Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer
Fischer in 1960
Full name	Robert James Fischer
Country	United States Iceland (2005–08)
Born	March 9, 1943 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	January 17, 2008 (aged 64) Reykjavík, Iceland
Title	Grandmaster (1958)
World Champion	1972–75
Peak rating	2785 (July 1972 FIDE rating list)[1]

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess Grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him the greatest chess player of all time.^[2][3][4]

At age 13 Fischer won a "brilliancy" that became known as "The Game of the Century".^[5] 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. Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games (1969) remains a revered work in chess literature.^[6]

In 1970 and 1971, Fischer "dominated his contemporaries to an extent never seen before or since".^[7] During that period he 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.^[8] In July 1971, he became the first official World Chess Federation (FIDE) number-one-ranked player, spending a total of 54 months at number one.

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.^[9] In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE 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.

After this, Fischer became a recluse, disappearing from both competitive chess and the public eye until 1992, when he won an unofficial rematch against Spassky. It was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time.^[10][11][12] His participation led to a conflict with the U.S. government, which sought income tax on Fischer's match winnings, and ultimately issued a warrant for his arrest.^[13]

In the 1990s, Fischer patented a modified chess timing system that added a time increment after each move, now a standard practice in top tournament and match play. He also created a new variant of chess called Fischer Random Chess or Chess960.^[14]

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, Japan, and Iceland, and made increasingly anti-American and anti-semitic remarks on various radio stations. Possibly as a result, his U.S. passport was revoked.^[15][16][17] Unaware of the revocation, Fischer traveled to Japan, where he was arrested by Japanese authorities^[18] and detained for more than eight months^[19] under threat of deportation. In March 2005, Iceland granted Fischer full citizenship,^[20] leading Japanese authorities to release him from prison.^[21] Fischer flew to Iceland, where he lived until his death on January 17, 2008.^[22]

Early years

Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on March 9, 1943.^[23] His birth certificate listed his father as Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, also known as Gerardo Liebscher,^[24] a German biophysicist. His mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was a U.S. citizen;^[25][26] Regina was born in Switzerland, to Jewish parents from Poland and Russia.^[27] Raised in St. Louis, Missouri,^[23] Regina became a teacher, registered nurse, and later a physician.^[28]

After graduating from college in her teens, Regina traveled to Germany to visit her brother. It was there she met geneticist and future Nobel Prize winner, Hermann Joseph Muller, who persuaded Regina to move to Moscow to study medicine. She enrolled at I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, where she met Hans-Gerhardt, whom she married in November 1933.^[29] In 1938, Hans and Regina had a daughter, Joan Fischer. The reemergence of anti-Semitism under Joseph Stalin prompted Regina to go with Joan to Paris, France, where Regina became an English teacher. The threat of a German invasion led her and Joan to go to the United States in 1939. Hans-Gerhardt attempted to follow the pair but his German citizenship barred him from entering the United States.^[29] Regina and Hans-Gerhardt had separated in Moscow, although they did not officially divorce until 1945.^[29]

Regina became pregnant in June 1942 and gave birth to a son on March 9, 1943, at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.^[30] At the time, Regina was "homeless"^[30] and shuttled to different jobs and schools around the country to support her family. She engaged in political activism, and raised both Bobby and Joan as a single parent.^[31][32][33]

In 1949, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York,^[34] where she studied for her master's degree in nursing and subsequently began working in that field.^[32]

Paul Nemenyi as Fischer's father

Sources implying that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist and an expert in fluid and applied mechanics, may have been Fischer's biological father were first made public in a 2002 investigation by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia Inquirer.^[33][35][36] Throughout the 1950s, the FBI investigated Regina and her circle for her alleged communist sympathies, as well as her previous life in Moscow.^[37] The FBI files identify Paul Nemenyi as Bobby Fischer's biological father, showing that Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by U.S. immigration officials due to his alleged Communist sympathies.^[35][38][39] Not only were Regina and Nemenyi reported to have had an affair in 1942, but Nemenyi made monthly child support payments to Regina and paid for Bobby's schooling until his own death in 1952.^[40] Nemenyi had lodged complaints with social workers, saying he was concerned about the way that Regina was raising Bobby, to the point that, on at least one occasion, Nemenyi broke down in tears.^[35] Later on Bobby told the Hungarian chess player Zita Rajcsányi that Paul Nemenyi would sometimes show up at the family's Brooklyn apartment and take him on outings.^[33] After Paul Nemenyi died in 1952, Regina Fischer wrote a letter to Paul Nemenyi's first son (Peter), asking if Paul had left money for Bobby in his will:^[35]

Bobby was sick 2 days with fever and sore throat and of course a doctor or medicine was out of the question. I don't think Paul would have wanted to leave Bobby this way and would ask you most urgently to let me know if Paul left anything for Bobby.

On one occasion, Regina told a social worker that the last time she had ever seen Hans-Gerhardt Fischer was in 1939, four years before Bobby was born. On another occasion, she told the same social worker she had traveled to Mexico to see Hans-Gerhardt in June 1942 and that Bobby was conceived during that meeting.^[33] According to Bobby Fischer's brother-in-law, Russell Targ, who was married to Bobby's half-sister, Joan, for 40 years, Regina concealed the fact that Nemenyi was Bobby's father because she wanted to avoid the stigma of an out-of-wedlock birth.^[33]

Chess beginnings

Impoverished childhood

In March 1949, 6-year-old Bobby and his sister Joan learned how to play chess using the instructions from a set bought at a candy store.^[41] When Joan lost interest in chess and Regina did not have time to play, it left Fischer to play many of his first games against himself.^[42] When the family vacationed at Patchogue, Long Island that summer, Bobby found a book of old chess games and studied it intensely.^[43] Fischer biographer Frank Brady describes the family's move from Manhattan to Brooklyn in 1950:^[44]

In the fall of 1950, Regina moved the family out of Manhattan and across the bridge to Brooklyn, where she rented an inexpensive apartment near the intersection of Union and Franklin streets. It was only temporary: She was trying to get closer to a better neighborhood. Robbed of her medical degree in Russia because of the war, she was now determined to acquire a nursing diploma. As soon as she enrolled in the Prospect Heights School of Nursing, the peripatetic Fischer family, citizens of nowhere, moved once again—its tenth transit in six years—to a $52-a-month two-bedroom flat at 560 Lincoln Place in Brooklyn.

The family resided in apartment Q, a "small, basic, but habitable" apartment.^[32] It was there that "Fischer soon became so engrossed in the game that Regina feared he was spending too much time alone".^[32] As a result, on November 14, 1950, Regina sent a postcard to the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, seeking to place an ad inquiring whether other children of Bobby's age might be interested in playing chess with him. The paper rejected her ad because no one could figure out how to classify it, but forwarded her inquiry to Hermann Helms, the "Dean of American Chess", who told her that Master Max Pavey, former Scottish champion, would be giving a simultaneous exhibition on January 17, 1951.^[45][46] Fischer played in the exhibition. Although he held on for 15 minutes, even drawing a crowd of onlookers, he eventually lost to the chess master.^[47]

One of the spectators was Brooklyn Chess Club President,^[48] Carmine Nigro, an American chess expert of near master strength and an instructor.^[49] Nigro was so impressed with Fischer's play^[48] that he introduced him to the club and began teaching him.^[50][51][52] Fischer noted of his time with Nigro:^[53] "Mr. Nigro was possibly not the best player in the world, but he was a very good teacher. Meeting him was probably a decisive factor in my going ahead with chess."

Bill Lombardy and Bobby Fischer analyzing, with Jack Collins watching them

Nigro hosted Fischer's first chess tournament at his home in 1952.^[54] In the summer of 1955, Fischer, then 12 years old, joined the Manhattan Chess Club, the strongest chess club in the country.^[55][56] Fischer's relationship with Nigro lasted until 1956,^[57][58] when Nigro moved away.^[58]

Mentorship from Lombardy

Nigro introduced Fischer to future grandmaster William Lombardy,^[59] and, starting in September 1954,^[60] Lombardy began coaching Fischer in private.^{[61][62][63][64][65]} "We spent hours in our sessions, simply playing over quality games," said Lombardy. "I tried to instill in Bobby the secret of my own speedy rise. Eidetic Imagery and Total Immersion."^[66] Based on a 1956 game Lombardy played against Povilas Vaitonis (in which he agreed to a draw offer after only 13 moves), Lombardy told Fischer: "Do not accept draw offers. For an ambitious and talented player, accepting a draw is death to a top result. Opponents fear an uncompromising opponent and thus make more mistakes. Act as I advise and do not copy my timidity."^[67] Lombardy played a key part in Fischer's becoming World Champion.^[68][69] He was Fischer's aide at Portorož^[70][71] where they analyzed Fischer's games.^[72] He was Bobby's second in Reykjavik,^{[73][74][75][76][77][78][79]} where he analyzed with Fischer,^[80][81][82] and helped keep Fischer in the match.^{[83][84][85][86][87]}

The Hawthorne Chess Club

In June 1956, Fischer began attending the Hawthorne Chess Club, based in master John "Jack" W. Collins' home.^[88] For years it was believed that Collins was Fischer's teacher and coach,^{[89][90][91][92]} even though Collins stated that he did not teach Fischer.^[93] It is now believed that Collins was Fischer's mentor, not his teacher or coach.^{[94][95][96][97]} A mentor and a friend, Fischer played thousands of blitz and offhand games with Collins and other strong players, studied the books in Collins' large chess library, and ate almost as many dinners at Collins' home as his own.^{[98][99][100]}

Future grandmaster Arnold Denker was also a mentor to young Bobby, often taking him to watch the New York Rangers play hockey at Madison Square Garden. Bobby enjoyed those treats and never forgot them; the two became lifelong friends.^[101]

Young champion

In 1956, Fischer experienced a "meteoric rise" in his playing strength.^[102] On the tenth national rating list of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), published on May 20, 1956, Fischer's rating was 1726,^[103] more than 900 points below top-rated Samuel Reshevsky (2663).^[104]

In March 1956, the Log Cabin Chess Club of Orange, New Jersey, took Fischer on a tour to Cuba, where he gave a 12-board simultaneous exhibition at Havana's Capablanca Chess Club, winning ten games and drawing two.^[105][106] On this tour the club played a series of matches against other clubs. Fischer played second board, behind International Master Norman Whitaker. Whitaker and Fischer were the leading scorers for the club, each scoring 5½ points out of 7 games.^[107]

In July 1956, Fischer won the U.S. Junior Chess Championship, scoring 8½/10 at Philadelphia to become the youngest-ever Junior Champion at age 13.^[108][109] At the 1956 U.S. Open Chess Championship in Oklahoma City, Bobby scored 8½/12 to tie for 4–8th places, with Arthur Bisguier winning.^[110] In the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956, Bobby scored 7/10 to tie for 8–12th places, with Larry Evans winning.^[111] In November, Fischer played in the 1956 Eastern States Open Championship in Washington, D.C., tying for second with William Lombardy, Nicholas Rossolimo, and Arthur Feuerstein, with Hans Berliner taking first by a half-point.^[112]

Fischer accepted an invitation to play in the Third Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament in New York City (1956), a premier tournament limited to the 12 players considered the best in the country.^[113] Although Fischer's rating was not among the top 12 in the country, he received entry by special consideration. Playing against top opposition, the 13-year-old Fischer could only score 4½/11, tying for 8–9th place.^[114] Yet, Bobby won the brilliancy prize^[115] for his '"immortal"'^[116] game against International Master^[117] Donald Byrne,^[113] in which Bobby sacrificed his queen to unleash an unstoppable attack. Hans Kmoch called it "The Game of the Century". Wrote Kmoch, "The following game, a stunning masterpiece of combination play performed by a boy of 13 against a formidable opponent, matches the finest on record in the history of chess prodigies".^[118][119] "'The Game of the Century' has been talked about, analyzed, and admired for more than fifty years, and it will probably be a part of the canon of chess for many years to come."^[120] "In reflecting on his game a while after it occurred, Bobby was refreshingly modest: 'I just made the moves I thought were best. I was just lucky.'"^[121]

In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York, losing ½–1½.^{[122][123][124]} On the USCF's eleventh national rating list, published on May 5, 1957, Fischer was rated 2231—over 500 points higher than his rating a year before.^[125] This made him the country's youngest ever chess master, up to that point.^[126] In July, Bobby successfully defended his U.S. Junior title, scoring 8½/9 at San Francisco.^[127] As a result of his strong tournament results, Fischer's rating went up to 2298, "making him among the top ten active players in the country".^[128] In August, Fischer scored 10/12 at the U.S. Open Chess Championship in Cleveland, winning on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier.^[129][130] This made Bobby the youngest ever U.S. Open Champion.^[131][132] Bobby won the New Jersey Open Championship, scoring 6½/7.^[133] He then defeated the young Filipino master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6–2 in a New York match sponsored by Pepsi-Cola.^[134][135]

Wins first U.S. title

Based on Fischer's rating and strong results, the USCF invited him to play in the 1957–58 U.S. Championship.^[136] The tournament included such luminaries as six-time U.S. champion Samuel Reshevsky, defending U.S. champion Arthur Bisguier, and World Junior Champion William Lombardy, who in August had won the World Junior Championship with the only perfect score (11–0) in the history of the event.^{[137][138][139]} Bisguier predicted that Fischer would "finish slightly over the center mark".^[137][140] Despite all the predictions to the contrary, Fischer scored eight wins and five draws to win the tournament by a one-point margin, with 10½/13.^[141][142] Still two months shy of his 15th birthday, Fischer became the youngest ever U.S. Champion.^[143] Since the championship that year was also the U.S. Zonal Championship, Fischer's victory earned him the title of International Master.^[144][145] Fischer's victory in the U.S. Championship sent his rating up to 2626, making him the second highest rated player in the United States, behind only Reshevsky (2713),^[146] and qualified him to participate in the 1958 Portorož Interzonal, the next step toward challenging the World Champion.^[134]

Grandmaster, candidate, author

Bobby wanted to go to Moscow. At his pleading, "Regina wrote directly to the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, requesting an invitation for Bobby to participate in the World Youth and Student Festival. The reply—affirmative—came too late for him to go."^[147] Regina did not have the money to pay the airfare, but in the following year Fischer was invited onto the game show I've Got a Secret, where, thanks to Regina's efforts, the producers of the show arranged two round-trip tickets to Russia.^[148]

