. He claimed to
find standard chess to be for him stale and he played varieties such as Chess960 blitz games.
He visited with the Polgár family in Budapest and analyzed many games with Judit,
Zsuzsa, and Zsófia Polgár.[88][89]
In the Philippines
From 2000 to 2002, Fischer lived in Baguio City in the Philippines.[90] He resided in the
same compound as the Filipino grandmaster Eugene Torre, a close friend who acted as his
second during his matches with Spassky.[90] Fischer
played tennis at the Baguio Country Club, where he met a 30-year-old girl friend from
Davao in Baguio City.
Eugene Torre introduced Fischer to a 22-year-old woman named Justine Ong (or Marilyn
Young). Together, they had a daughter named Jinky Ong, born in 2002 (or 2001) at the Saint Louis University, Baguio City, Sacred Heart Hospital.[91][90][92]([93][94])
In 2001, Nigel Short said that he had played almost 50 blitz games online with a person
whom he believed to be Fischer, but the person's identity has not been verified, and Fischer denied that he was the
person.[95][96][97]
Anti-Jewish remarks
In 1961 Fischer "made his first public statements despising Jews."[98] In recent years, Fischer's primary means of communicating with the public was via
sometimes-outrageous radio interviews. Fischer participated in at least 33 such broadcasts between 1999 and 2005, mostly with
radio stations in the Philippines, but also with stations in Iceland, Colombia, and Russia.
In 1999, he gave a call-in interview to a radio station in Budapest, Hungary, during which he described himself as the "victim of an international Jewish conspiracy." Fischer's
sudden re-emergence was apparently triggered when some of his belongings, which had been stored in a Pasadena, California storage unit, were sold by the landlord, who claimed it was in response to
nonpayment of rent.[99]Fischer interpreted this as further
evidence of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy perpetrated by "the Jew-controlled US Government" to defame and destroy him. In 2005,
some of Fischer's belongings were auctioned on eBay. In 2006, Fischer claimed that his belongings
in the storage unit were worth millions.[100][101] Fischer, whose mother was Jewish,[102][103] made
occasional hostile comments toward Jews from at least the early 1960s.[104][105] From
the 1980s and thereafter, however, his hatred for Jews was a major theme of his public and private remarks.[106] He denied the "Holocaust of the Jews," announced his desire to make
"expos[ing] the Jews for the criminals they are [...] the murderers they are" his lifework, and argued that the United States is
"a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards."[107] In one of his radio interviews, Fischer said that it became clear to him in 1977, after reading
The Secret World Government by Count Cherep-Spiridovich, that the Jews
were targeting him.[108]
Fischer also made anti-Zionistic remarks in connection with anti-American remarks; see below.
Anti-American remarks
Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live
by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio City station of the Bombo Radyo network, shortly after midnight September 12,
2001 Philippines local time (or shortly after noon on
September 11, 2001, New York time). Fischer commented on U.S
and Israeli foreign policy that "nobody cares ...
[that] the US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years".[109][110][111] Informed that "the White House and Pentagon have been attacked", Bobby
Fischer proclaimed "This is all wonderful news."[109][110] Fischer stated "What goes around comes around even for the United
States."[109][110] and said that if the US
fails to change its foreign policy, it "has to be destroyed." After calling for President
Bush's death, Fischer also stated he hoped for a coup d'état in the US, and that the
military government would then execute "hundreds of thousands of American Jewish ring-leaders", "arrest all the Jews", and "close
all synagogues". Subsequent to that interview, Fischer's "right to membership in the United States Chess Federation [was] canceled" by a unanimous 7-0[112] of the USCF,[113] taken on October 28, 2001.
