Robert James "Bobby" Fischer
(March 9, 1943 ? January 17, 2008) was an
American
chess
Grandmaster
and the eleventh
World Chess Champion
.
As a teenager, Fischer became well-known worldwide because of his skill at chess. He won the American championship of 1963/64, winning all eleven of his games.
Fischer was born in Michael Reese Hospital in
Chicago
,
Illinois
on March 9, 1943.
[1]
His
birth certificate
said that his father was Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a
German
. His mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was a Polish-Jewish
American
citizen.
[2]
Born in
Switzerland
, she grew up in
St. Louis
,
Missouri
,
[1]
and later became a
teacher
, a
nurse
, and a
doctor
.
[3]
The two married in 1933 in
Moscow
,
USSR
, where Regina was studying
medicine
at the First Moscow Medical Institute. They
divorced
in 1945 when Bobby was two years old, so he grew up with his mother and older sister. In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an
elementary school
. The next year, they moved to
Brooklyn
,
New York
.
A 2002 article in
The Philadelphia Inquirer
said that Paul Nemenyi, a doctor, was Bobby's
biological
father, not Hans-Gerhardt.
[4]
Regina and Nemenyi had had an
affair
in 1942, and he gave her money to help her raise her child every month, paying for Fischer's schooling until he died in 1952.
[5]
Fischer later told the chess player Zita Rajcsanyi that Nemenyi sometimes came to his Brooklyn apartment and took him to places.
[4]
Fischer learned to play at the age of six. His sister Joan bought him a chess set. Bobby learned how to play from the instructions. Several years later, he began to play at the
Manhattan Chess Club
. He became well known around the world in 1956. He was 13 when he played a game against an American player named Donald Byrne. In the game, he
sacrificed
his
queen
and won.
Chess Review
called this game the "game of the century".
[6]
Fischer was 14 when he won the U.S. Championship for the first time.
[7]
This would be the first of eight U.S. Championships he would win.
In 1972, he became the first and only American to win the
World Chess Championship
in the 20th century. In the 19th century,
Paul Morphy
was briefly the leading player.
[8]
Wilhelm Steinitz
was the first official world champion. He became an American citizen while he was champion. To win the title, Fischer beat
Boris Spassky
of the
Soviet Union
. The match was held in
Reykjavik
,
Iceland
. However, Fischer did not agree to a match to defend his title. He lost his title in 1975. The title of world champion was given to
Anatoly Karpov
.
[9]
Fischer did not play in any public matches or tournaments for nearly 20 years. In 1992, he
defeated
Spassky in a rematch in
Yugoslavia
. The
United States Department of State
had told him not to play there because of the events that happened after Yugoslavia began splitting into several new countries. Since he disobeyed this order, he could have been
prosecuted
if he returned to the U.S. In fact, he never returned there. Fischer's 1992 rematch against Spassky was the only time after becoming the world champion that Fischer played chess in public.
[10]
After his match, Fischer promoted a new type of chess called "Fischer Random Chess", where the pieces were randomly shuffled before the game so they would be on different squares to start every game.
[11]
In July 2004, Fischer was arrested at an airport in
Japan
with a bad passport. The United States wanted Japan to send him back to go to trial for playing chess in Yugoslavia in 1992.
[12]
The government of
Iceland
eventually decided to make Fischer a
citizen
of Iceland, and he lived there for the rest of his life.
[13]
Fischer died of
renal failure
on January 17, 2008.
[14]
He was buried at a small ceremony near the small town of Selfoss, Iceland.
[15]
Fischer was born to a
Jewish
parent, but he rejected
the religion
. He used many
racist
and unreasonable insults toward Judaism.
[11]
[16]
Fischer
denied
the
Holocaust
. He read books such as
Mein Kampf
and
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
.
[11]
As a young man, Fischer joined the Radio Church of God.
[17]
He later left this
evangelical
Protestant
church with outspoken comments.
[18]
Fischer had a Catholic funeral.
[19]
It is unclear whether he became a
Roman Catholic
before his death.
Fischer, like
Morphy
, chose to stop playing when he was still young. He had a lifelong history of
disputes
,
conflicts
and
controversy
. He believed he was the victim of
conspiracies
. Fischer showed
symptoms
of the
mental illness
paranoia
, similar to Morphy.
