Robert James Fischer is the 11th official world chess champion, 8-time and also youngest US Champion and the creator of chess960. He wrote few chess books like “Bobby Fischer Chess Games, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, and My 60 Memorable Games etc.
He was born on March 09, 1943 at Chicago, Illinois. He learned chess at the age of 6 with her sister. Since he was passionate with chess, he attended many chess club in US, like Brooklyn Chess Club, Manhattan Chess Club, Hawthorne Chess Club, Log Cabin Chess Club, etc.
In July 1956, he won the US Junior Chess Championship with 8.5/10 points and became the youngest-ever Junior Champion at age 13, a record that still stands. During that year, Fischer played in many top tournaments even though he did not win any of them, but he a got a brilliancy prize award against Donald Byrne and called the game as “Game of the Century” in 3rd Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament.
In 1957 he won some tournament like US Junior, US Championship and called as the youngest US Champion, New Jersey Open and He then defeated the young Filipino master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6–2 in a New York match sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. And he continued to play in the top tournaments across US and USSR with top players in the world like Mikhail Tal, Mikhail Botvinnik (current world champion), Tigran Petrosian etc., until 1959.
In 1959, he dropped out in the high school, his interest in chess is more than schoolwork. Even though he left the school, he had a high IQ and learned many foreign languages.
In 1960, he represented the US in the Olympiad as board 1 and got the bronze medal in individual and silver on team, he also played in 1962, 1966 (silver in both individual and team) and 1970 (silver in board 1 and 4th on team).
In 1961, he tied for 1st with Boris Spassky in Mar Del Plata, this is the start of their friendship and rivalry. Also he played a 16-game match with Samuel Reshevsky his long compatriot in US with same 5.5 score at the end of 11 games but Fischer defaulted with subsequent games and declared lost the match. And he finished 2nd at Bled and defeated Mikhail Tal for the first time behind Champion Tal. He continued to become US champion until 1967.
In 1969-1975, he was dominant in the chess world. He got 100% performance in various tournaments like in 1971 Candidates against Taimanov and Larsen, (also in 1964 US Championship). He won Zagreb 1970, Buenos Aires 1970, Interzonal 1970, Manhattan 1971, Candidates 1971, etc.
In 1972, Fischer won the world championship title against Boris Spassky with 7 wins 3 losses and 11 draws. It took place in Reykjavik, Iceland with $250, 000 total cash prize, and was highly publicized and became a symbol of the Cold War rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union and it was the first time since 1948 that a non-Soviet player had a chance to win the World title. The match was closely watched around the world, and chess was at its apex. Fischer's victory made him a cultural icon in the United States.
After the world match, he went back to US with a lot of endorsements from various companies with at least $5 million each but all were rejected by Fischer. He was also active in the Worldwide Church of God at that time.
In 1975, Fischer did not defend his title when an agreement could not be settle with FIDE over the match conditions. Consequently, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default.
After that, Fischer became inactive for over 20 years he had some conflicts with the US government and subsequently disappeared from the public eye, and though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged.
Fischer's style of play was characterized by his deep understanding of chess principles, his aggressive and uncompromising approach, and his exceptional endgame skills. His contributions to opening theory in Gruenfeld, King’s Indian, Ruy Lopez Exchange and his famous games have made a lasting impact on the world of chess. Also listed in the top 5 endgame experts according to Jeremy Silman. He also had a lot of notable and brilliant games.
In 1992, after a 20-years of match of century, there was “Revenge Match of the 20th century" between Fischer and Spassky in Montenegro and e. At that time, Spassky was ranked 106th in the FIDE, while Fischer did not appear on the list, due to inactivity. He won the match with a score of +10 −5 =15 and he earned $3.35 million for winning the match.
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 Hungary until 1999 and move to Philippines from 2000 to 2002.
In 1993, The first film related to Fischer was released “Searching for Bobby Fischer”. Then followed by “Me and Bobby Fischer” and “Bobby Fischer Live” on 2009, “Bobby Fischer against the World” on 2011 and the “Pawn Sacrifice” on 2015. And other social media platforms related to him and mostly did not receive fair compensations.
In 2004, While he was living in Japan with his wife Miyoko Watai, he was arrested and detained for several months for using a passport that the US government had revoked.
In March 2005 Eventually, he was granted Icelandic citizenship by a special act of the Icelandic parliament, allowing him to live a reclusive life there until his death in 2008 in consideration of the 1972 World Chess Championship.
On January 18, 2008, he died and buried at Christian cemetery of Laugardælir church in Reykjavik, Iceland.
After he died, some were claimed about his estate worth $2 million, his wife Miyoko, Jinky Young but later on rejected by Icelandic court and his nephews.
There are 977 games listed in the chessbase.
Let’s look of his best games which feature in our GMG page.