Chess columnist Shelby Lyman, who in 1972 had hosted the PBS broadcast of that year's Championship, said after Fischer's death that "the
anti-American stuff is explained by the fact that ... he spent the rest of his life [after the game in Yugoslavia] fleeing from
the US, because he was afraid of being extradited".[114]
Japan
Fischer lived for a time in Japan.[115]
Fischer was arrested at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan, near Tokyo for allegedly
using a revoked US passport while trying to board a Japan
Airlines flight to Ninoy Aquino International Airport in
Manila, Philippines. The passport, issued in 1997, had been
said by U.S. officials to be revoked in 2003. Fischer assumed that it was still valid.[116]
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. Bosnitch was subsequently allowed to
participate as a friend of the court by an Immigration Bureau panel handling Fischer's
case. He then worked to block the Japanese Immigration Bureau's efforts to deport Fischer to the United States and coordinated
the legal and public relations campaign to free Fischer until his eventual release. Fischer renounced his United States citizenship. A month later, it was reported that Fischer was marrying
Miyoko Watai, the President of the Japanese Chess
Association, with whom he had been living since 2000. Fischer also appealed to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell to
help him renounce his citizenship. Japan's Justice Minister rejected Fischer's appeal that he be allowed to remain in the country
and ordered him deported.
Asylum in Iceland
Seeking ways to evade deportation to the United States, Fischer wrote a letter to the government of Iceland in early January
2005 and asked for Icelandic citizenship. Sympathetic to Fischer's plight, but reluctant to grant him the full benefits of
citizenship, Icelandic authorities granted him an alien's passport. When this proved
insufficient for the Japanese authorities, the Althing agreed unanimously to grant Fischer full
citizenship in late March for humanitarian reasons, as they felt he was being unjustly treated by the US and Japanese
governments.[117] Fischer unsuccessfully requested
German citizenship on the grounds that his late father, Hans Gerhardt Fischer, had been a
lifelong German citizen. The US government filed charges of tax evasion
against Fischer in an effort to prevent him from traveling to Iceland.
Shortly before his departure to Iceland, on March 23 2005,
Fischer and Bosnitch appeared briefly on the BBC World Service, via a telephone link
to the Tokyo airport. Bosnitch stated that Fischer would never play traditional chess again. Fischer denounced President Bush as
a criminal and Japan as a puppet of the United States. He
also stated that he would appeal his case to the US Supreme Court and
said that he would not return to the US while Bush was in power.
Upon his arrival in Reykjavík, Fischer was welcomed by a crowd.[118] He gave a news conference in which he was reminded of a past friend,
Dick Schaap, by Schaap's son, and Fischer showed that he was still pointedly resentful over
his falling out with Schaap Sr.[119] Fischer had an
apartment in Reykjavík as his new home.
In May 2005, a delegation, including Boris Spassky, visited Iceland with the intention of "drawing Fischer back to the
chessboard." Fischer appeared interested in playing a Chess960 match against a "worthy
opponent." Spassky said that he was not planning to play Fischer.[120]
On December 10 2006, Fischer phoned in to an Icelandic
television station and pointed out a clever winning combination which was missed in a chess game that was televised in
Iceland.[121]
Death
Church of
Laugardælir, Fischer's resting place.
Fischer was suffering from degenerative kidney (renal) failure.[122] This had been a problem for some years, but became acute in October
2007, when Fischer was admitted to a Reykjavík Landspítali hospital for stationary treatment. He stayed there for about seven
weeks, being released in a somewhat improved condition in the middle of November. He returned home gravely ill in December
apparently rejecting any further Western medicine.
Fischer stayed in an apartment in the same building as his closest friend and spokesman, Garðar Sverrisson, whose wife Krisín
happens to be a nurse and looked after the terminally ill patient. Garðar's two children, especially his son, were very close to
Fischer. They were his only close friends and contacts during the last two years of his life.
Fischer did not believe in prolonging life at any cost – such as the use of large amounts of pain killers or permanent
dependence on a dialysis machine. When he was released from hospital his doctors gave him a few months to live. His wife Miyoko
Watai flew in from Japan to spend the Christmas season with him. She returned on January 10 2008, just before Fischer's death,
and so had to make another trip almost immediately after.
In the middle of January his condition deteriorated and he was returned to hospital, where elevated levels of serum creatinine
were found in his blood. He died on January 17 2008, at the age
of 64, at home in his apartment in Reykjavík.[123][124][125][126][127][128][91][129] Magnús Skúlason, who stayed with him until he died, said that Fischer's
last words were, "Nothing soothes pain like the touch of a person"
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