Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After winning another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since.
"Bobby Fisher" redirects here. For the English footballer, see Bobby Fisher (footballer). For other people with similar names, see Bob Fisher.Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer
United States
March 9, 1943
Chicago, Illinois, US
January 17, 2008 (aged 64)
Reykjavík, Iceland
Grandmaster (1958)
1972–1975
2785 (July 1972)[1]
No. 1 (July 1971)
In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, chess's international governing body, over the match conditions. Consequently, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default. Fischer subsequently disappeared from the public eye, though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged. In 1992, he reemerged to win an unofficial rematch against Spassky. It was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time. His 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. The US government ultimately issued a warrant for his arrest; subsequently, Fischer lived as an émigré. In 2004, he was arrested in Japan and held for several months for using a passport that the US government had revoked. Eventually, he was granted Icelandic citizenship by a special act of the Icelandic parliament, allowing him to live there until his death in 2008.
Fischer made numerous lasting contributions to chess. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, is regarded as essential reading in chess literature. In the 1990s, he patented a modified chess timing system that added a time increment after each move, now a standard practice in top tournament and match play. He also invented Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960, a chess variant in which the initial position of the pieces is randomized to one of 960 possible positions.
Fischer made numerous antisemitic statements, including Holocaust denial. His 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.
1960–61
In 1960, Fischer tied for first place with Soviet star Boris Spassky at the strong Mar del Plata Tournament in Argentina, winning by a two-point margin, scoring 13½/15 (+13−1=1),[170][171] ahead of David Bronstein.[172] Fischer lost only to Spassky; this was the start of their lifelong friendship and rivalry.[173]
Fischer experienced a rare failure in his competitive career[174] at the Buenos Aires Tournament (1960), finishing with 8½/19 (+3−5=11), far behind winners Viktor Korchnoi and Samuel Reshevsky with 13/19.[175] According to Larry Evans, Fischer's first sexual experience was with a girl to whom Evans introduced him during the tournament.[176][177] Pal Benko said that Fischer did horribly in the tournament "because he got caught up in women and sex. Afterwards, Fischer said he'd never mix women and chess together, and kept the promise."[178] Fischer concluded 1960 by winning a small tournament in Reykjavík with 4½/5,[179] and defeating Klaus Darga in an exhibition game in West Berlin.[180]
In 1961, Fischer started a 16-game match with Reshevsky, split between New York and Los Angeles.[181] Reshevsky, 32 years Fischer's senior, 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. Fischer forfeited 2 games, and even though the score was now 7½ to 5½, with 8½ required to win, Reshevsky was declared the winner, by default, and received the winner's share of the prize fund.[182]
Fischer was second in a super-class field, behind only former world champion Tal, at Bled, 1961.[183] Yet, Fischer defeated Tal head-to-head for the first time in their individual game, scored 3½/4 against the Soviet contingent, and finished as the only unbeaten player, with 13½/19 (+8−0=11).[184][185]
Later life and death
Life as an émigré
After the 1992 match with Spassky, Fischer, now a fugitive, slid back into relative obscurity, taking up residence in Budapest, Hungary, and allegedly having a relationship with young Hungarian chess master Zita Rajcsányi.[394][416] Fischer stated that standard chess was stale and that he now played blitz games of chess variants, such as Chess960. He visited the Polgár family in Budapest and analyzed many games with Judit, Zsuzsa, and Zsófia Polgár.[417][418][419] In 1998 and 1999, he also stayed at the house of young Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko.[420]
From 2000 to 2002, Fischer lived in Baguio in the Philippines, residing in the same compound as the Filipino grandmaster Eugene Torre, a close friend who had acted as his second during his 1992 match with Spassky.[421] Torre introduced Fischer to a 22 year-old woman named Marilyn Young.[f] On May 21, 2001, Marilyn Young gave birth to a daughter named Jinky Young, and claimed that Fischer was the child's father,[423][424] a claim ultimately disproven by DNA after Fischer's death.[425][426]
Comments on September 11 attacks
Shortly after midnight on September 12, 2001, Philippines local time (approximately four hours after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US), Fischer was interviewed live by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio station of the Bombo Radyo network. Fischer stated that he was happy that the attacks had happened, while expressing his view on United States and Israeli foreign policy, saying, "I applaud the act. Look, nobody gets ... that the US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians ... for years."[427][428][429][430] He also said, "The horrible behavior that the US is committing all over the world ... This just shows you, that what goes around, comes around, even for the United States."[427][428] Fischer also referenced the movie Seven Days in May (1964) and said he hoped for a coup d'état in the US: "[I hope] the country will be taken over by the military—they'll close down all the synagogues, arrest all the Jews, execute hundreds of thousands of Jewish ringleaders."[431][432] In response to Fischer's statements about 9/11, the US Chess Federation passed a motion to cancel his right to membership in the organization.[433] Fischer's right to become a member was reinstated in 2007.[434]
