Bobby Fisher

[Tryst]

CNN

 

(CNN) -- Chess master Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest chess players in history, has died, a spokesman for the World Chess Federation confirmed to CNN Friday. He was 64.

 

No cause of death was given.

 

Fischer became the first American world chess champion when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a legendary encounter during the Cold War in 1972.

 

Former Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov said Fischer would be remembered as "the pioneer, some would say the founder, of professional chess" and called his death "very sad news."

 

According to media reports in Iceland, Fischer died at a hospital in the capital, Reykjavik. He moved to Iceland after being granted citizenship in 2005.  Watch Fischer arrive to cheers in Iceland »

 

Fischer became almost as famous for his personality quirks and his renegade behavior as for his brilliance at chess.

 

He learned to play as a child in Brooklyn, New York, and quickly became a prodigy. He was only 15 when he reached the level of grand master in August, 1958.

 

He forfeited the second game of the contest after he refused to play on, complaining that the presence of cameras was distracting him. The match was then moved to a back room.

 

Some suspected that Fischer's sometimes bizarre behavior throughout the match was intended to unnerve the highly disciplined Spassky.

 

Fischer never defended his crown, refusing a 1975 match against Anatoly Karpov, another Soviet. The WCF awarded the title to Karpov and Fischer dropped from sight for nearly two decades.

 

In 1992, he resurfaced to play Spassky in a rematch in Belgrade, a move that defied U.S. sanctions against the former Yugoslavia.

 

He won the chess match and the prize money of $3.5 million, but spent the next decade as a reclusive and somewhat mysterious figure who was regarded as a fugitive by American authorities.

 

"He was truly a great player, one of the best there has ever been. It is a sad loss to the world of chess," said Gerry Walsh, the head of the English branch of the WCF. He had been ill for some time, Walsh said.

 

"Fischer was a source of inspiration for all young players," said Kasparov, who said he would be remembered for his efforts to improve conditions for fellow professionals in the game and as a "warrior" on the chessboard.

 

He added that Fischer's early retirement was a great loss to chess as he retreated into what Kasparov termed "his mental self-exile."

 

In recent years, Fischer became better known for his outspoken criticism of the United States. Interviewed by a Philippines radio station hours after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he allegedly called reports of a plane hitting the Pentagon "wonderful news" and said American foreign policy had provoked the attacks.

 

He also become known for virulent anti-Semitism, even though his mother was Jewish. In 2002, Atlantic magazine reported that during a Manila radio broadcast he described his enemies as "Jews, secret Jews, or CIA rats who work for the Jews."

 

"The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess," former champion Kasparov told The Associated Press.

 

 

Fischer was arrested in 2004 at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan, for traveling on a U.S. passport that was revoked after the 1992 Belgrade match. Japan detained him for nine months while he fought deportation to the United States.

 

In March 2005 Iceland invited Fischer to live there. Japan released him, and he promptly renounced his U.S. citizenship and became a citizen and resident of Iceland. E-mail to a friend

 

Sad news, he was a top notch player. Though he was a tad out there.

[BigGamer]

Yeah, I saw the news this morning. Rest in peace and all, I never realized how much the guy hated Jews.

[Carbine23]

 

Yeah, I saw the news this morning. Rest in peace and all, I never realized how much the guy hated Jews.

Yeah he was anti-semetic. Even when he found out that his mother was a Hungarian Jew (i think she was hungarian, she may have been something else). He refused to believe it.

[cold fusion 33]

I would say something along the lines of 'check mate' but that's just a tad off.

R.I.P you chess playing prodigy

[beanmachine43]

He took it to those Reds, God bless 'em.

[Effy in Chains]

Good bye to a Nazi bastard, who is rotting in hell right now!

[just another thug]

This is pretty sad to hear. Fischer's life was interesting to read about, I've read a biography on him before. Really an odd yet genius person.

[Effy in Chains]

Really an odd yet genius person.

The same could be said for Hitler, but was he a good person, I'll let you think that over!

[Moonshield]

Really an odd yet genius person.

The same could be said for Hitler, but was he a good person, I'll let you think that over!

We get it, you're bitter for your comrades' failures, can it already.

[Oblivionz]

R.I.P, you f*cking genius. You'll be missed by many people.

[Kimd41]

R.I.P is all I say.

[bagga rabbit]

R.I.P. Checkmate.

[Ronnyboy]

Damn, he was one smart bastard. R.I.P. you old smartass

[YourNeighborhoodKiller]

R.I.P (in Undertaker's voice)

[Effy in Chains]

 

Really an odd yet genius person.

The same could be said for Hitler, but was he a good person, I'll let you think that over!

We get it, you're bitter for your comrades' failures, can it already.

You're so shallow, do you think I care that he beat Russia at chess?

Edited January 19, 2008 by Kalasinn

[Girish]

R.I.P. Fischer.

I hope at least now he stops hating Jews.

[Mr. Campbell]

I had no idea who he was untill i opened this topic.

R.I.P though

[Moonshield]

Really an odd yet genius person.

The same could be said for Hitler, but was he a good person, I'll let you think that over!