Once in Russia, Fischer was invited by the Soviet Union to Moscow,^[149] where International Master Lev Abramov would serve as a guide to Bobby and his sister, Joan.^[150] Upon arrival, Fischer immediately demanded that he be taken to the Moscow Central Chess Club,^[151] where he played speed chess with "two young Soviet masters", Evgeni Vasiukov and Alexander Nikitin,^[152] winning every game.^[151] Chess author V. I. Linder writes about the impression Fischer gave grandmaster Vladimir Alatortsev when he played blitz against the Soviet masters: "Back in 1958, in the Central Chess Club, Vladimir Alatortsev saw a tall, angular 15-year-old youth, who in blitz games, crushed almost everyone who crossed his path... Alatortsev was no exception, losing all three games. He was astonished by the play of the young American Robert Fischer, his fantastic self-confidence, amazing chess erudition and simply brilliant play! On arriving home, Vladimir said in admiration to his wife: 'This is the future world champion!'"^[153]

Fischer demanded to play against Mikhail Botvinnik, the reigning World Champion. When told that this was impossible, Fischer asked to play Keres. "Finally, Tigran Petrosian was, on a semi-official basis, summoned to the club..." where he played speed games with Fischer, winning the majority.^[154] "When Bobby discovered that he wasn't going to play any formal games... he went into a not-so-silent rage",^[155] saying he was fed up "with these Russian pigs",^[156] which angered the Soviets who saw Fischer as their honored guest. It was then that the Yugoslavian chess officials offered to take in Fischer and Joan as early guests to the Interzonal. Fischer took them up on the offer, arriving in Yugoslavia to play two short training matches against masters Dragoljub Janošević and Milan Matulović.^[157] Fischer drew both games against Janošević and then defeated Matulović in Belgrade by 2½–1½.^[158]

The top six finishers in the Interzonal would qualify for the Candidates Tournament.^[159] Most observers doubted that a 15-year-old with no international experience could finish among the six qualifiers at the Interzonal, but Fischer told journalist Miro Radoicic, "I can draw with the grandmasters, and there are half-a-dozen patzers in the tournament I reckon to beat."^[160][161] Despite some bumps in the road and a problematic start, Fischer succeeded in his plan: after a strong finish, he ended up with 12/20 (+6−2=12) to tie for 5–6th.^[162] The Soviet grandmaster Yuri Averbakh observed,

In the struggle at the board this youth, almost still a child, showed himself to be a full-fledged fighter, demonstrating amazing composure, precise calculation and devilish resourcefulness. I was especially struck not even by his extensive opening knowledge, but his striving everywhere to seek new paths. In Fischer's play an enormous talent was noticeable, and in addition one sensed an enormous amount of work on the study of chess.^[163]

Soviet grandmaster David Bronstein said of Fischer's time in Portorož: "It was interesting for me to observe Fischer, but for a long time I couldn't understand why this 15-year-old boy played chess so well".^[164] Fischer became the youngest person ever to qualify for the Candidates and the youngest ever grandmaster at 15 years, 6 months, 1 day.^[165] "By then everyone knew we had a genius on our hands."^[166]

Before the Candidates' Tournament, Fischer won the 1958–59 U.S. Championship (scoring 8½/11).^[167] He tied for third (with Borislav Ivkov) in Mar del Plata (scoring 10/14), a half-point behind Ludek Pachman and Miguel Najdorf.^[168] He tied for 4–6th in Santiago (scoring 7½/12) behind Ivkov, Pachman, and Herman Pilnik.^[169]

At the Zürich International Tournament, spring 1959, Fischer finished a point behind future World Champion Mikhail Tal and a half-point behind Yugoslavian grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić.^{[170][171][172]} Tal recalled Fischer's uncompromising style: "In his game with the oldest competitor, the Hungarian grandmaster Gedeon Barcza, Fischer had no advantage, but, not wishing to let his opponent go in peace, played on to the 103rd move. The game was adjourned three times and the contestants used up two score sheets, but even when there were only the kings left on the board, Fischer made two more moves! Draw! Stunned by such a fanatical onslaught, Barcza could barely get up from his chair, but Bobby nonchalantly suggested: 'Let's have a look at the game from the beginning...' Barcza then began pleading: 'Look, I have a wife and children. Who's going to support them in the event of my untimely death!'"^[173]

Although Fischer had ended his formal education at age 16, dropping out of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, he subsequently taught himself several foreign languages so he could read foreign chess periodicals.^[174] According to Latvian chess master Alexander Koblencs, even he and Tal could not match the commitment that Fischer had made to chess. Recalling a conversation from the tournament: "'Tell me, Bobby,' Tal continued, 'what do you think of the playing style of Larissa Volpert?' 'She's too cautious. But you have another girl, Dmitrieva. Her games do appeal to me!' Here we were left literally open-mouthed in astonishment. Misha and I have looked at thousands of games, but it never even occurred to us to study the games of our women players. How could we find the time for this?! Yet Bobby, it turns out, had found the time!'"^[175]

Until late 1959, Fischer "had dressed atrociously for a champion, appearing at the most august and distinguished national and international events in sweaters and corduroys."^[176] A director of the Manhattan Chess Club had once banned Fischer for not being "properly accoutered", forcing Denker to intercede to get him reinstated.^[177] Now, encouraged by Pal Benko to dress more smartly, Fischer "began buying suits from all over the world, hand-tailored and made to order."^[178][179] He told journalist Ralph Ginzburg that he had 17 hand-tailored suits and that all of his shirts and shoes were handmade.^[180]

At the age of 16, Fischer finished equal fifth out of eight (the top non-Soviet player) at the 1959 Candidates Tournament in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade, Yugoslavia,^[181] scoring 12½/28. He was outclassed by tournament winner Tal, who won all four of their individual games.^[182] That year, Fischer released his first book of collected games: Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess, published by Simon & Schuster.^[183]

Drops out of school

Bobby's interest in chess became more important than schoolwork, to the point that "by the time he reached the fourth grade, he'd been in and out of six schools." In 1952, Regina got Bobby a scholarship (based on his chess talent and "astronomically high IQ") to Brooklyn Community Woodward.^[184][185] Fischer later attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.^[186][187] In 1959, its student council awarded him a gold medal for his chess achievements.^[188][189] The same year, Fischer dropped out of high school when he turned age 16, the earliest he could legally do so.^[190][191] He later explained to Ralph Ginzburg, "You don't learn anything in school."^[192][193]

When Fischer was 16, his mother moved out of their apartment to pursue medical training. Her friend Joan Rodker, who had met Regina when the two were "idealistic communists" living in Moscow in the 1930s, believes that Fischer resented his mother for being mostly absent as a mother, a communist activist and an admirer of the Soviet Union and that this led to his hatred for the Soviet Union. In letters to Rodker, Fischer's mother states her desire to pursue her own "obsession" of training in medicine and writes that her son would have to live in their Brooklyn apartment without her: "It sounds terrible to leave a 16-year-old to his own devices, but he is probably happier that way".^[26] The apartment was on the edge of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood that had one of the highest homicide and general crime rates in New York City.^[194] Despite the alienation from her son, Regina, in 1960, protested the practices of the American Chess Foundation^[195] and staged a five-hour protest in front of the White House, urging President Dwight Eisenhower to send an American team to that year's chess Olympiad (set for Leipzig, East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain) and to help support the team financially.^[36]

U.S. Championships

Fischer played in eight U.S. Championships, winning all of them,^[196][197] by at least a one-point margin.^[198] His results were:^{[196][199][200]}

U.S. Champ.	Score	Place	Margin	Percentage	Age
1957–58	10½/13 (+8−0=5)[201]	First	1 point	81%	14
1958–59	8½/11 (+6−0=5)[202]	First	1 point	77%	15
1959–60	9/11 (+7−0=4)[203]	First	1 point	82%	16
1960–61	9/11 (+7−0=4)[204]	First	2 points	82%	17
1962–63	8/11 (+6−1=4)[205]	First	1 point	73%	19
1963–64	11/11 (+11−0=0)[206]	First	2½ points	100%	20
1965[207]	8½/11 (+8−2=1)[208]	First	1 point	77%	22
1966–67	9½/11 (+8−0=3)[209]	First	2 points	86%	23

Fischer missed the 1961–62 Championship (he was preparing for the 1962 Interzonal), and there was no 1964–65 event.^[210] Out of eight U.S. Chess Championships, Fischer lost only three games; to Edmar Mednis in the 1962–63 event, and in consecutive rounds to Samuel Reshevsky, and Robert Byrne in the 1965 championship, culminating in a total score of 74/90 (61 wins, 26 draws, 3 losses).^[211]

Olympiads

Fischer at the age of 17 playing against 23-year-old World Champion Mikhail Tal in Leipzig

Fischer refused to play in the 1958 Munich Olympiad when his demand to play first board ahead of Samuel Reshevsky was rejected.^[212][213] Some sources claim that 15-year-old Fischer was unable to arrange leave from attending high school.^[214] Fischer would later represent the United States on first board at four Men's Chess Olympiads, winning two individual Silver and one individual Bronze medals:^[215]

Olympiad	Individual result	percentage	U.S. team result	percentage[216]
Leipzig 1960	13/18[217] (Bronze)	72.2%	Silver	72.5%
Varna 1962	11/17[218] (Eighth)	64.7%	Fourth	68.1%
Havana 1966	15/17[219] (Silver)	88.2%	Silver	68.4%
Siegen 1970	10/13[220] (Silver)	76.9%	Fourth	67.8%

Out of four Men's Chess Olympiads, Fischer scored +40−7=18, for 49/65: 75.4%.^[221][222] In 1966, Fischer narrowly missed the individual gold medal, scoring 88.23% to World Champion Tigran Petrosian's 88.46%, even though he played four games more than Petrosian, faced stiffer opposition,^[223] and would have won the gold if he had accepted Florin Gheorghiu's draw offer, rather than declining it and suffering his only loss.^[224]

At the 1962 Varna Olympiad, "Fischer met Argentina's famed Miguel Najdorf, and like Babe Ruth's famed three home run prediction, Bobby made one relative to the Argentinian. He said he would beat him in twenty-five moves; he did it in twenty-four, accounting for Najdorf's only loss of the tournament."^[225] Ironically, Najdorf lost the game whilst employing the very opening variation named after him: the Sicilian Najdorf.^[226]

Fischer had planned to play for the U.S. at the 1968 Lugano Olympiad, but backed out when he saw the poor playing conditions.^[227] Both former World Champion Tigran Petrosian and Belgian-American International Master George Koltanowski, the "leader of the American team" that year, felt that Fischer was "justified" in not participating in the Olympiad.^[228] According to Lombardy, Fischer's non-participation was due to Reshevsky's refusal to "yield first board".^[229]

1960–61

In 1960, Fischer tied for first place with Soviet star Boris Spassky at the strong Mar del Plata Tournament in Argentina, winning by a two-point margin, scoring 13½/15 (+13−1=1),^[230][231] ahead of David Bronstein.^[232] Fischer lost only to Spassky; this was the start of their lifelong friendship.^[233]

Fischer experienced the only failure in his competitive career^[234] at the Buenos Aires Tournament (1960), finishing with 8½/19 (+3−5=11), far behind winners Viktor Korchnoi and Samuel Reshevsky with 13/19.^[235] According to Larry Evans, Fischer's first sexual experience was with a girl to whom Evans introduced him during the tournament.^[236][237] Pal Benko says that Fischer did horribly in the tournament "because he got caught up in women and sex. Afterwards, Fischer said he'd never mix women and chess together, and kept the promise."^[238] Fischer concluded 1960 by winning a small tournament in Reykjavík with 4½/5,^[239] and defeating Klaus Darga in an exhibition game in West Berlin.^[240]

In 1961, Fischer started a 16-game match with Reshevsky, split between New York and Los Angeles.^[241] Reshevsky, 32 years Fischer's senior, was considered the favorite, since he had far more match experience and had never lost a set match.^[242] After 11 games and a tie score (two wins apiece with seven draws), the match ended prematurely due to a scheduling dispute between Fischer and match organizer and sponsor Jacqueline Piatigorsky.^[243][244] Reshevsky was declared the winner, by default, and received the winner's share of the prize fund.^[245]

Fischer was second in a super-class field, behind only former World Champion Tal, at Bled, 1961.^[246] Yet, Fischer defeated Tal head-to-head for the first time in their individual game, scored 3½/4 against the Soviet contingent, and finished as the only unbeaten player, with 13½/19 (+8−0=11).^[247][248]

1962: success, setback, accusations of collusion

Fischer won the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal by a 2½-point margin,^[249] going undefeated, with 17½/22 (+13−0=9).^[250][251] He was the first non-Soviet player to win an Interzonal since FIDE instituted the tournament in 1948.^[252] Russian grandmaster Alexander Kotov said of Fischer:^[253]

I have discussed Fischer's play with Max Euwe and Gideon Stahlberg. All of us, experienced 'tournament old-timers', were surprised by Fischer's endgame expertise. When a young player is good at attacking or at combinations, this is understandable, but a faultless endgame technique at the age of 19 is something rare. I can recall only one other player who at that age was equally skillful at endgames — Vasily Smyslov.

