Bobby Fischer Dead At 64 Vol. Search Called Off

[shannonscrooks]

I guess we can finally end the search for Bobby Fischer as he died at 64:

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64.

Fisher died in a Reykjavik hospital on Thursday, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday. Icelandic media reported that he died of kidney failure after a long illness.

Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer was wanted in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions. In 2005, he moved to Iceland, a chess-mad nation and site of his greatest triumph.

Garry Kasparov, the former Russian chess champion, said Fischer's ascent in the chess world in the 1960s and his promotion of chess worldwide was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game. But Fischer's reputation as a genius of chess was eclipsed, in the eyes of many, by his idiosyncrasies.

"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," Kasparov told The Associated Press.

He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments, although his mother was Jewish.

Spassky said in a brief phone call from his home in France that he was "very sorry" to hear of the death of his friend and rival.

An American chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15, Fischer dethroned the Spassky in 1972 in a series of games in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, to become the first officially recognized world champion born in the United States.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the World Chess Federation, called Fischer "a phenomenon and an epoch in chess history, and an intellectual giant I would rank next to Newton and Einstein."

The match, at the height of the Cold War, took on mythic dimensions as a clash between the world's two superpowers.

Fischer played and won an exhibition rematch against Spassky on the resort island of Sveti Stefan, but the game was in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic.

In July 2004, Fischer was arrested at Japan's Narita airport for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport and threatened with extradition to the United States. He spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland granted him citizenship and he moved there with his longtime companion, the Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai. She survives him.

In his final years, Fischer railed against the chess establishment, alleging that the outcomes of many top-level chess matches were decided in advance.

Instead, he championed his concept of random chess, in which pieces are shuffled at the beginning of each match in a bid to reinvigorate the game.

"I don't play the old chess," he told reporters when he arrived in Iceland in 2005. "But obviously if I did, I would be the best."

Born in Chicago in March 9, 1943, Robert James Fischer was a child prodigy, playing competitively from the age of 8.

At 13, he became the youngest player to win the United States Junior Championship. At 14, he won the United States Open Championship for the first of eight times.

At 15, he gained the title of international grand master, the youngest person to hold the title.

Tall, charismatic and with striking looks, he was a chess star -- but already gaining a reputation for volatile behavior.

He turned up late for tournaments, walked out of matches, refused to play unless the lighting suited him and was intolerant of photographers and cartoonists. He was convinced of his own superiority and called the Soviets "Commie cheats."

His behavior often unsettled opponents -- to Fischer's advantage.

This was seen most famously in the showdown with Spassky in Reykjavik between July and September 1972. Having agreed to play Spassky in Yugoslavia, Fischer raised one objection after another to the arrangements and they wound up playing in Iceland.

When play got under way, days late, Fischer lost the first game with an elementary blunder after discovering that television cameras he had reluctantly accepted were not unseen and unheard, but right behind the players' chairs.

He boycotted the second game and the referee awarded the point to Spassky, putting the Russian ahead 2-0.

But then Spassky agreed to Fischer's demand that the games be played in a back room away from cameras. Fischer went on to beat Spassky, 12.5 points to 8.5 points in 21 games.

Americans, gripped in their millions by the contest, rejoiced in the victory over their Cold War adversary.

In the recent book "White King and Red Queen," the British author Daniel Johnson said the match was "an abstract antagonism on an abstract battleground using abstract weapons ... yet their struggle embraced all human life."

"In Spassky's submission to his fate and Fischer's fierce exultant triumph, the Cold War's denouement was already foreshadowed."

The victory made Fischer the first U.S.-born world champion. Paul Morphy, an American, was regarded as the world's best player from 1858 to 1862, and William Steinetz, an Austrian immigrant to the United States, was an official champion from 1886 to 1894.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

 

[mangudai954]

Woah, RIP. I had his book, amazing player/

 

[much respected]

I wondered how you became a Grandmaster. Supposedly, the FIDE (World Chess Federation in French) gives you the title. I thought you had to defeat an existingGrandmaster or something.

 

[seymore cake]

He was genius on that board

R.I.P.

