Chess master Bobby Fischer dies at 64, in Iceland

[RebLem]

Bobby Fischer, First U.S. World Chess Champion, Dies

By Robin Stringer

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Bobby Fischer, the first U.S.-born chess player to become world champion, died yesterday in Iceland of an unspecified illness, the FIDE World Chess Federation said. He was 64, and had lived in secrecy and obscurity for decades.

Born in Chicago and raised in New York, Fischer became the youngest U.S. national champion by age 14 and a grandmaster a year later. In 1972, he defeated Russian champion Boris Spassky in a world championship match in Iceland at the height of the Cold War. The game became known as the ``match of the century'' and his win was a monumental event in an era during which Soviet players dominated the game.

He was regarded as the greatest U.S. chess player. ``The gap between Mr. Fischer and his contemporaries was the largest ever,'' fellow grandmaster Garry Kasparov wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2004.

Fischer was known for unpredictable tactics at the board, keeping opponents guessing by rarely repeating opening strategies during matches, and displaying a genius for attack. He often unnerved opponents with what some of them considered psychological warfare. For example, Fischer didn't show up for the second game of the 1972 Spassky match, voluntarily conceding a point. Chess writers have speculated on how much such a move affected Spassky.

He also had a reputation for eccentricity and petulance that matched his talents, and constantly demanded changes to tournament conditions and provisions for the players.

Withdrawal From Game

Fischer's victory was followed by two decades of withdrawal from competitive play and he lived as a recluse. The first challenger to his title was Russian Anatoly Karpov in 1975. Fischer eventually boycotted the match, and he lost his title without making a single move. It was his last competitive game for almost 20 years.

In 1992, Fischer emerged for a re-match with Spassky in Yugoslavia. He won the match, taking some $3.5 million in prize money. The U.S. government issued a warrant for his arrest for taking part in the competition, claiming he violated United Nations sanctions against the country. By then, a split in chess authorities meant Kasparov was widely recognized as world champion, although Fischer objected.

Spassky was ``very sorry'' to hear of his former opponent's death, he told the New York Times from France.

In contrast to pictures of the young champion in suits, in later life Fischer often sported a long, unkempt beard and baseball cap. In 1981, he was arrested after being mistaken for a bank robber in California. He later said police treated him brutally.

Move to Iceland

Fischer moved to Iceland in 2005 after publicly criticizing his home country on several occasions and eventually renouncing U.S. citizenship. Though his mother was Jewish, he frequently made anti-Semitic remarks in media interviews.

Fischer was arrested at a Japanese airport in 2004, where he was accused of trying to leave the country on a revoked passport. After considering his deportation to the U.S., the authorities released him to Iceland in 2005 after the country offered him citizenship.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in London at rstringer@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: January 18, 2008 08:52 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMZVvpBojS6Q&refer=home

Posted on January 18, 2008, the 368th day before the end of the Cheney Administration.  RebLem

[JoshLilly]

Masters are everywhere. My best friend is a USCF Master, with a peak rating near 2400. Fischer was a Grandmaster and World Champion. The article is also incorrect when it states that Fischer lived his last years in secrecy. He never hid himself, and gave many interviews in places like the Phillipines. He just wasn't in the USA or interviewed by US media, and so vanished, just as every other retired World Champion (other than Kasparov) vanishes from the western media stage these days. Vassily Smyslov? Is he living in "secrecy and obscurity"? Fischer never hid, never vanished. I'm sick of all the stupid myths that rose up about him. Completely ridiculous, especially the outrageous overestimations of his strength (almost entirely by my fellow US residents, though I'm sure that's nothing but a coincidence....).

In any case, in pure chess terms, this is highly notable and tragic. My message here seems nitpicky and heartless, but my friends and I have talked about it a bit the last couple of days. Maybe at the tournament I'm playing in this weekend I'll get to use that line of the Nimzo-Indian that he employed in Game 5 against Spassky in 1972 (it's the only Fischer thing in my opening repertoire): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044723  This is probably the greatest game ever using the Hübner blockade. Voluntarily give White a protected passed pawn, and voluntarily take on a backward pawn on b6?! And win??? Not to mention a pleasing and cute finish. His legendary dominant streak didn't last very long at all, only the last few years of his career, and he was the only World Champion to not play a single game during his entire reign (so was the least dominant Champion ever by default while actually holding the crown). But, when he was at his best, he really could create some great stuff.