Fischer's victory made him a favorite for the Candidates Tournament in Curaçao.^[254][255] Yet, despite his result in the Interzonal, Fischer only finished fourth out of eight with 14/27 (+8−7=12),^[256] far behind Tigran Petrosian (17½/27), Efim Geller, and Paul Keres (both 17/27).^[257] Tal fell very ill during the tournament, and had to withdraw before completion. Fischer, a friend of Tal, was the only contestant who visited him in the hospital.^[258]

Accuses Soviets of collusion

Following his failure^[259] in the 1962 Candidates, Fischer asserted, in an August 20, 1962 Sports Illustrated article, entitled "The Russians Have Fixed World Chess", that three of the five Soviet players (Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, and Efim Geller) had a prearranged agreement to quickly draw their games against each other in order to conserve their energy for playing against Fischer. It is generally thought that this accusation is correct.^[260][261] Fischer stated that he would never again participate in a Candidates' tournament, since the format, combined with the alleged collusion, made it impossible for a non-Soviet player to win. Following Fischer's article, FIDE, in late 1962, voted to implement a radical reform of the playoff system, replacing the Candidates' tournament with a format of one-on-one knockout matches; the format that Fischer would dominate in 1971.^[261][262]

Fischer defeated Bent Larsen in a summer 1962 exhibition game in Copenhagen for Danish TV. Later that year, Fischer beat Bogdan Śliwa in a team match against Poland in Warsaw.^[263]

In the 1962–63 U.S. Championship, Fischer experienced his first single-game loss (to Edmar Mednis) in round one. Bisguier was in excellent form, and Fischer caught up to him only at the end. Tied at 7–3, the two met in the final round. Bisguier stood well in the middlegame, but blundered, handing Fischer his fifth consecutive U.S. championship.^[264]

Religious affiliation

Although Fischer's mother was Jewish, Fischer disavowed having Jewish roots.^[265] In an interview in the January 1962 issue of Harper's, Fischer was quoted as saying, "I read a book lately by Nietzsche and he says religion is just to dull the senses of the people. I agree."^[266][267]

Fischer joined the Worldwide Church of God in the mid-1960s. The church prescribed Saturday Sabbath, and forbade work (and competitive chess) on Sabbath.^[268] During the mid 1970s Fischer contributed significant money to the Worldwide Church of God.^[269] In 1972 one journalist stated that "Fischer is almost as serious about religion as he is about chess", and the champion credited his faith with greatly improving his chess.^[270] Yet, prophecies by Herbert W. Armstrong went unfulfilled,^[271] and the church was rocked by revelations of a series of sex scandals involving Garner Ted Armstrong.^[272] Fischer eventually left the church in 1977, "accusing it of being 'Satanic', and vigorously attacking its methods and leadership."^[273]

Semi-retirement in the mid-1960s

Influenced by ill will over the aborted 1961 match against Reshevsky, Fischer declined an invitation to play in the 1963 Piatigorsky Cup tournament in Los Angeles, which had a world-class field.^[274] He instead played in the Western Open in Bay City, Michigan, which he won with 7½/8.^[275][276] In August–September 1963, Fischer won the New York State Championship at Poughkeepsie, with 7/7, his first perfect score,^[277] "ahead of Bisguier and Sherwin".^[278]

In the 1963–64 U.S. Championship, Fischer achieved his second perfect score, this time against the top-ranked chess players in the country: "This tournament became, as they say, the stuff of legend. The fact that Fischer won his sixth U.S. title was no surprise. The way he did it was spectacular."^[206] "One by one Fischer mowed down the opposition as he cut an 11–0 swathe through the field, to demonstrate convincingly to the opposition that he was now in a class by himself."^[274] This result brought Fischer heightened fame, including a profile in Life magazine.^[279] Sports Illustrated diagrammed each of the 11 games in its article, "The Amazing Victory Streak of Bobby Fischer".^[280] Such extensive chess coverage was groundbreaking for the top American sports' magazine. His 11–0 win in the 1963–64 Championship is the only perfect score in the history of the tournament,^[281][282] and one of about ten perfect scores in high-level chess tournaments ever.^{[283][284][285]} David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld called it "the most remarkable achievement of this kind".^[283] Fischer recalls:^[286] "Motivated by my lopsided result (11–0!), Dr. [Hans] Kmoch congratulated [Larry] Evans (the runner up) on 'winning' the tournament... and then he congratulated me on 'winning the exhibition'."

International Master Anthony Saidy recalled his last round encounter with the undefeated Fischer:^[287]

Going into the final game I certainly did not expect to upset Fischer. I hardly knew the opening but played simply, and he went along with the scenario, opting for a N-v-B [i.e., Knight vs. Bishop] endgame with a minimal edge. In the corridor, Evans said to me, 'Good. Show him we're not all children.'

At adjournment, Saidy saw a way to force a draw, yet "sealed a different, wrong move", and lost. "The rest is history."^[287] "Chess publications around the world wrote of the unparalleled achievement. Only Bent Larsen, always a Fischer detractor, was unimpressed: 'Fischer was playing against children'".^[288]

Fischer, eligible as U.S. Champion, decided against his participation in the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal, taking himself out of the 1966 World Championship cycle,^[289] even after FIDE changed the format of the eight-player Candidates Tournament from a round-robin to a series of knockout matches, which eliminated the possibility of collusion.^[279] Instead, Fischer embarked on a tour of the United States and Canada from February through May, playing a simultaneous exhibition, and giving a lecture in each of more than 40 cities.^[290] His 94% winning percentage over more than 2,000 games is one of the best ever achieved.^[291] Fischer declined an invitation to play for the U.S. in the 1964 Olympiad in Tel Aviv.^[292]

Successful return

Fischer wanted to play in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament, Havana in August and September 1965.^[293] Since the State Department refused to endorse Fischer's passport as valid for visiting Cuba,^[294] he proposed, and the tournament officials and players accepted, a unique arrangement: Fischer played his moves from a room at the Marshall Chess Club, which were then transmitted by teleprinter to Cuba.^{[295][296][297][298]} Luděk Pachman observed that Fischer "was handicapped by the longer playing session resulting from the time wasted in transmitting the moves, and that is one reason why he lost to three of his chief rivals."^[299] The tournament was an "ordeal" for Fischer, who had to endure eight-hour and sometimes even twelve-hour playing sessions.^[300] Despite the handicap, Fischer tied for second through fourth places, with 15/21 (+12−3=6),^[301] behind former World Champion Vasily Smyslov, whom Fischer defeated in their individual game.^[299] The tournament received extensive media coverage.^[302][303]

In December, Fischer won his seventh U.S. Championship (1965), with the score of 8½/11 (+8−2=1),^[304] despite losing to Robert Byrne and Reshevsky in the eighth and ninth rounds.^[305][306] Fischer also reconciled with Mrs. Piatigorsky, accepting an invitation to the very strong second Piatigorsky Cup (1966) tournament in Santa Monica. Fischer began disastrously and after eight rounds was tied for last with 3/8. He then staged "the most sensational comeback in the history of grandmaster chess", scoring 7/8 in the next eight rounds. In the end, World Chess Championship finalist Boris Spassky edged him out by a half point, scoring 11½/18 to Fischer's 11/18 (+7−3=8).^[307][308] Now aged 23, Fischer would win every match or tournament he completed for the rest of his life.^[309]

Fischer won the U.S. Championship (1966–67) for the eighth and final time, ceding only three draws (+8−0=3),^[310][311] In March–April and August–September, Fischer won strong tournaments at Monte Carlo, with 7/9 (+6−1=2),^[312] and Skopje, with 13½/17 (+12−2=3).^[313][314] In the Philippines, Fischer played nine exhibition games against master opponents, scoring 8½/9.^[315]

Withdrawal while leading Interzonal

Fischer's win in the 1966–67 U.S. Championship qualified him for the next World Championship cycle.^[304]

At the 1967 Interzonal, held at Sousse, Tunisia, Fischer scored 8½ points in the first 10 games, to lead the field. His observance of the Worldwide Church of God's seventh-day Sabbath was honored by the organizers, but deprived Fischer of several rest days, which led to a scheduling dispute,^[316] causing Fischer to forfeit two games in protest and later withdraw, eliminating himself from the 1969 World Championship cycle.^[317] Communications difficulties with the highly inexperienced local organizers were also a significant factor, since Fischer knew no French and the organizers had very limited English. No one in Tunisian chess had previous experience running an event of this stature.^[318]

Since Fischer had completed less than half of his scheduled games, all of his results were annulled, meaning players who had played Fischer had those games cancelled, and the scores nullified from the official tournament record.^[262]

Second semi-retirement

In 1968, Fischer won tournaments at Netanya, with 11½/13 (+10−0=3),^[319] and Vinkovci, with 11/13 (+9−0=4),^[320] by large margins.^[321] Fischer then stopped playing for the next 18 months, except for a win against Anthony Saidy in a 1969 New York Metropolitan League team match.^[322][323] That year, Fischer (assisted by grandmaster Larry Evans) released his second book of collected games: My 60 Memorable Games, published by Simon & Schuster. The book "was an immediate success".^[324]

World Champion

In 1970, Fischer began a new effort to become World Champion. His dramatic march toward the title made him a household name and made chess front-page news for a time. He won the title in 1972, but forfeited it three years later.

Road to the World Championship

Bobby Fischer's scoresheet from his round 3 game against Miguel Najdorf in the 1970 Chess Olympiad in Siegen, Germany

The 1969 U.S. Championship was also a zonal qualifier, with the top three finishers advancing to the Interzonal. Fischer, however, had sat out the U.S. Championship because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. Benko, one of the three qualifiers, agreed to give up his spot in the Interzonal in order to give Fischer another shot at the World Championship.^{[325][326][327][328][329]} "When it was suggested to Fischer that Benko was considering the gesture based on a large sum of money to be paid to him, Bobby replied that Benko would not give up his berth for money alone. It was a matter of honor".^[330][331] "Lombardy, who was next in line with the right to participate, was queried as to whether he would also step aside. 'I would like to play,' he answered, 'but Fischer should have the chance.'"^[330]

Before the Interzonal, in March and April 1970, the world's best players competed in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, often referred to as "the Match of the Century". There was much surprise when Fischer decided to participate:^[332]

Fischer had not played competitive chess for eighteen months, and many thought he would never return. Then, to general surprise and delight, he agreed to participate in the Soviet Union vs. the Rest of the World in 1970 in Belgrade.

With Evans as his second,^[333] Fischer flew to Belgrade^[334] with the intention of playing board one for the rest of the world.^[335][336] Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen, however, (due to his recent tournament victories) demanded to play first board instead of Fischer, even though Fischer had the higher Elo rating.^[336][337] To the surprise of everyone, Fischer agreed.^[338][339] Although the USSR team eked out a 20 ½–19 ½ victory, "On the top four boards, the Soviets managed to win only one game out of a possible sixteen. Bobby Fischer was the high scorer for his team, with a 3–1 score against Petrosian (two wins and two draws)".^[340] "Fischer left no doubt in anyone's mind that he had put his temporary break from the tournament circuit to good use. Petrosian was almost unrecognizable in the first two games, and by the time he had collected himself, although pressing his opponent, he could do no more than draw the last two games of the four-game set".^[336]

After the USSR versus the Rest of the World Match, the unofficial World Championship of Lightning Chess (5-minute games) was held at Herceg Novi. "[The Russians] figured on teaching Fischer a lesson and on bringing him down a peg or two".^[341] Petrosian and Tal were considered the favorites,^[342] but Fischer overwhelmed the super-class field with 19/22 (+17−1=4), far ahead of Tal (14½), Korchnoi (14), Petrosian (13½), and Bronstein (13).^[342][343] Fischer lost only one game (to Korchnoi, who was also the only player to achieve an even score against him in the double round robin tournament).^[344][345] Fischer "crushed such blitz kings as Tal, Petrosian and Vasily Smyslov by a clean score".^[346] Tal marveled that, "During the entire tournament he didn't leave a single pawn en prise!", while the other players "blundered knights and bishops galore".^[346][347] For Lombardy, who had played many blitz games with Fischer,^[348] Fischer's 4½-point margin of victory "came as a pleasant surprise".^[349]

Fischer in Belgrade for the USSR vs Rest of the World match in 1970

In April–May 1970, Fischer won at Rovinj/Zagreb with 13/17 (+10−1=6), by a two-point margin, ahead of Gligorić, Hort, Korchnoi, Smyslov, and Petrosian.^[350][351] In July–August, Fischer crushed the mostly grandmaster field at Buenos Aires, winning by a 3½-point margin, scoring 15/17 (+13−0=4).^[352] Fischer then played first board for the U.S. Team in the 19th Chess Olympiad in Siegen, where he won an individual Silver medal, scoring 10/13 (+8−1=4),^[220] with his only loss being to World Champion Boris Spassky.^[353] Right after the Olympiad, Fischer defeated Ulf Andersson in an exhibition game for the Swedish newspaper Expressen.^[354] Fischer had taken his game to a new level.^[355]

Fischer won the Interzonal (held in Palma de Mallorca in November and December 1970) with 18½/23 (+15−1=7),^[356] far ahead of Larsen, Efim Geller, and Robert Hübner, with 15/23.^[357][358] Fischer finished the tournament with seven consecutive wins.^[359][360] Setting aside the Sousse Interzonal (which Fischer withdrew from while leading), Fischer's victory gave him a string of eight consecutive first prizes in tournaments.^[327] Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik was not, however, impressed by Fischer's results, stating: "Fischer has been declared a genius. I do not agree with this... In order to rightly be declared a genius in chess, you have to defeat equal opponents by a big margin. As yet he has not done this".^[361] Despite Botvinnik's remarks, "Fischer began a miraculous year in the history of chess".^[362]

In the 1971 Candidates matches, Fischer was set to play against Soviet grandmaster and concert pianist^[363] Mark Taimanov in the quarter-finals. "Their match was to begin in May 1971 in Vancouver, Canada, on the beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia".^[364] "Analysts and players alike predicted that Fischer would win the Candidates, but not without a struggle. Tal predicted that Fischer would win 5½–4½ against Taimanov".^[364] "[Fischer] saw himself as the firm favorite in the Taimanov match. He was not alone; the noncommunist press was of the same mind. Only Taimanov insisted that he could win, dismissing Fischer as a mere computer".^[365] Taimanov had reason to be confident. He was backed by the firm guidance of Botvinnik, who "had thoroughly analysed Fischer's record and put together a 'dossier' on him", from when he was in talks to play Fischer in a match "a couple of years earlier".^[366] After Fischer defeated Taimanov in the second game of the match, Taimanov asked Fischer how he managed to come up with the move 12. N1c3, to which Fischer replied "that the idea was not his—he had come across it in the monograph by the Soviet master Alexander Nikitin in a footnote".^[367] Taimanov said of this: "It is staggering that I, an expert on the Sicilian, should have missed this theoretically significant idea by my compatriot, while Fischer had uncovered it in a book in a foreign language!"^[368] With the score at 4–0, in Fischer's favor, the fifth game adjournment was a sight to behold.^[369] Schonberg explains the scene:^[341]

Taimanov came to Vancouver with two seconds, both grandmasters. Fischer was alone. He thought that the sight of Taimanov and his seconds was the funniest thing he had ever seen. There Taimanov and his seconds would sit, six hands flying, pocket sets waving in the air, while variations were being spouted all over the place. And there sat Taimanov with a confused look on his face. Just before resuming play [in the fifth game] the seconds were giving Taimanov some last-minute advice. When poor Taimanov entered the playing room and sat down to confront Fischer, his head was so full of conflicting continuations that he became rattled, left a Rook en prise and immediately resigned.