 

[shannonscrooks]

According to Wiki here are the regulations to becoming a Grandmaster:

The requirements for becoming a Grandmaster are somewhat complex. A player must have an ELO chess rating of at least 2500 at one time (although they need not maintain this level to keep the title). A rating of 2400 or higher is required to become an International Master. In addition, at least two favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other Grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's, are usually required before FIDE will confer the title on a player. There are other milestones a player can achieve to get the title, such as winning the Women's World Championship, the World Junior Championship, or the World Senior Championship. Current regulations may be found in the FIDE Handbook.[1]

 

[much respected]

^ Sweet, can you have that title added to your license?

 

[gottagitdemjs]

"Where is he? I don't know. I don't know. Bobby Fischer! Where is he? I don't know. I don't know."

 

[size twelve]

rest in piece.

did he ever play kasparov? i would have loved to see the result of that match. deep blue is for losers.

 

[putting in work]

Seen that movie with him.

Movie was pretty dope.

 

[grand 0ld party]

terrible human being

 

[nyvictory45]

R.I.P.

 

[jpap348]

RIP

 

[willhelm f nietzsche]

Originally Posted by Grand 0ld Party

terrible human being

Explain.


RIP to a great player.

 

[va757va]

Checkmate.

 

[grand 0ld party]

Explain.
Seriously?

He denied the "Holocaust of the Jews," announced his desire to make "expos[ing] the Jews for the criminals they are [...] the murderers they are" his lifework, and argued that the United States is "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards."

In 1999, he gave a call-in interview to a radio station in Budapest, Hungary, during which he described himself as the "victim of an international Jewish conspiracy."

some of his belongings, which had been stored in a Pasadena, California storage unit, were sold by the landlord, who claimed it was in response to nonpayment of rent. Fischer interpreted this as further evidence of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy perpetrated by "the Jew-controlled U.S. Government" to defame and destroy him.

Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio City station of the Bombo Radyo network, shortly after midnight September 12, 2001 Philippines local time (or shortly after noon on September 11, 2001, New York time). Fischer commented on U.S and Israeli foreign policy that "nobody cares ... [that] the US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years".Informed that "the White House and Pentagon have been attacked", he proclaimed "This is all wonderful news." Fischer stated "What goes around comes around even for the United States" and said that if the U.S. fails to change its foreign policy, it "has to be destroyed." After calling for President Bush's death, Fischer also stated he hoped that a Seven Days in May-type military coup d' etat would take over power in the U.S. and then execute "hundreds of thousands of American Jewish leaders", "arrest all the Jews" and "close all synagogues".

 

[tical 30]

Yeah, terrible person and a crybaby but a MF'n genius on the chessboard.

- Tical.

 

[brownin187]

I remember he had some serious beef with an ESPN reporter. Can't remember the name but it was hyped up 3-4 years ago. Fischer was spewin some anti-hebrewslurs.

 

[joe cool23]

^I remember it was Jeremy Schaap. Bobby kept saying stuff like Jeremy is nothing like his father ("Richard" Schaap).

In the 1950s, Schaap befriended Bobby Fischer, who became world chess champion in 1972. In a news conference in 2005, Fischer claimed that Schaap was a father figure, but that didn't stop him from hurling anti-Semitic insults at Schaap's son, Jeremy, a correspondent with ESPN.[

 

[6demonbag]

weird that he died at 64 and there are 64 spaces on a chess board

 

[ididit4theluv]

He was the man!

 

[justhotkicks]

Originally Posted by 6demonbag

weird that he died at 64 and there are 64 spaces on a chess board

dun dun duuuuuuunnnnnnnn.

 

[boomatic206]

Vol. Search Called Off

R.I.P.

 

[freshone12]

R.I.P.

 

[willhelm f nietzsche]

I agree that he said a LOT of #@*#%% up %%+*. But he was mentally insane, and imo I just couldn't hold it against him, simply because he was insane.Everything he said would definitely anger me otherwise. But I treat him like an psycho, and hence do not take any of his thoughts serious.

 

[grand 0ld party]

do you not hold murder against insane serial killers?