Robert James Fischer
| Bobby Fischer | |
|---|---|
Fischer in 1960
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| Full name | Robert James Fischer |
| Country | United States Iceland (2005–2008) |
| Born |
March 9, 1943 Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Died | January 17, 2008 (aged 64) Reykjavík, Iceland |
| Title | Grandmaster (1958) |
| World Champion | 1972–1975 |
| Peak rating | 2785 (July 1972 FIDE rating list) |
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him to be the greatest chess player of all time. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland, publicized as a Cold War confrontation, which attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, the game's international governing body, over one of the conditions for the match. This allowed Soviet GM Anatoly Karpov, who had won the qualifying Candidates' cycle, to become the new world champion by default under FIDE rules.
Fischer showed skill at an early age. At age 13, he won a "brilliancy" that became known as "The Game of the Century". Starting at age 14, Fischer played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a one-point margin. At age 15, Fischer became both the youngest grandmaster up to that time and the youngest candidate for the World Championship.
At age 20, Fischer won the 1963–64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. His book My 60 Memorable Games (published 1969) is regarded as a classic work of chess literature. Fischer won the 1970 Interzonal Tournament by a record 3½-point margin and won 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. In July 1971, he became the first official FIDE number-one-rated player.
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