Fischer beat Taimanov by the score of 6–0.^[370] "The record books showed that the only comparable achievement to the 6–0 score against Taimanov was Wilhelm Steinitz's 7–0 win against Joseph Henry Blackburne in 1876 in an era of more primitive defensive technique."^[371] "Who would have imagined that any challenger's match would ever have been decided by a perfect score, when the participants are all to be ranked among the strongest players in the world?"^[372] "It is difficult to portray to non-chess players the magnitude of such a shutout. A typical result between well-matched players might be, say, six wins to four, with nine draws".^[373] Taimanov later recalled, "When Grand Masters play, they see the logic of their opponent's moves. One's moves may be so powerful that the other may not be able to stop him, but the plan behind the moves will be clear. Not so with Fischer. His moves did not make sense..."^[374]

Upon losing the final game of the match, Taimanov shrugged his shoulders, saying sadly to Fischer: "Well, I still have my music."^[375] As a result of his performance, Taimanov "was thrown out of the USSR team and forbidden to travel for two years. He was banned from writing articles, was deprived of his monthly stipend... [and] the authorities prohibited him from performing on the concert platform."^[376] "The crushing loss virtually ended Taimanov's chess career."^[377]

Fischer was next scheduled to play against Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen. "Spassky predicted a tight struggle: 'Larsen is a little stronger in spirit.'"^[378] Before the match, Botvinnik had told a Soviet television audience:^[379]

It is hard to say how their match will end, but it is clear that such an easy victory as in Vancouver [against Taimanov] will not be given to Fischer. I think Larsen has unpleasant surprises in store for [Fischer], all the more since having dealt with Taimanov thus, Fischer will want to do just the same to Larsen and this is impossible.

Fischer beat Larsen by the score of 6–0.^[380] Robert Byrne writes: "To a certain extent I could grasp the Taimanov match as a kind of curiosity–almost a freak, a strange chess occurrence that would never occur again. But now I am at a loss for anything whatever to say... So, it is out of the question for me to explain how Bobby, how anyone, could win six games in a row from such a genius of the game as Bent Larsen".^[381] Just a year before, Larsen had played first board for the Rest of the World team ahead of Fischer, and had handed Fischer his only loss at the Interzonal. Garry Kasparov later wrote that no player had ever shown a superiority over his rivals comparable to Fischer's "incredible" 12–0 score in the two matches.^[382] Chess statistician Jeff Sonas concludes that the victory over Larsen gave Fischer the "highest single-match performance rating ever".^[383]

On August 8, 1971, while preparing for his last Candidates match with former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, Fischer played in the Manhattan Chess Club Rapid Tournament, winning with 21½/22 against a strong field.^[343][384]

Despite Fischer's results against Taimanov and Larsen, his upcoming match against Petrosian seemed a daunting task.^[385] Nevertheless, the Soviet government was concerned about Fischer.^[386][387] "Reporters asked Petrosian whether the match would last the full twelve games... 'It might be possible that I win it earlier,' Petrosian replied",^[388] and then stated: "Fischer's [nineteen consecutive] wins do not impress me. He is a great chess player but no genius".^[389] Petrosian played a strong theoretical novelty in the first game, gaining the advantage, but Fischer eventually won the game after Petrosian faltered.^{[390][391][392]} This gave Fischer a run of 20 consecutive wins against the world's top players (in the Interzonal and Candidates matches), a winning streak topped only by Steinitz's 25 straight wins in 1873–82.^[393] Petrosian won the second game, finally snapping Fischer's streak.^[394] After three consecutive draws, Fischer swept the next four games to win the match 6½–2½ (+5−1=3).^[395] Sports Illustrated ran an article on the match, highlighting Fischer's domination of Petrosian as being due to Petrosian's outdated system of preparation:^[396]

Fischer's recent record raises the distinct possibility that he has made a breakthrough in modern chess theory. His response to Petrosian's elaborately plotted 11th move in the first game is an example: Russian experts had worked on the variation for weeks, yet when it was thrown at Fischer suddenly, he faced its consequences alone and won by applying simple, classic principles.

Upon completion of the match, Petrosian remarked: "After the sixth game Fischer really did become a genius. I on the other hand, either had a breakdown or was tired, or something else happened, but the last three games were no longer chess."^[397][398] "Some experts kept insisting that Petrosian was off form, and that he should have had a plus score at the end of the sixth game..." to which Fischer replied, "People have been playing against me below strength for fifteen years."^[399] Fischer's match results befuddled Botvinnik: "It is hard to talk about Fischer's matches. Since the time that he has been playing them, miracles have begun."^[400] "When Petrosian played like Petrosian, Fischer played like a very strong grandmaster, but when Petrosian began making mistakes, Fischer was transformed into a genius."^[400]

Fischer gained a far higher rating than any player in history up to that time.^[401] On the July 1972 FIDE rating list, his Elo rating of 2785 was 125 points above (World No. 2) Spassky's rating of 2660.^{[402][403][404]} His results put him on the cover of Life magazine,^[405] and allowed him to challenge World Champion Boris Spassky, whom he had never beaten (+0−3=2).^[406][407]

World Championship match

Fischer in Amsterdam in 1972, on a visit to discuss the World Chess Championship details with the then FIDE president Max Euwe

Fischer in Amsterdam in 1972

Fischer's career-long stubbornness about match and tournament conditions was again seen in the run-up to his match with Spassky. Of the possible sites, Fischer's first choice was Belgrade, Yugoslavia, while Spassky's was Reykjavík, Iceland.^[408] For a time it appeared that the dispute would be resolved by splitting the match between the two locations, but that arrangement failed.^[409] After that issue was resolved, Fischer refused to appear in Iceland until the prize fund was increased. London financier Jim Slater donated an additional US$125,000, bringing the prize fund up to an unprecedented $250,000 (equivalent to $1,414,000 in 2015),^[410] and Fischer finally agreed to play.^[411]

Before and during the match, Fischer paid special attention to his physical training and fitness, which was a relatively novel approach for top chess players at that time. He had developed his tennis skills to a good level, and played frequently during off-days in Reykjavík. He had also arranged for exclusive use of his hotel's swimming pool during specified hours, and swam for extended periods, usually late at night.^[412] According to Soviet grandmaster Nikolai Krogius, Fischer "was paying great attention to sport, and that he was swimming and even boxing..."^[413]

The match took place in Reykjavík from July to September 1972 and was the first to receive an American broadcast in prime time.^[414][415] Fischer lost the first two games in strange fashion: the first when he played a risky pawn-grab in a drawn endgame, the second by forfeit when he refused to play the game in a dispute over playing conditions.^[416] Fischer would likely have forfeited the entire match, but Spassky, not wanting to win by default, yielded to Fischer's demands to move the next game to a back room, away from the cameras whose presence had upset Fischer.^[417][418] After that game, the match was moved back to the stage and proceeded without further serious incident. Fischer won seven of the next 19 games, losing only one and drawing eleven, to win the match 12½–8½ and become the 11th World Chess Champion.^[414]

The Cold War trappings made the match a media sensation.^[419] It was called "The Match of the Century",^{[420][421][422]} and received front-page media coverage in the United States and around the world.^[423][424] Fischer's win was an American victory in a field that Soviet players had dominated for the previous quarter-century; players closely identified with, and subsidized by, the Soviet state. Kasparov remarked, "Fischer fits ideologically into the context of the Cold War era: a lone American genius challenges the Soviet chess machine and defeats it".^[425][426] Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman calls Fischer's victory "the story of a lonely hero who overcomes an entire empire".^[427] Fischer's sister observed, "Bobby did all this in a country almost totally without a chess culture. It was as if an Eskimo had cleared a tennis court in the snow and gone on to win the world championship".^[428]

Upon Fischer's return to New York,^[429] a Bobby Fischer Day was held.^[430] He was offered numerous product endorsement offers worth "at least $5 million" (all of which he declined).^[431] He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated^[432] with American Olympic swimming champion Mark Spitz. Fischer also made an appearance on a Bob Hope TV special.^[433] Membership in the U.S. Chess Federation doubled in 1972,^[434] and peaked in 1974; in American chess, these years are commonly referred to as the "Fischer Boom". Fischer won the 'Chess Oscar'^[435] (an award, started in 1967, given to the best chess player, determined through votes from chess media and leading players) for 1970, 1971, and 1972.^[436]

Forfeiture of title

Fischer was scheduled to defend his title in 1975 against Anatoly Karpov, who emerged as his challenger.^[437] Fischer, who had played no competitive games since his World Championship match with Spassky, laid out a proposal for the match in September 1973, in consultation with FIDE official Fred Cramer. He made three principal (non-negotiable) demands:

1. The match continues until one player wins 10 games, draws not counting.
2. No limit to the total number of games played.
3. In case of a 9–9 score, the champion (Fischer) retains the title, and the prize fund is split equally.^[438]

A FIDE Congress was held in 1974 during the Nice Olympiad. The delegates voted in favor of Fischer's 10-win proposal, but rejected his other two proposals, and limited the number of games in the match to 36.^[439] In response to FIDE's ruling, Fischer sent a cable to Euwe on June 27, 1974.^{[440][441][442]}

As I made clear in my telegram to the FIDE delegates, the match conditions I proposed were non-negotiable. Mr. Cramer informs me that the rules of the winner being the first player to win ten games, draws not counting, unlimited number of games and if nine wins to nine match is drawn with champion regaining title and prize fund split equally were rejected by the FIDE delegates. By so doing FIDE has decided against my participation in the 1975 World Chess Championship. Therefore, I resign my FIDE World Chess Championship title. Sincerely, Bobby Fischer.

The delegates responded by reaffirming their prior decisions, but did not accept Fischer's resignation and requested that he reconsider.^[443] Many observers considered Fischer's requested 9–9 clause unfair because it would require the challenger to win by at least two games (10–8).^[444] Botvinnik called the 9–9 clause "unsporting".^[445] Korchnoi, David Bronstein, and Lev Alburt considered the 9–9 clause reasonable.^{[446][447][448]}

Due to the continued efforts of U.S. Chess Association officials,^[449] a special FIDE Congress was held in March 1975 in Bergen,^[450] Netherlands in which it was accepted that the match should be of unlimited duration, but the 9–9 clause was once again rejected, by a narrow margin of 35 votes to 32.^[451] FIDE set a deadline of April 1, 1975, for Fischer and Karpov to confirm their participation in the match. No reply was received from Fischer by April 3. Thus, by default, Karpov officially became World Champion.^[452] In his 1991 autobiography, Karpov professed regret that the match had not taken place, and claimed that the lost opportunity to challenge Fischer held back his own chess development. Karpov met with Fischer several times after 1975, in friendly but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to arrange a match since Karpov would never agree to play to 10.^[453]

Brian Carney opined in The Wall Street Journal that Fischer's victory over Spassky in 1972 left him nothing to prove, except that perhaps someone could someday beat him, and he was not interested in the risk of losing. And that Fischer's refusal to recognize peers also allowed his paranoia to flower: "The world championship he won ... validated his view of himself as a chess player, but it also insulated him from the humanizing influences of the world around him. He descended into what can only be considered a kind of madness".^[261]

Bronstein felt that Fischer "had the right to play the match with Karpov on his own conditions".^[454] Korchnoi stated:^[455]

Was Fischer right in demanding that the world title be protected by a two point handicap – that the challenger would be considered the winner with a 10–8 score and that the champion would retain his title in the event of a 9–9 draw? Yes, this was quite natural: the champion deserves this, not to mention the fact that further play to the first win in the event of an even score would be nothing short of a lottery – the winner in that case could not claim to have won a convincing victory.

Soviet grandmaster Lev Alburt felt that the decision to not concede to Fischer's demands rested on Karpov's "sober view of what he was capable of".^[456] Years later, in his 1992 match against Spassky, Fischer said that Karpov "refused to play against [him] under [his] conditions".^[457]

Sudden obscurity

After the 1972 World Chess Championship, Fischer did not play a competitive game in public for nearly 20 years.^[458] In 1977 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he played three games against the MIT Greenblatt computer program, winning them all.^[459]

On May 26, 1981, while walking in Pasadena, Fischer was arrested by a police patrolman, allegedly because Fischer matched the description of a man who had just committed a bank robbery in the area.^[460] Fischer, who alleged that he was slightly injured during the arrest,^[461] said that he was held for two days, subjected to assault and various types of mistreatment,^[462] and released on $1,000 bail.^[463] Fischer published a 14-page pamphlet detailing his alleged experiences and saying that his arrest had been "a frame up and set up".^{[464][465][466]}

In 1981, Fischer stayed at the home of grandmaster Peter Biyiasas, where, over a period of four months, he beat Biyiasas seventeen times in a series of speed games.^[273][467] In an interview with Sports Illustrated reporter William Nack, Biyiasas assessed Fischer's play:^[466][468]

He was too good. There was no use in playing him. It wasn't interesting. I was getting beaten, and it wasn't clear to me why. It wasn't like I made this mistake or that mistake. It was like I was being gradually outplayed, from the start. He wasn't taking any time to think. The most depressing thing about it is that I wasn't even getting out of the middle game to an endgame. I don't ever remember an endgame. He honestly believes there is no one for him to play, no one worthy of him. I played him, and I can attest to that.

1992 Spassky rematch

Fischer emerged after twenty years of isolation to play Spassky (then tied for 96th–102nd on the FIDE rating list) in a "Revenge Match of the 20th century" in 1992. This match took place in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in spite of a United Nations embargo that included sanctions on commercial activities. Fischer demanded that the organizers bill the match as "The World Chess Championship", although Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE World Champion. Fischer insisted he was still the true World Champion, and that for all the games in the FIDE-sanctioned World Championship matches, involving Karpov, Korchnoi, and Kasparov, the outcomes had been prearranged.^[469] The purse for the rematch was US$5 million, with $3.35 million of the purse to go to the winner.^[470] According to grandmaster Andrew Soltis:^[471]

[The match games] were of a fairly high quality, particularly when compared with Kasparov's championship matches of 1993, 1995 and 2000, for example. Yet the games also reminded many fans of how out of place Fischer was in 1992. He was still playing the openings of a previous generation. He was, moreover, the only strong player in the world who didn't trust computers and wasn't surrounded by seconds and supplicants.

Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws.^[472] Kasparov stated, "Bobby is playing OK, nothing more. Maybe his strength is 2600 or 2650. It wouldn't be close between us".^[473] Yasser Seirawan believed that the match proved that Fischer's playing strength was "somewhere in the top ten in the world".^[474]

Fischer and Spassky gave ten press conferences during the match.^[475] Seirawan attended the match and met with Fischer on several occasions; the two analyzed some match games and had personal discourse. Seirawan later wrote: "After September 23 [1992], I threw most of what I'd ever read about Bobby out of my head. Sheer garbage. Bobby is the most misunderstood, misquoted celebrity walking the face of the earth."^[476] He further wrote that Fischer was not camera shy, smiled and laughed easily, was "a fine wit" and "wholly enjoyable conversationalist".^[477]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury warned Fischer before the start of the match that his participation was illegal, that it would violate President George H. W. Bush's Executive Order 12810 imposing United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia.^[478] In response, during the first scheduled press conference on September 1, in front of the international press, Fischer spat on the U.S. order, saying "this is my reply".^[479] His violation of the order led U.S. Federal officials to initiate a warrant for his arrest upon completion of the match,^[480] citing, in pertinent part, "Title 50 USC §§1701, 1702, and 1705 and Executive Order 12810".^{[481][482][483]}

Prior to the rematch against Spassky, Fischer had won a training match against Svetozar Gligorić in Sveti Stefan with six wins, one loss and three draws.^[484]

Life as an émigré

After the 1992 match with Spassky, Fischer, now a fugitive, slid back into relative obscurity, taking up residence in Budapest, Hungary, and allegedly having a relationship with young Hungarian chess master Zita Rajcsányi.^[466][485]

Fischer claimed that standard chess was stale and that he now played blitz games of chess variants, such as Chess960. He visited with the Polgár family in Budapest and analyzed many games with Judit, Zsuzsa, and Zsófia Polgár.^{[486][487][488]}

From 2000 to 2002, Fischer lived in Baguio City in the Philippines,^[489] residing in the same compound as the Filipino grandmaster Eugenio Torre, a close friend who acted as his second during his 1992 match with Spassky.^[489] Torre introduced Fischer to a 22-year-old woman named Marilyn Young.^[490] On May 21, 2001 Marilyn Young gave birth to a daughter named Jinky Young.^[491][492] Her mother claimed that Jinky was Fischer's daughter, citing as evidence Jinky's birth and baptismal certificates, photographs, a transaction record dated December 4, 2007 of a bank remittance by Fischer to Jinky, and Jinky's DNA through her blood samples.^{[491][493][494]} On the other hand, Magnús Skúlason, a friend of Fischer's, said that he was certain that Fischer was not the girl's father.^[495] On August 17, 2010, it was reported that a DNA test revealed that Jinky Young was not the daughter of Bobby Fischer.^[496][497]

Anti-semitic statements

Fischer made numerous anti-Jewish statements and professed a general hatred for Jews since at least the early 1960s.^[267][498] Jan Hein Donner wrote that at the time of Bled 1961, "He idolized Hitler and read everything about him that he could lay his hands on. He also championed a brand of anti-semitism that could only be thought up by a mind completely cut off from reality".^[234] Donner took Fischer to a war museum, which "left a great impression, since [Fischer] is not an evil person, and afterwards he was more restrained in his remarks—to me, at least."^[234]

Although Fischer described his mother as Jewish in a 1962 interview,^[267] he later denied his Jewish ancestry.^[33] In 1984, Fischer denied being a Jew in a letter to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, insisting that they remove his name and accusing them of "fraudulently misrepresenting me to be a Jew [...] to promote your religion".^[499]

From the 1980s on, Fischer's comments about Jews were a major theme in his public and private remarks.^[500] He openly denied the Holocaust, and called the United States "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards".^[501] Between 1999 and 2006, Fischer's primary means of communicating with the public was radio interviews. He participated in at least 34 such broadcasts, mostly with radio stations in the Philippines, but also in Hungary, Iceland, Colombia, and Russia. In 1999, he gave a radio call-in interview to a station in Budapest, Hungary, during which he described himself as the "victim of an international Jewish conspiracy". In another radio interview, Fischer said that it became clear to him in 1977, after reading The Secret World Government by Count Cherep-Spiridovich, that Jewish agencies were targeting him.^[502] Fischer's sudden reemergence was apparently triggered when 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.^[503]

Fischer's library contained anti-semitic and racist literature such as Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and The White Man's Bible and Nature's Eternal Religion by Ben Klassen, founder of the World Church of the Creator.^[504][505] A notebook written by Fischer contains sentiments such as "8/24/99 Death to the Jews. Just kill the Motherfuckers!" and "12/13/99 It's time to start randomly killing Jews".^[506] Despite his views, Fischer remained on good terms with Jewish chess players.^[507]

Anti-American and anti-Israel statements

Shortly after midnight on September 12, 2001, Philippines local time (approximately four hours after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S.), Fischer was interviewed live by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio City station of the Bombo Radyo network. Fischer stated that he was happy that the airliner attacks had happened, while expressing his view on U.S. and Israeli foreign policy, saying "I applaud the act. Look, nobody gets ... that the U.S. and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians ... for years."^{[508][509][510][511]} He also said "The horrible behavior that the U.S. is committing all over the world ... This just shows you, that what goes around, comes around even for the United States."^[508][509] Fischer also referenced the movie Seven Days in May and said he hoped for a military coup d'état in the U.S., "[I hope] the country will be taken over by the military, they'll close down all the synagogues, arrest all the Jews, execute hundreds of thousands of Jewish ringleaders."^[512][513] In response to Fischer's statements about 9/11, the U.S. Chess Federation passed a motion to evict him from its organization.^[514]

Detention in Japan

Fischer lived for a time in Japan.^[515] On July 13, 2004, acting in response to a letter from U.S. officials, he was arrested by Japanese immigration authorities at Narita International Airport near Tokyo for allegedly using a revoked U.S. passport while trying to board a Japan Airlines flight to Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines.^[516] Fischer resisted arrest, claiming to have sustained bruises, cuts and a broken tooth in the process.^[517] At the time, Fischer had a passport (originally issued in 1997 and updated in 2003 to add more pages) that, according to U.S. officials, had been revoked in November 2003 (due to his outstanding arrest warrant for the Yugoslavia sanctions violation).^[516] Despite the outstanding arrest warrant in the U.S., Fischer said that he believed the passport was still valid.^[518] The authorities held Fischer at a custody center for 16 days before transferring him to another facility. Fischer claimed that his cell was windowless and he had not seen the light of day during that period, and that the staff had ignored his complaints about constant tobacco smoke in his cell.^[517]

Tokyo-based Canadian journalist and consultant John Bosnitch set up the "Committee to Free Bobby Fischer" after meeting Fischer at Narita Airport and offering to assist him.^[519] Boris Spassky wrote a letter to U.S. President George H. W. Bush, asking "For mercy, charity", and, if that was not possible, "to put [him] in the same cell with Bobby Fischer" and "to give [them] a chess set".^[520] It was reported that Fischer and Miyoko Watai, the President of the Japanese Chess Association (with whom he had reportedly been living since 2000) wanted to become legally married.^[516] (It was also reported that Fischer had been living in the Philippines with Marilyn Young during the same period.^[489]) Fischer applied for German citizenship on the grounds that his father was German.^[521] Fischer stated that he wanted to renounce his U.S. citizenship, and appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to help him do so, though to no effect.^{[522][523][524]} Japan's Justice Minister rejected Fischer's request for asylum and ordered him deported.^[525]

Asylum in Iceland

Seeking ways to evade deportation to the United States, Fischer wrote a letter to the government of Iceland in early January 2005, requesting Icelandic citizenship.^[526] Sympathetic to Fischer's plight, but reluctant to grant him the full benefits of citizenship, Icelandic authorities granted him an alien's passport. When this proved insufficient for the Japanese authorities, Althing (the Icelandic Parliament), at the behest of William Lombardy,^[527][528] agreed unanimously to grant Fischer full citizenship in late March for humanitarian reasons, as they felt he was being unjustly treated by the U.S. and Japanese governments,^[529] and also in recognition of his 1972 match, which had "put Iceland on the map".^[530][531]

After arriving in Reykjavík, Fischer gave a press conference.^[532] Fischer lived a reclusive life in Iceland, avoiding entrepreneurs and others who approached him with various proposals.^[533] Fischer moved into an apartment in the same building as his close friend and spokesman, Garðar Sverrisson.^[534] Garðar's wife, Kristín Þórarinsdóttir, was a nurse and later looked after Fischer as a terminally ill patient. Garðar's two children, especially his son, were very close to Fischer.^[535] Fischer also developed a friendship with Magnús Skúlason, a psychiatrist and chess player who later recalled long discussions with Fischer on a wide variety of subjects.^[536]

On December 10, 2006, Fischer telephoned an Icelandic television station and pointed out a winning combination, missed by the players and commentators.^[537] In 2005, some of Fischer's belongings were auctioned on eBay. Fischer claimed, in 2006, that those belongings were worth millions of U.S. dollars.^[538][539]

Death, estate dispute, and exhumation

Church of Laugardælir, Fischer's resting place

Fischer's grave

On January 17, 2008, Fischer died from renal failure at the Landspítali Hospital (National University Hospital of Iceland) in Reykjavík.^{[540][541][542][543]} He originally had a urinary tract blockage but refused surgery or medications.^{[544][545][546]} Magnús Skúlason reported Fischer's last words as "Nothing is as healing as the human touch."^[536][547]

On January 21, Fischer was buried in the small Christian cemetery of Laugardælir church, outside the town of Selfoss, 60 km southeast of Reykjavík, after a Catholic funeral presided over by Fr. Jakob Rolland of the diocese of Reykjavík. In accordance with Fischer's wishes, only Miyoko Watai, Garðar Sverrisson, and Garðar's family were present.^[548][549]

Fischer's estate was estimated at 140 million ISK (about 1 million GBP, or $2 million USD). It quickly became the object of a legal battle involving claims from four parties, with Miyoko Watai ultimately inheriting what remained of Fischer's estate after government claims. The four parties were Fischer's apparent Japanese wife Miyoko Watai, his alleged Filipino daughter Jinky Young and her mother Marilyn Young, his two American nephews Alexander and Nicholas Targ and their father Russell Targ, and the U.S. government (claiming unpaid taxes).^{[495][536][550][551]}

According to a press release issued by Samuel Estimo, an attorney representing Jinky Young, the Supreme Court of Iceland ruled, in December 2009, that Watai's claim of marriage to Fischer was invalidated because of her failure to present the original copy of their alleged marriage certificate.^[552] On June 16, 2010, the Court ruled in favor of a petition on behalf of Jinky Young to have Bobby Fischer's remains exhumed.^[553][554] The exhumation was performed on July 5, 2010, in the presence of a doctor, a priest, and other officials. A DNA sample was taken and Fischer's body was then reburied.^[555] On August 17, 2010, the Court announced that based on the DNA sample it was determined that Fischer was not the father of Jinky Young.^[496][497] On March 3, 2011, an Icelandic district court ruled that Miyoko Watai and Fischer had married on September 6, 2004,^[556] and that, as Fischer's widow and heir, Watai was therefore entitled to inherit Fischer's estate.^[557] Fischer's nephews were ordered to pay Watai's legal costs, amounting to ISK 6.6 million (approximately $57,000).^[556]

Contributions to chess

Opening theory

For most of his career, Fischer was predictable in his use of openings and variations of those openings. Despite this seeming disadvantage, it was very difficult for opponents to exploit this limitation, because Fischer's knowledge of the openings and variations that he used was extensive.^[558]

As Black, Fischer would usually play the Najdorf Sicilian against 1.e4, and the King's Indian Defense against 1.d4, only rarely venturing into the Nimzo-Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4), Benoni, Grünfeld or Neo-Grünfeld.^[559] As White, Fischer almost exclusively played 1.e4 throughout his career.^[560]

Fischer was a master of playing with,^[561] and against,^[562] the Sicilian Defense. The next most common defense against Fischer's 1.e4 was the Caro-Kann Defense (1.e4 c6), against which Fischer had a good record.^[563] Fischer's worst record was against the French Defense (1.e4 e6),^[564] especially the Winawer Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4).^[565] Fischer maintained that the Winawer was unsound because it exposed Black's kingside, and that, in his view, "Black was trading off his good bishop with 3...Bb4 and ...Bxc3."^[566] Later on Fischer said: "I may yet be forced to admit that the Winawer is sound. But I doubt it! The defense is anti-positional and weakens the K-side."^[567]

Fischer was renowned for his opening preparation and made numerous contributions to chess opening theory.^[568] He was one of the foremost experts on the Ruy Lopez.^[569] A line of the Exchange Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0) is sometimes called the "Fischer Variation" after he successfully resurrected it at the 1966 Havana Olympiad.^[570][571] Fischer's lifetime score with the move 5.0-0 in tournament and match games was eight wins, three draws, and no losses: (86.36%).^[572]

Fischer was a recognized expert in the black side of the Najdorf Sicilian and the King's Indian Defense.^[573] He used the Grünfeld Defence and Neo-Grünfeld Defence to win his celebrated games against Donald and Robert Byrne, and played a theoretical novelty in the Grünfeld against reigning World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, refuting Botvinnik's prepared analysis over-the-board.^[574][575] In the Nimzo-Indian Defense, the line beginning with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Ne2 Ba6 was named after him.^{[576][577][578]}

Fischer established the viability of the so-called Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6). This bold queen sortie, to snatch a pawn at the expense of development, had been considered dubious,^{[579][580][581]} but Fischer succeeded in proving its soundness.^[582] Out of ten tournament and match games as Black in the Poisoned Pawn, Fischer scored 70%, winning five, drawing four, and losing only one: the 11th game of his 1972 match against Spassky.^[583] Following Fischer's use, the Poisoned Pawn Variation became a respected line, utilized by many of the world's leading players.^[584]

On the white side of the Sicilian, Fischer made advances to the theory of the line beginning 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 (or e6) 6.Bc4,^[582][585] which has sometimes been named after him.^[586] In 1961, prompted by a loss the year before to Spassky,^[587] Fischer wrote an article entitled "A Bust to the King's Gambit" for the first issue of the American Chess Quarterly, in which he stated, "In my opinion, the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force."^[588] Fischer recommended 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6,^[589] which has since become known as the Fischer Defense, as a refutation to the King's Gambit.^{[590][591][592]} Fischer later played the King's Gambit as White in three tournament games, winning them all.^[593]

Endgame

Fischer had excellent endgame technique.^[594] International Master Jeremy Silman listed him as one of the five best endgame players (along with Emanuel Lasker, Akiba Rubinstein, José Capablanca, and Vasily Smyslov), calling Fischer a "master of bishop endings".^[595] The endgame of a rook, bishop, and pawns against a rook, knight, and pawns has sometimes been called the "Fischer Endgame" because of several instructive wins by Fischer (with the bishop), including three against Mark Taimanov in 1970 and 1971.^{[596][597][598]}

Fischer clock

In 1988, Fischer filed for U.S. Patent 4,884,255 for a new type of chess clock, which gave each player a fixed period at the start of the game and then added a small increment after each completed move.^[599] Used in the 1992 rematch between Fischer and Spassky,^[600][601] the "Fischer clock" soon became standard in most major chess tournaments.^[602]

Fischerandom Chess

Fischer heavily disparaged chess as it was currently being played (at the highest levels).^[603] As a result, on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Fischer announced and advocated a variant of chess called Fischerandom Chess (later known as Chess960). The goal of Fischerandom Chess was to ensure that a game between two players is a contest between their understandings of chess, rather than their abilities to memorize opening lines or prepare opening strategies.^[604]

In a 2006 Icelandic Radio interview, Fischer explained his reasons for advocating Fischerandom Chess:^[605]

In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn’t do well. They’d get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability. Memorisation is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca, and especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz. Maybe they would still be able to outplay the young kid of today. Or maybe not, because nowadays when you get the opening advantage not only do you get the opening advantage, you know how to play, they have so many examples of what to do from this position... and that is why I don’t like chess any more... It is all just memorization and prearrangement...