Detention in Japan
Fischer lived for a time in Japan. On July 13, 2004, acting in response to a letter from US officials, Japanese immigration authorities arrested him at Narita International Airport 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.[435][436][437] Fischer resisted arrest, and claimed to have sustained bruises, cuts and a broken tooth in the process.[438] At the time, Fischer had a passport (originally issued in 1997 and updated in 2003 to add more pages) that, according to US officials, had been revoked in November 2003 due to his outstanding arrest-warrant for the Yugoslavia sanctions violation.[435] Despite the outstanding arrest-warrant in the US, Fischer said that he believed the passport was still valid.[439] The authorities held Fischer at a custody center for 16 days before transferring him to another facility. 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.[438][440][441]
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.[442] Boris Spassky wrote a letter to US President George W. Bush, asking "For mercy, charity," and, if that was not possible, "to put [him] in the same cell with Bobby Fischer" and "to give [them] a chess set".[443] It was reported that Fischer and Miyoko Watai, the President of the Japanese Chess Association (with whom he had reportedly been living since 2000) wanted to become legally married.[435] It was also reported that Fischer had been living in the Philippines with Marilyn Young during the same period.[421] Fischer applied for German citizenship, on the grounds that his father was German.[444] 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.[445][446] Japan's Justice Minister rejected Fischer's request for asylum and ordered his deportation.[447][448][449]
While in prison, Bobby Fischer legally married Miyoko Watai on September 6, 2004.[450]
Citizenship and residency in Iceland
Seeking ways to evade deportation to the United States, Fischer wrote a letter to the government of Iceland in early January 2005, requesting Icelandic citizenship.[451] 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 (the Icelandic Parliament), at the behest of William Lombardy,[452][453] agreed unanimously to grant Fischer full citizenship in late March for humanitarian reasons, as they felt he was being unjustly treated by the United States and Japanese governments[454][455] and also in recognition of his 1972 match, which had "put Iceland on the map".[456]
After arriving in Reykjavík in late March, Fischer gave a press conference.[457][458] He lived a reclusive life in Iceland, avoiding entrepreneurs and others who approached him with various proposals.[459]
Fischer moved into an apartment in the same building as his close friend and spokesman, Garðar Sverrisson.[460] Garðar's wife, Kristín Þórarinsdóttir, was a nurse and later looked after Fischer as a terminally ill patient. Garðar's two children, especially his son, were very close to Fischer.[461] Fischer also developed a friendship with Magnús Skúlason, a psychiatrist and chess player who later recalled long discussions with him on a wide variety of subjects.[462]
On December 10, 2006, 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. Although he tried to change his mind upon seeing the mate, the touch-move rule forced him to play the blunder. 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.[463]
In 2005, some of Fischer's belongings were auctioned on eBay.[464] Fischer claimed, in 2006, that the belongings sold in the US without his permission were worth "hundreds of millions of [US] dollars; even billions of dollars."[465][466] In the same interview, Fischer also said that UBS Bank had closed an account of his and liquidated his assets against his wishes, transferring the funds to a bank in Iceland.[467]
Personal life
Religious affiliation
Although Fischer's mother was Jewish, Fischer rejected attempts to label him as Jewish.[13] In a 1962 interview with Harper's, asked if he was Jewish, he replied that he was "part-Jewish" through his mother. In the same interview he 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."[484][485] In a 1984 letter to the editor of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Fischer demanded that they remove his name from future editions.[486]
Fischer associated with the Worldwide Church of God in the mid-1960s. The church prescribed Saturday Sabbath, and forbade work (and competitive chess) on Sabbath.[487] According to his friend and colleague Larry Evans, in 1968 Fischer felt philosophically that "the world was coming to an end" and he might as well make some money by publishing My 60 Memorable Games;[488] Fischer thought that the Rapture was coming soon.[489]
During the mid-1970s, Fischer contributed significant money to the Worldwide Church of God.[490] In 1972, one journalist stated that "Fischer is almost as serious about religion as he is about chess", and the champion credited his faith with greatly improving his chess.[491][492] Yet prophecies by Herbert W. Armstrong went unfulfilled.[493] Fischer eventually left the church in 1977, "accusing it of being 'Satanic', and vigorously attacking its methods and leadership".[395]
Towards the end of his life, Fischer became interested in Catholicism. He bought his friend Garðar Sverrisson a copy of "Basic Catechism: Creed, Sacraments, Morality, Prayer" so Sverrisson could explain the religion better to him.[494] According to Sverrisson, Fischer talked to him about transformation of society through creation of harmony and that "the only hope for the world is through Catholicism."[494] Fischer was also known to have read a synopsis of G. K. Chesterton's works in the years leading up to his death. He requested a Catholic funeral, and this final service was presided over by Catholic priest Jakob Rolland.[495][496]