[11]
In
Bobby Fischer: The Wandering King
, authors Hans Bohm and Kees Jongkind write that Fischer's radio broadcasts show that he was "out of his mind ... a victim of his own mental illness".
[5]
Fischer developed a book to teach chess. His co-authors organised it in the form of
programmed learning
.
[20]
- ↑
1.0
1.1
Brady 2011
, p. 2
- ↑
Quinn, Ben; Hamilton, Alan (January 28, 2008).
"Bobby Fischer, chess genius, heartless son"
.
The Sunday Times
. Archived from
the original
on May 16, 2008
. Retrieved
September 14,
2008
.
- ↑
Schulz, Von Andre (October 8, 2004).
"Mutmaßungen uber Fischer"
(in German).
Archived
from the original on March 30, 2011
. Retrieved
October 17,
2008
.
- ↑
4.0
4.1
Nicholas, Peter (September 21, 2009).
"Chasing the king of chess"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Archived from
the original
on September 25, 2009.
- ↑
5.0
5.1
Bohm & Jongkind 2003
, pp. 22, 135
- ↑
Barden, Leonard (January 19, 2008).
"Obituary: Bobby Fischer"
.
The Guardian
.
London
.
ISSN
0261-3077
.
OCLC
60623878
.
Archived
from the original on March 30, 2011
. Retrieved
March 30,
2011
.
- ↑
Burgess & Nunn 2010
, p. 213
- ↑
"Chess History"
. United States Chess Federation.
Archived
from the original on March 30, 2011
. Retrieved
March 30,
2011
.
- ↑
Helgason, Gudjon (January 18, 2008).
"Chess Master Bobby Fischer Dies at 64"
.
Breitbart.com
. Associated Press.
Archived
from the original on March 30, 2011
. Retrieved
30 March
2011
.
- ↑
"Editorials & Opinion | Confusing A Game With Life -- Chess, Madness And Bobby Fischer | Seattle Times Newspaper"
.
The Seattle Times
. 2011
. Retrieved
April 2,
2011
.
- ↑
11.0
11.1
11.2
11.3
Chun, Rene (December 2002).
"Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame"
.
The Atlantic
. Retrieved
March 30,
2011
.
- ↑
"BBC NEWS | Americas | Japan holds ex-chess star Fischer"
.
BBC News
.
London
:
BBC
. July 16, 2004
. Retrieved
April 3,
2011
.
- ↑
Ponterotto, Joseph G.; Reynolds, Jason D. (December 2013).
"The "Genius" and "Madness" of Bobby Fischer: His Life from Three Psychobiographical Lenses"
.
Review of General Psychology
.
17
(4): 384?398.
doi
:
10.1037/a0033246
.
ISSN
1089-2680
.
S2CID
147552188
.
- ↑
Laurent, Lionel (January 18, 2008).
"Cold War Chess Champ Fischer Dies"
.
Forbes.com
. Retrieved
April 3,
2011
.
- ↑
Bragadottir, Kristin Arna (January 21, 2008).
"Chess champion Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland | Reuters"
.
reuters.com
. Archived from
the original
on September 24, 2011
. Retrieved
April 3,
2011
.
- ↑
"Open letter to Encyclopaedia Judaica"
. Retrieved
April 2,
2011
.
- ↑
The Radio Church of God later became the Worldwide Church of God, and even later the Grace Communion International.
- ↑
"Bobby Fischer speaks out!"
. Ambassador Report. 1978
. Retrieved
October 4,
2008
.
- ↑
Kumpel, Robert (March 30, 2008).
"Did Chess Great, Bobby Fischer, Convert to Catholicism Before His Death? | PewSitter.com"
.
pewsitter.com
. Archived from
the original
on February 11, 2009
. Retrieved
March 31,
2011
.
- ↑
Fischer, Bobby (1972).
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
. Bantam Books.
ISBN
9780553107524
. Retrieved
January 19,
2016
.
|
---|
Pieces
| |
---|
Gameplay
| |
---|
Strategy
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
Famous players
| |
---|