Legacy

Kasparov calls Fischer "perhaps the most mythologically shrouded figure in chess".^[606] Some leading players and some of Fischer's biographers have ranked him as the greatest player who ever lived.^[607] Other writers have said that he was arguably the greatest player ever, without reaching a definitive conclusion.^[608] Leonard Barden wrote, "Most experts place him the second or third best ever, behind Kasparov but probably ahead of Karpov."^[255]

Some grandmasters compared Fischer's play to that of a computer;^[609][610] a player without noticeable weaknesses.^[611]

Although international ratings were just introduced in 1970, Chessmetrics (a website that uses algorithms to rank performances retrospectively and uniformly throughout chess history) determined that Fischer's peak rating was 2895 in October 1971—the highest in history. His one-year peak (1971) average was 2881, the highest of all time. His three-year peak average was 2867, from January 1971 to December 1973—the second highest ever, just behind Garry Kasparov. Fischer was ranked as the number one player in the world for a total of 109 different months, running (not consecutively) from February 1964 until July 1974.^[612]

Fischer's great rival Mikhail Tal praised him as "the greatest genius to have descended from the chess heavens".^[613] American grandmaster Arthur Bisguier wrote "Robert James Fischer is one of the few people in any sphere of endeavour who has been accorded the accolade of being called a legend in his own time."^[614] Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian stated that Fischer put more time into chess than the entire Soviet team.^[615]

Biographers David Edmonds and John Eidinow wrote:^[616]

Faced with Fischer's extraordinary coolness, his opponents [sic] assurance would begin to disintegrate. A Fischer move, which at first glances looked weak, would be reassessed. It must have a deep master plan behind it, undetectable by mere mortals (more often than not they were right, it did). The U.S. grandmaster Robert Byrne labeled the phenomenon "Fischer-fear". Grandmasters would wilt, their suits would crumple, sweat would glisten on their brows, panic would overwhelm their nervous systems. Errors would creep in. Calculations would go awry. There was talk among grandmasters that Fischer hypnotized his opponents, that he undermined their intellectual powers with a dark, mystic, insidious force.

Kasparov wrote that Fischer "became the detonator of an avalanche of new chess ideas, a revolutionary whose revolution is still in progress".^[617] In January 2009, reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand described him as "the greatest chess player who ever lived".^[618] Serbian grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojević called Fischer, "A man without frontiers. He didn't divide the East and the West, he brought them together in their admiration of him."^[533]

German grandmaster Karsten Müller wrote:^[3]

Fischer, who had taken the highest crown almost singlehandedly from the mighty, almost invincible Soviet chess empire, shook the whole world, not only the chess world, to its core. He started a chess boom not only in the United States and in the Western hemisphere, but worldwide. Teaching chess or playing chess as a career had truly become a respectable profession. After Bobby, the game was simply not the same.

Fischer was a charter inductee into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C. in 1985. After routing Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian in 1971, Fischer achieved a then-record Elo rating of 2785.^[402][403] After beating Spassky by the score 12½–8½ in their 1972 match, his rating dropped to 2780.^[403]

St. Louis philanthropist Rex Sinquefield offered a $64,000 Fischer Memorial Prize for any player who could win all nine of their games at the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship. By the fifth day of the championship, all 24 participants became ineligible for the prize, having drawn or lost at least one game.^[619]

Head-to-head record versus selected grandmasters

(Rapid, blitz and blindfold games not included; listed as +wins −losses =draws.)^[620]
Players who have been World Champions in boldface

• Pal Benko (USA) +8−3=7
• Mikhail Botvinnik (USSR) +0−0=1
• David Bronstein (USSR) +0−0=2
• Max Euwe (Netherlands) +1−1=1
• Efim Geller (USSR) +3−5=2
• Svetozar Gligoric (Yugoslavia) +7−4=8
• Paul Keres (USSR) +4−3=3
• Victor Korchnoi (USSR) +2−2=4
• Bent Larsen (Denmark) +9−2=1
• Miguel Najdorf (Argentina) +4−1=4
• Tigran Petrosian (USSR) +8−4=15
• Lev Polugaevsky (USSR) +0−0=1
• Samuel Reshevsky (USA) +9−4=13
• Vasily Smyslov (USSR) +3−1=5
• Boris Spassky (USSR) +17−11=28
• Mark Taimanov (USSR) +7−0=1
• Mikhail Tal (USSR) +2-4=5

Internet Bobby Fischer theory

There were rumors that Fischer was playing on the online chess platform Internet Chess Club.^[621] In 2001, Nigel Short wrote in The Sunday Telegraph chess column that he believed he had been secretly playing Fischer on ICC in speed chess matches.^[622][623]

National Masters R.O. Mitchell^[624] and Lionel Davis^[625] both claimed to have played Fischer on ICC,^[626] with Mitchell providing his alleged conversation with the supposed Fischer.^[627] Chessbase.com did a study where they concluded that the user was more likely a hoax, and not the real Bobby Fischer.^[628]

In film

• In April 2009, the film Me and Bobby Fischer, about Bobby Fischer's last years as his old friend Saemundur Palsson gets him out of jail in Japan and helps him settle in Iceland, was premiered in Iceland. The film was produced by Friðrik Guðmundsson with music by Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson, Björk Guðmundsdóttir and Einar Arnaldur Melax.
• In October 2009, the biographical film Bobby Fischer Live^[629] was released, with Damien Chapa directing and starring as Fischer.
• In 2011, documentary film-maker Liz Garbus released Bobby Fischer Against the World, which explores the life of Fischer, with interviews from Garry Kasparov, Anthony Saidy, and many other chess champions.^[630]
• On September 16, 2015 the American biographical film Pawn Sacrifice was released, starring Tobey Maguire as Fischer, Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, Lily Rabe as Joan Fischer, and Peter Sarsgaard as William Lombardy.^[631]

Psychology

Fischer’s views and behavior attracted widespread comment^[632] and his rationality was questioned.^[512][513] "There is no known clinical diagnosis of Fischer. But a disturbance seems indisputable." ^[36] Leonard Barden considered his personality to be defective, in particular "his rigid adherence to principle was continued to the point of self-destruction" and after 1975 "he became increasingly paranoid". ^[255]

Mikhail Tal described him as "cuckoo" and Pal Benko told Fischer that he was "paranoid" and should see a psychiatrist.^[632] Some years after their 1962 fist-fight, Benko said; "I am sorry that I beat up Bobby. He was a sick man, even then." ^[633] Robert Byrne recalled that, at a tournament in Bulgaria in 1962, he also suggested that Fischer consult a psychiatrist. ^[512] Lev Abramov, former head of the Chess Department of the USSR Sport Committee, assessed Fischer's attitude: "I think it was a disease".^[634] Chess historian Edward Winter commented that "The extent of Fischer’s depravity, anti-Semitism and, it must be said, apparent insanity was shown when a selection of his personal notes and other memorabilia was reproduced in Bobby Fischer Uncensored." ^[635] Brian Carney opined in The Wall Street Journal that "Fischer was eccentric and difficult even before he beat Mr. Spassky [after which he] descended into what can only be considered a kind of madness."^[261] Bruce Pandolfini lamented the "hundreds of masterpieces he would have created [after 1972] if he had stayed a sane being." ^[512] Dominic Lawson opined that "part of Fischer's sickness was an inability to see any failure on his part as other than the result of a conspiracy: he had a persecution mania, which was later the basis for his obsessive anti-Semitism." ^[633] Arthur Bisguier said that "If he wasn't a chess player, he might have been a dangerous psychopath". ^[232]

Many of his close colleagues were uncritical of his personality, or dismissed his unusual behavior.^[270] He could be very kind, and famously was the only competitor to visit Tal in hospital during the Curaçao Candidates tournament. ^[258] His behavior over the board was exemplary.^[634] Shelby Lyman, chess teacher, remembers a warmer Fischer in the 1960s; "good-humored" and "very diplomatic".^[36] Leonard Barden recalls that in "autumn 1960, Fischer… was friendly [and] talkative". ^[255] Dick Cavett interviewed Fischer three times, before and after the 1972 match with Spassky, and grew fond of him. He later noted with sadness his "gradual decline into raving lunatic." ^[433] Larry Christiansen, recalls meeting Fischer for the first time in 1978; "We talked about chess… He seemed like a nice guy, then he launched into… a tirade against the Jews, the world conspiracy." ^[468] Susan Polgar said he was as genial personally as his views were "extreme" politically.^[261] He was "charismatic to some, merely infuriating to others."^[512] Chun notes that in the early 1990s Fischer's girlfriend at the time said, "He's like a child. Very, very simple." A friend who spent a lot of time with him in the 1990s says, "Aside from his controversial views, as a person Bobby is very kind, very nice, and very human."^[466]

Edmonds and Eidinow describe his enjoyment of overpowering opponents as being "like a psychopath". His suspicion of the Soviets is "delusion" and "fantasy".^[634] Winter was of the opinion that "Fischer, even during his periods of relative mental steadiness, viewed attempts to befriend or assist him with narrow-eyed paranoia," ^[635]

When Fischer was 14, his mother described him as "temperamental, unable to get along with others".^[36] She consulted psychiatrists, including Reuben Fine, concerned about her son’s obsession with chess. Fine was also approached by other chess players, concerned that Fischer "was socially awkward, provocative, argumentative and unhappy".^[632] The Marshall Chess Club board decided maybe he had emotional problems and talked about finding a psychiatrist, perhaps Reuben Fine.^[36] He was sometimes physically violent.^[632]

Fischer suspected that his opponents tried to bug his hotel room, poison his food and might even sabotage the plane he flew on.^[512][632] He had the fillings removed from his teeth, concerned that they could receive vibrations or radio transmissions.^[632] "If somebody took a filling out and put in an electronic device, he could influence your thinking," Fischer confided to his friend Ron Gross in 1982; "I don't want anything artificial in my head."^[468]

Valery Krylov, advisor to Anatoly Karpov and a specialist in the "psycho-physiological rehabilitation of sportsmen," believed Bobby suffered from schizophrenia.^[632]

Psychologist Joseph G Ponteretto, from second-hand sources, concludes that "Bobby did not meet all the necessary criteria to reach diagnoses of schizophrenia or Asperger's Disorder. The evidence is stronger for paranoid personality disorder".^[632]

In popular culture

• The musical Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, tells the story of two chess champions, referred to only as "The American" and "The Russian". The musical is loosely based on the 1972 World Championship match between Fischer and Spassky.^[636]
• During the 1972 Fischer–Spassky match, the Soviet bard Vladimir Vysotsky wrote an ironic two-song cycle "Honor of the Chess Crown". The first song is about a rank-and-file Soviet worker's preparation for the match with Fischer; the second is about the game. Many expressions from the songs have become catchphrases in Russian culture.^[637]
• The 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer uses Fischer's name in the title, even though the film is about the life of chess prodigy Joshua Waitzkin.^[638] Outside of the United States, it was released as Innocent Moves.^[639] The title refers to the search for Fischer's successor after his disappearance from competitive chess. The author feels that his son could be that successor. Fischer never saw the film and complained bitterly that it was an invasion of his privacy by using his name without his permission.^[640] Fischer never received any compensation from the film, calling it "a monumental swindle".^[641]
• Bobby Fischer is referred to in the chorus of the song Cosby sweater by the Australian hip hop band Hilltop Hoods.
• Matthew Good, in his song "Invasion 1" from the 1997 Underdogs album, sings: "Drops off the face of the earth - Bobby is my hero for that" in reference to Fischer's reclusion.
• The 2014 film Pawn Sacrifice tells the story of Fischer's attempts to defeat Russian Boris Spassky and become the World Champion. The film is directed by Edward Zwick and stars Tobey Maguire as Fischer.
• In 2015 the Comedy Central program Drunk History portrayed Bobby Fischer on Season 3, Episode 6.