We get it, you're bitter for your comrades' failures, can it already.

You're so shallow, do you think I care that he beat Russia at chess?

Don't try to cover it up, Ivan, I can see that thin red veil of deceit.

[Effy in Chains]

Really an odd yet genius person.

The same could be said for Hitler, but was he a good person, I'll let you think that over!

We get it, you're bitter for your comrades' failures, can it already.

You're so shallow, do you think I care that he beat Russia at chess?

Don't try to cover it up, Ivan, I can see that thin red veil of deceit.

lol have a look at my location on my profile and you'll see why I don't care!

[Chickstick]

 

lol have a look at my location on my profile and you'll see why I don't care! 

That means nothing, comrade!

 

My location is apparantly "the white room with black curtains", which is obviously not true, just as your's could well be...

Edited January 19, 2008 by Chickstick

[Effy in Chains]

lol have a look at my location on my profile and you'll see why I don't care! 

That means nothing, comrade!

 

My location is apparantly "the white room with black curtains", which is obviously not true, just as your's could be...

Stop calling me comrade!

[Chickstick]

 

Stop calling me comrade!

Okay then, I will. But what would you expect when your avatar contains Stalin and the hammer and sickle, your member title is "Communist!" and your (actually quite good) signature is... well, I don't know how to describe it.

 

...

 

So yeah, I'll stop it.

[KeNrosenberG]

That Jewish comment wow...

 

Hope he rots in hell.

[Moonshield]

lol have a look at my location on my profile and you'll see why I don't care! 

That means nothing, comrade!

 

My location is apparantly "the white room with black curtains", which is obviously not true, just as your's could be...

Stop calling me comrade!

What's wrong, seeing RED?

 

The Cold War's over, and you lost the space race. Get over it.

[Effy in Chains]

lol have a look at my location on my profile and you'll see why I don't care! 

That means nothing, comrade!

 

My location is apparantly "the white room with black curtains", which is obviously not true, just as your's could be...

Stop calling me comrade!

What's wrong, seeing RED?

 

The Cold War's over, and you lost the space race. Get over it.

This seems to be getting really off-topic now. You do realize that I'm not from Russia, don't you?

[Ronnyboy]

With all that (sig, avatar, member title), it's hard not to say you are.

[Mand'alor]

Aw sh*t.

 

R.I.P. Mr. Fisher.

 

@Kalasinn: Pretending to be a Communist doesn't make you cool.

[BigGamer]

 

lol have a look at my location on my profile and you'll see why I don't care! 

That means nothing, comrade!

 

My location is apparantly "the white room with black curtains", which is obviously not true, just as your's could be...

Stop calling me comrade!

What's wrong, seeing RED?

 

The Cold War's over, and you lost the space race. Get over it.

This seems to be getting really off-topic now. You do realize that I'm not from Russia, don't you?

Will you go away if we give you a bottle of vodka?

[Black-hawk]

EDIT: ignore this post.

[Toadyd]

 

Before playing the match with Spassky in Reykjavik, in 1972, Fischer toured Iceland for a few days to get the feel of the land. One morning he telephoned his old friend Frederick Olaffson, Iceland's only grandmaster. Both Olaffson and his wife were out of the house, and a little girl answered the phone. Fischer said, "Mr. Olaffson, please." Olaffson's daughter explained, in her native Icelandic, that both her mother and father were out of the house and would return in the early evening for dinner. Fischer does not know a word of Icelandic and had to hang up with an apology. Later that day, talking to another Icelandic chessplayer (who did speak English), Fischer remarked that he had tried to reach Olaffson. "It sounded like a little girl on the phone," he said. He then repeated every Icelandic word he had heard over the telephone, imitating the sounds with perfect inflection, so well, as a matter of fact, that the Icelander translated the message word for word.

 

In 1963 Fischer played in and won the New York State Open Championship at Poughkeepsie, New York. During the last round I was involved in a complicated ending with Frank S. Meyer, the late senior editor of National Review. Fischer, on his way to the washroom, briefly paused at my board - for perhaps five seconds - and then walked on. A few months later, he visited me at my office, then located at the Marshall Chess Club. "How did that last round game turn out?" he inquired. I told him I had won, but with difficulty. "Did you play Q-B5?" he asked. I told him quite frankly I couldn't remember what I had played. He immediately set up the exact position to "help" me remember, and then demonstrated the variation I should have played to have secured a much more economical win. The main point is that he did not simply remember the position, then analyze it in front of me; he remembered not only the position but also his fleeting analysis as he had passed my board months previously.

 

Even more remarkable is the fact that Fischer can remember most of his speed games. At the conclusion of the unofficial Speed Championship of the World at Hercegnovi, Yugoslavia, in 1970, Fischer rattled off the scores of all his twenty-two games, involving more than 1,000 moves, from memory! And just prior to his historic match with Taimanov, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Fischer met the Russian player Vasiukov and showed him a speed game that the two had played in Moscow fifteen years before. Fischer recalled the game move by move.

 

Amazing brain, shame it came wedged in between an unhealthy amount of hate and an unhealthy amount of crazy.