Writings

• Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1959). ISBN 0-923891-46-3. An early collection of 34 lightly annotated games, including "The Game of the Century" against Donald Byrne.
• "A Bust to the King's Gambit" (American Chess Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer 1961), pp. 3–9).
• "The Russians Have Fixed World Chess" (Sports Illustrated magazine, 20 August 1962). This is the controversial article in which Fischer asserted that several of the Soviet players in the 1962 Curaçao Candidates' tournament had colluded with one another to prevent him [Fischer] from winning the tournament.
• "The Ten Greatest Masters in History" (Chessworld, Vol. 1, No. 1 (January–February 1964), pp. 56–61). An article in which Fischer named Paul Morphy, Howard Staunton, Wilhelm Steinitz, Siegbert Tarrasch, Mikhail Chigorin, Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, and Samuel Reshevsky as the greatest players of all time. Fischer's criteria for inclusion on his list was his own subjective appreciation of their games rather than their achievements.^[642]
• "Checkmate" column from December 1966 to December 1969 in Boys' Life, later assumed by Larry Evans.
• My 60 Memorable Games (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1969, and Faber and Faber, London, 1969; Batsford 2008 (algebraic notation)). Studied by Kasparov at a young age, this is widely considered one of the best chess books ever written. "A classic of painstaking and objective analysis that modestly includes three of his losses."^[643][644]
• I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse! (1982) a self-published "essay in a fourteen-page booklet" on Fischer's time in a Pasadena jail—he was "booked for vagrancy".^[645]

Under Fischer's name

Numerous books list Fischer as an author or endorser.^[646] One such book is Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess,^[647] co-authored by Donn Mosenfelder and Stuart Margulies.^[648]

Tournament and match summaries

Tournaments

Tournament record^[199][649]

Year	Tournament	Location	Wins	Draws	Losses	Ranking	Percentage
1955	U.S. Junior Championship	Lincoln	2	6	2	10–20	50%
1956	U.S. Amateur Championship	New Jersey	3	2	1	21	57%
1956	U.S. Junior Championship	Philadelphia	8	1	1	1	85%
1956	U.S. Open	Oklahoma City	5	7	0	4–8	71%
1956	Canadian Open	Montreal	6	2	2	8–12	70%
1956	Rosenwald Trophy	New York	2	5	4	8–10	41%
1956	Eastern States Open	Washington, D.C.	4	3	0	2–4	79%
1956	Manhattan Club Championship, semifinals	New York	2	1	2	4	50%
1957	Log Cabin Open	West Orange	4	0	2	6	67%
1957	Log Cabin 30–30	West Orange	3	2	0	unknown	80%
1957	Log Cabin 50–50	West Orange	0	0	0	unknown	?
1957	Metropolitan League	New York	1	0	0	unknown	100%
1957	New Western Open	Milwaukee	5	2	1	6–12	75%
1957	U.S. Junior Open Championship	San Francisco	8	1	0	1	94%
1957	U.S. Open	Cleveland	7	4	0	1	82%
1957	New Jersey State Open	East Orange	6	1	0	1	93%
1957	North Central Open	Milwaukee	4	2	1	5–11	71%
1957	U.S. Championship	New York	8	5	0	1	81%
1958	Interzonal	Portorož	6	12	2	5–6	60%
1958	U.S. Championship	New York	6	5	0	1	77%
1959	Mar del Plata		8	4	1	3–4	71%
1959	Santiago		7	1	4	4–7	63%
1959	Zürich		8	5	2	3–4	70%
1959	Candidates	Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade	8	9	11	5–6	45%
1959	U.S. Championship	New York	7	4	0	1	82%
1960	Mar del Plata		13	1	1	1–2	90%
1960	Buenos Aires		3	11	5	13–16	45%
1960	Reykjavík		3	1	0	1	88%
1960	U.S. Championship	New York	7	4	0	1	82%
1961	Bled		8	11	0	2	71%
1962	Interzonal	Stockholm	13	9	0	1	80%
1962	Candidates	Curaçao	8	12	7	4	52%
1962	U.S. Championship	New York	6	4	1	1	73%
1963	Western Open	Bay City	7	1	0	1	94%
1963	New York State Open	Poughkeepsie	7	0	0	1	100%
1963	U.S. Championship	New York	11	0	0	1	100%
1965	Capablanca Memorial	Havana	12	6	3	2–4	71%
1965	U.S. Championship	New York	8	1	2	1	77%
1966	Piatigorsky Cup	Santa Monica	7	8	3	2	61%
1966	U.S. Championship	New York	8	3	0	1	86%
1967	Monaco		6	2	1	1	78%
1967	Skopje		11	3	2	1	79%
1967	Interzonal	Sousse	7	3	0	withdrew	85%
1968	Metropolitan League	New York	1	0	0	unknown	100%
1968	Netanya		10	3	0	1	88%
1968	Vinkovci		9	4	0	1	85%
1970	Rovinj/Zagreb		10	6	1	1	76%
1970	Buenos Aires		13	4	0	1	88%
1970	Interzonal	Palma de Mallorca	15[650]	7	1	1	80%

Matches

Match record^{[651][652][653]}

Year	Opponent	Location	Tournament	Wins	Draws	Losses	result	Percentage
1957	Max Euwe	New York	match	0	1	1	lost	25%
1957	Dan Jacobo Beninson	New York	training match	?	?	0	won	70%[654]
1957	Rodolfo Tan Cardoso	New York	match	5	2	1	won	75%
1958	Dragoljub Janošević	Belgrade	training match	0	2	0	tied	50%
1958	Milan Matulović	Belgrade	match	2	1	1	won	63%
1961	Samuel Reshevsky	New York & Los Angeles	match	2	7	2	unfinished	50%
1971	Mark Taimanov	Vancouver	Candidates	6	0	0	won	100%
1971	Bent Larsen	Denver	Candidates	6	0	0	won	100%
1971	Tigran Petrosian	Buenos Aires	Candidates	5	3	1	won	72%
1972	Boris Spassky	Reykjavík	World Championship	7	11	3[655]	won	63%
1992	Boris Spassky	Sveti Stefan & Belgrade	match	10	15	5	won	58%

Team events

Team events^[656]

Year	Event	Location	Wins	Draws	Losses	Opponent	Board	Individual ranking	team ranking	Individual Percentage
1960	14th Olympiad	Leipzig	10	6	2	various	1	Bronze	Silver	72%
1962	15th Olympiad	Varna	8	6	3	various	1	Eighth	Fourth	65%
1966	17th Olympiad	Havana	14	2	1	various	1	Silver	Silver	88%
1970	USSR vs World	Belgrade	2	2	0	Tigran Petrosian	2	won individual match	team lost	75%
1970	19th Olympiad	Siegen	8	4	1	various	1	Silver	Fourth	77%

Notable games

• Donald Byrne–Fischer, New York 1956, Grünfeld, 5.Bf4 (D92), 0–1 "The Game of the Century". Chess magazine called this "a game of great depth and brilliancy".^[657]
• Robert Byrne–Fischer, 1963–64 U.S. Championship, Neo-Grünfeld 0–1 annotated From an almost symmetrical position, Fischer beats a strong grandmaster in just 21 moves—"a game that was immediately recognized as an all-time classic".^[658]
• Fischer–Tigran Petrosian, Buenos Aires Candidates Final 1971, 7th match game, Sicilian Defense: Kan. Modern Variation (B42), 1–0 This game includes "22.Nxd7+!!" which is "perhaps Fischer's most famous and instructive move and is still being cited today".^[659]
• Fischer–Boris Spassky, World Chess Championship 1972, 6th match game, Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (D59), 1–0 Saidy called this game "[the] finest artistic achievement of the whole match".^[660]
• Boris Spassky-Fischer, World Chess Championship 1972, 13th match game, Alekhine Defense: Modern, Alburt Variation (B04), 0–1 Botvinnik called this game "the highest creative achievement of Fischer". He resolved a drawish opposite-colored bishops endgame by sacrificing his bishop and trapping his own rook. "Then five passed pawns struggled with the white rook. Nothing similar had been seen before in chess."^[661]

See also

• List of books and documentaries by or about Bobby Fischer

References

1. "Fischer, Robert James". olimpbase.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
2. Brady 2011, p. 328.
3. Müller 2009, p. 23.
4. Wolff 2001, p. 273.
5. Di Felice 2010, p. 48.
6. Donaldson & Tangborn 1999, p. 170.
7. Sonas, Jeff (May 25, 2005). "The Greatest Chess Player of All Time – Part IV". chessbase.com. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
8. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 311–12.
9. "The 1972 championship will become immortalized in film, on the stage, in song. It will remain incontrovertibly the most notorious chess duel in history. There will never be another like it... A lone American star was challenging the long Soviet grip on the world title. His success would dispose of the Soviet's claim that their chess hegemony reflected the superiority of their political system..." Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 2–3.
10. "Bobby Fischer arrives in Iceland". BBC News. March 25, 2005. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
11. "Question of Yugoslavia (1992)". Ozone Secretariat. 2004. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
12. "General Assembly". United Nations. December 21, 1993. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
13. "[Fischer's] worry was that the U.S. government might finally have caught up with him. He'd violated State Department economic sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing a $5 million chess match against Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan, Montenegro, in 1992, and an arrest warrant had been issued at that time. If he went back to the United States, he'd have to stand trial, and the penalty, if he was convicted, would be anywhere from ten years in prison to $250,000 in fines, or both, plus possible forfeiture of his $3.5 million winnings". Brady 2011, p. 2.
14. "At the beginning of the 21st century, grandmasters have been slowly but surely expressing interest in Fischerandom Chess". Gligorić 2002, p. 132.
15. "Bobby was astute enough to know that by making more and more broadcasts [against the United States and Jews worldwide], he was increasing his chances of eventual arrest. When nothing happened, however, he felt invulnerable and continued to travel without hiding..." Brady 2011, p. 280.
16. It's possible that Fischer's broadcasts were the fuel that sparked the U.S. government to activate the decade-old charge against him". Brady 2011, pp. 282–83.
17. Miyoko, for her part, thought that U.S. authorities could have arrested Bobby anytime post-1992, but they didn't, and only went after him when 'suddenly he started to attack America and it made the government very angry.'" AP wire story (Tokyo), July 18, 2004. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 283.
18. "Not knowing that his arrest was imminent, and believing that his passport was legal, on July 13, 2004, [Fischer] went to Narita Airport in Tokyo to board a plane bound for Manila. He was arrested and shackled in chains". Brady 2011, p. 282.
19. "...on July 13, 2004... [Fischer] was arrested..." "...on March 23, 2005, [Fischer] was released from his cell". Brady 2011, pp. 282, 293.
20. "Asia-Pacific | Iceland grants Fischer passport". BBC News. March 21, 2005. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
21. "[Fischer] was picked up by limousine supplied by the Icelandic embassy, given his new Icelandic passport, and he and Miyoko, hand in hand, sped to Narita Airport". AP wire story, March 23, 2005. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 293.
22. Batty, David (January 18, 2008). "Chess champion Bobby Fischer dies". The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
23. Brady 1973, p. 2.
24. Chess Life 59 (United States Chess Federation): 214. 2004. Missing or empty |title= (help)
25. Reitwiesner, William Addams. "Ancestry of Bobby Fischer (Extracts from the U.S. Federal Decennial Census)". ancestry.com. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
26. Quinn, Ben; Alan Hamilton (January 28, 2008). "Bobby Fischer, chess genius, heartless son". The Sunday Times. Retrieved September 14, 2008.(subscription required)
27. "...she appears to have been religiously unobservant". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 27.
28. Schulz, Von André (October 8, 2004). "Mutmaßungen über Fischer" (in German). chessbase.com. Retrieved October 17, 2008..
29. Brady 2011, pp. 7–8.
30. Brady 2011, p. 8.
31. "The family lived in [California, Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, and Arizona] before moving to New York. Regina's flexibility and desperation led her to a surprising gamut of jobs. She was a welder, schoolteacher, riveter, farm worker, toxicologist's assistant, stenographer, all throughout the early and mid-1940s". Brady 2011, p. 9.
32. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 5.
33. Nicholas, Peter (September 21, 2009). "Chasing the king of chess". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
34. "In early 1949 Regina Fischer took the least expensive housing she could find when she moved the family—Bobby, Joan, and herself—to East 13th Street in Manhattan, facing the kitchen back entrance of the famed Luchow's restaurant, where many of the best chess players would occasionally dine. The Fischers could never afford to eat there. The apartment's entrance was marred by a rusty fire escape running up the front, and there was only one small bedroom—but the rent was $45 a month". FBI report, August 24. 1953 (SAC, New York, 100-102290). Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 10.
35. Nicholas, Peter; Clea Benson (November 17, 2002). "Files reveal how FBI hounded chess king". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
36. Nicholas, Peter; Benson, Clea (February 9, 2003). "Life is not a board game/page 3 of 7". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
37. Laurence, Charles (November 24, 2002). "FBI targeted chess genius Bobby Fischer and his mother". London: www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
38. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, p. 22.
39. Regina Fischer entry, passenger manifest, SS Manhattan, January 18, 1939, p. 74, line 6, accessed January 20, 2008 via ancestry.com
40. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 22, 135.
41. "In March of 1949, on a rainy day when Bobby had just turned six, his sister, Joan... bought a plastic chess set for $1 at the candy store [located just below their apartment]... Neither Joan nor Bobby had ever seen a chess set before but they followed instructions printed on the inside of the top of the box..." Parade, October 27, 1957, p. 22., Bobby Fischer Autobiographical Essay, p. 1. Quoted in Brady 2011, pp. 10–11.
42. Brady 2011, pp. 10–12.
43. Brady 1973, p. 5.
44. Brady 2011, p. 12.
45. Fischer 1959, p. xi.
46. Brady 1973, pp. 5–6.
47. "A crowd of spectators gathered around the board as the diminutive Bobby faced the self-assured, tweed-jacketed Max Pavey. The boy was so serious about what he was doing that the game attracted more and more onlookers.... Pavey, who excelled at playing rapidly... seemed to zoom around the room hardly studying the other boards as he made his moves, returning to Bobby's game in such a short time that the child couldn't calculate as deeply or as carefully as he wanted... In about fifteen minutes... Pavey captured Bobby's queen, thereby ending the game... Bobby stared at the board for a moment. 'He crushed me,' he said to no one in particular. Then he burst into tears". Brady 2011, pp. 17–18.
48. Brady 2011, p. 18.
49. Brady 2011, p. 20.
50. Fischer 1959, pp. xi–xii.
51. Brady 1973, p. 7.
52. Brady 2011, pp. 19–21.
53. Fischer 1959, p. 2.
54. Brady 2011, p. 21.
55. Fischer 1959, p. xii.
56. Brady 2011, pp. 38–39.
57. Brady 2011, p. 52.
58. "Carmine Nigro, 91, Bobby Fischer's First Chess Teacher". The New York Times. September 2, 2001. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
59. Lombardy 2011, p. 18.
60. West, Jim (November 22, 2011). ""Understanding Chess" by GM Lombardy, Chess Blog by National Master Jim West". jimwestonchess.blogspot.com. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
61. Lombardy 2011, p. 136.
62. "Bobby Fischer got some of his earliest exposure playing weekend chess at the Brooklyn Central Library and Washington Square Park with his chess coach, William Lombardy, who had an apartment nearby". Sloan & Aravena 2012, p. 4.
63. The oldest known published photograph of Bobby and Bill goes back to 1956 in which they are analyzing at the Manhattan Chess Club. Donaldson & Tangborn 1999, p. 45.
64. "[Lombardy] and Bobby played a lot: blitz, normal chess, analyzing games; you name it. In fact, Lombardy kinda took Bobby under his wing and tutored him privately, and mostly what they did was they went through games together". "The Life and Chess of Bobby Fischer". youtube.com. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
65. "One of the people that really played a major influence on Bobby's career, besides Collins, was William Lombardy". "A Prodigy’s Progress—Lecture By IM John Donaldson". youtube.com. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
66. Lombardy 2011, p. 23.
67. Lombardy 2011, p. 297.
68. "On the very morning Fischer was to depart [for Reykjavik], he called Lombardy on the phone. 'Well, are you coming?' he inquired of the priest. Lombardy told him he wasn't sure he could release himself from his television commitments. 'Without me, there won't be a television show!' he informed Bobby. 'That's O.K.,' countered Bobby, 'without me, there won't be a match!' When Fischer's plane touched down at Keflavik Airport in Iceland... Lombardy, dressed in his clericals, was by his side". Brady 1973, p. 234.
69. "...I met and spent time with Grandmaster William Lombardy, who of course figured so prominently in Bobby Fischer's rise to the World Chess title". Ponterotto 2012, p. xx.
70. Brady 2011, pp. 98–100.
71. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 26.
72. Brady 2011, p. 102.
73. Alexander 1972, p. 79.
74. Brady 2011, p. 184.
75. "Fischer usually prefers to play without seconds, relying on his own abilities, although in this match he did have the assistance of William Lombardy". Byrne & Nei 1974, p. viii.
76. "[Lombardy] was a chess player of high class: in 1958, he took the World Junior Chess Championship with a perfect eleven victories...Unlike Fischer, he had beaten Spassky...when he led the United States to first place in the 1960 World Student Team Championship in Leningrad". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 133.
77. Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 233.
78. Schonberg 1973, p. 283.
79. Steiner 1974, p. 24.
80. "[Lombardy] was a loyal and competent analyst of adjourned positions for Fischer, and served him well as friend and companion". Brady 1973, p. 225.
81. "Fischer and Lombardy had breakfast at the Loftleider Hotel cafeteria. They sat at their table for over two hours, analyzing the twelfth game". Brady 1973, p. 253.
82. "Bobby and Lombardy meanwhile were tearing [the first] game to pieces. Bobby brushed aside the alarming matter of that freakish twenty-ninth move. 'I moved too fast,' he said with a wave of his arm. 'All that noise.' Then Lombardy showed him the move he should have made just before the game ended. Bobby strode up and down clutching his head and crying out, 'Oh! Oh! Why didn't I think of that!'... From 10:30 that night until 6:00 the next morning, Bobby and Lombardy worked like maniacs to find a draw for Black. No luck. White won in every variation". Darrach 1974, pp. 175–76.
83. "Fischer lodged a formal protest [over the second-game-forfeit] less than six hours after the forfeiture. It was overruled by the match committee... Everyone knew that Fischer wouldn't accept it lightly. And he didn't. His instant reaction was to make a reservation to fly home immediately. He was dissuaded by Lombardy, but it seemed likely that he'd refuse to continue the match unless the forfeit was removed". Brady 2011, p. 193.
84. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 156, 160, 171, 175, and 223.
85. "Very few people expected Fischer to come on that Sunday to the tournament hall and continue the match. Probably, neither did Spassky. Fischer had reserved a seat to New York, yet, two hours before the third game was to begin, Fischer's lawyer Paul Marshall and his second William Lombardy called the referee and asked, on behalf of Fischer, the favour that the game be played in a room behind the stage. That call produced a chance of compromise. Schmid called Spassky and the champion generously agreed". Gligorić 1972, pp. 54–55.
86. "In the morning and early afternoon of Sunday, July 16, anyone willing to bet that the third game would come off on schedule might have found long odds awaiting him on any street corner in downtown Reykjavik. But suddenly a light shone through the darkness: at about 3 P.M. Bill Lombardy telephoned to Lothar Schmid and relayed to him Fischer's proposal that the game be played in a private room behind the stage. Schmid in turn communicated with Spassky, who promptly agreed". Horowitz 1973, pp. 267–68.
87. "...let me point out that there were 14 adjourned games. Bobby and I worked together on those adjourned positions without making a single technical error! Beyond that I bested the Soviet team psychology, even though that team had a so-called professional psychologist. For little remuneration, I dedicated my services in the Icelandic capital to guarantee that Bobby followed through and finished the match victoriously. First and foremost, that is what I cared about. Since Bobby, when I first met him at age 11½, actually at that time stated that he would be world chess champion, I believed it was my job as his friend and confidant to do everything legitimately in my power to ensure that that young player's dream would come true! Working for what worked out to be about $5–$6 per hour at Reykjavik, I was even then not about to see that dream shattered at any earthly price!" Lombardy 2011, pp. 219–20.
88. Brady 2011, p. 6.
89. Dylan Loeb McClain (December 4, 2001). "John W. Collins, 89, Dies; Was Fischer's Chess Tutor". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
90. Brady 1973, p. 12.
91. Brady, 2011, p. 50.
92. "'He taught Bobby Fischer to play chess'" is the way I am sometimes publicly and privately introduced. Collins 1974, p. 47.
93. "Collins, for his part, said that he never "taught" Bobby in the strictest sense," and that Fischer "knew before instructed". Collins 1974, pp. 48–49. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 52.
94. Collins was Bobby Fischer's "mentor". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 6, 30, and 221.
95. Collins was Fischer's "mentor". Donaldson & Tangborn 1999, p. 27.
96. "Collins was my friend and mentor but not my teacher". Lombardy 2011, p. 24.
97. "Fischer was also extremely fortunate in having John W. (Jack) Collins, a chess master, who was a friend, guide, and mentor to him during his early formative years". Bisguier, in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 44.
98. Brady 1973, pp. 10–11.
99. Collins 1974, pp. 34–35.
100. Fischer 1959, p. xiii.
101. Denker & Parr 1995, p. 107.
102. Brady 2011, p. 53.
103. Chess Life, May 20, 1956, p. 4. Also available on DVD (p. 76 in "Chess Life 1956" PDF file").
104. Chess Life, May 20, 1956, p. 1. Also available on DVD (p. 73 in "Chess Life 1956" PDF file").
105. Brady 1973, p. 15.
106. Collins 1974, pp. 55–56.
107. The New York Times, March 5, 1956, p. 36. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 49.
108. Chess Life, July 20, 1956, p. 1. Also available on DVD (p. 105 in "Chess Life 1956" PDF file").
109. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 100.
110. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 101.
111. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 105.
112. Di Felice 2010, p. 76.
113. Brady 1973, p. 16.
114. Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 108.
115. Brady 2011, p. 65.
116. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 7.
117. Brady 2011, p. 61.
118. Chess Review, December 1956, p. 374. Also available on DVD (p. 418 on Chess Review 1956 PDF file).
119. "While, objectively, it is not one of the greatest games ever played, it is certainly the finest game ever produced by one so young". Wilson 1981, p. 170.
120. Brady 2011, p. 64.
121. AP wire story, February 24, 1957. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 64.
122. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 123.
123. Brady 1973, p. 17.
124. "To wrest a draw from a former World Champion was neither small cheese nor minor chess, but Bobby was unhappy since he'd lost the match, 1½–½". Brady 2011, p. 67.
125. Chess Life, May 5, 1957, p. 3. Also available on DVD (p. 67 in "Chess Life 1957" PDF file").
126. Wall, Bill (August 2002). "Bobby Fischer Trivia". chessville.com. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
127. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 127.
128. Brady 2011, p. 73.
129. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 130.
130. Collins 1974, p. 56.
131. Chess Review, September 1957, p. 260. Also available on DVD (p. 294 in "Chess Review 1957" PDF file).
132. "No one as young as Bobby had won the United States Open before, and no one had ever held the United States Junior and Open titles concurrently. When Bobby returned to New York, both the Marshall and Manhattan chess clubs conducted victory celebrations, and he was lauded as America's new chess hero". Brady 2011, p. 75.
133. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 138–40.
134. Brady 1973, p. 19.
135. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 135–37.
136. Harkness 1967, p. 272.
137. Brady 1973, p. 20.
138. Kažić 1974, pp. 273–74.
139. Lombardy 2011, back cover.
140. A writer in Chess Life, apparently Editor Fred M. Wren, expected Fischer to score about 50%. "The Monday-Morning Quarterback Speaks", Chess Life, January 20. 1958, p. 4. Also available on DVD (p. 12 on Chess Life 1958 PDF file).
141. Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 51.
142. Di Felice 2010, p. 196.
143. Brady 1973, pp. 20–21.
144. Edward Winter, Chess Note 6428 (citing Chess Life, February 5, 1958).
145. Edward Winter, Chess Note 6436 (citing FIDE Revue, April 1958, p. 106).
146. Chess Life, March 5, 1958. Quoted in Müller 2009, p. 92.
147. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 8.
148. Brady 2011, pp. 89–90.
149. "The Soviet Union had agreed to invite Bobby to Moscow, and generously pay all expenses for him and his sister..." Marshall Chess Foundation Archive, Letter from Regina Fischer to Bobby Fischer, c. June 1958. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 93.
150. Brady 2011, p. 91.
151. Brady 2011, p. 92.
152. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 9.
153. Linder V.I. & Linder I.M. 1994. Quoted in Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 120–21.
154. Golombek, Golombek's Encyclopedia, pp. 236–37. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 93.
155. Brady 2011, p. 94.
156. Johnson 2007, p. 128. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 94.
157. Brady 2011, pp. 94–96.
158. Wade & O'Connell 1972, pp. 163–64.
159. Brady 1973, p. 25.
160. Leonard Barden, "From Portorož to Petrosian", in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 332.
161. Just before Larsen played Fischer in their individual game, Larsen predicted that he would be victorious, only to find out quite the opposite: "Once we were well into the tournament, Larsen, Fridrik Olafsson and I were engaged in a friendly debate over Fischer's performance. 'Lucky to have 50%!' quipped Larsen, who went on to say, 'I will spank that baby!'... With wisdom Fridrik supplied a thought for me, 'Watch out the baby doesn't spank you!' At that comment, Larsen waved his hand. In the very next round, Fischer crushed Larsen..." Lombardy 2011, p. 87.
162. Wade & O'Connell 1972. pp. 332–34, 347.
163. Kasparov 2004, pp. 225–26.
164. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 20–21.
165. This record stood until 1991, when it was broken by Judit Polgár. Forbes 1992, p. 171.
166. Interview with Allen Kaufman in the television documentary "Anything to Win: The Mad Genius of Bobby Fischer". April 9, 2006.
167. Di Felice 2010, p. 301.
168. Di Felice 2010, p. 340.
169. Di Felice 2010, p. 356.
170. Brady 1973, p. 28.
171. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 27.
172. Wade & O'Connell 1972, pp. 165, 171, 176.
173. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 29–30.
174. The Chess Games of Robert J. Fischer, edited by Robert G. Wade and Kevin J. O'Connell, London, Batsford 1973; special article by Paul Keres, entitled From the Opposite Side of the Board.
175. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 41.
176. Brady 1965, p. 34.
177. Denker & Parr, pp. 103–04.
178. Brady 1965, p. 35.
179. "At 16 he was able to earn his living from chess, and soon began to dress well, with suits tailored in London and New York." Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 136.
180. Ginzburg 1962, pp. 53–54.
181. Di Felice 2010, p. 310.
182. Wade & 'Connell 1972, p. 356.
183. Brady 2011, pp. 105, 125.
184. "Attempts by Regina and Joan to engage Bobby in schoolwork were usually fruitless. Bobby could concentrate on puzzles or chess for hours, but he fidgeted and grew restless when confronted with reading, writing, and arithmetic... he was accepted by Community Woodward with the understanding that he'd teach the other students to play, and also as a result of his astronomically high IQ test score of 180". Brady 2011, p. 25.
185. Fischer possessed an IQ of 187. "Bobby Fischer IQ 187". kidsiqtestcenter.com. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
186. Andersen 2006, pp. 15, 41. Streisand later said that Fischer was "always alone and very peculiar ... But I found him very sexy". Id. at 41.
187. Boyer, David (March 11, 2001). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: FLATBUSH; Grads Hail Erasmus as It Enters a Fourth Century". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2009.
188. Brady 1965, pp. 1, 25.
189. Collins 1974, p. 52.
190. Arthur Bisguier, in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 47.
191. Brady 1965, p. 25.
192. Ginzburg 1962, p. 51.
193. "In his junior year Bobby left school for good because 'the stuff they teach you in school I can't use one way or the other.'" Schonberg 1973, p. 261.
194. Ginzburg 1962, p. 55.
195. "Probing into the activities of the American Chess Foundation, she demonstrated that some players (such as Reshevsky) received support while others (such as Bobby) did not... she sent out indignant press releases, [and] letters to the government demanding a public accounting." Brady 2011, p. 131.
196. Bisguier & Soltis 1974, pp. 282–84.
197. Hooper & Whyld 1992, pp. 136–37.
198. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 51 (1-point margin in 1957–58), 57 (1-point margin in 1958–59), 62 (1-point margin in 1959–60), 67 (2-point margin in 1960–61), 71 (1-point margin in 1962–63), 77 (2½-point margin in 1963–64), 82 (1-point margin in 1965), 87 (2-point margin in 1966–67).
199. Müller 2009, pp. 399–400.
200. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 51, 57, 62, 67, 71, 76, 82, 87.
201. Müller 2009, p. 85.
202. Müller 2009, p. 104.
203. Müller 2009, p. 148.
204. Müller 2009, p. 181.
205. Müller 2009, p. 231.
206. Müller 2009, p. 243.
207. Müller 2009, p. 262.
208. Müller 2009, p. 263.
209. Müller 2009, p. 285.
210. Bisguier & Soltis 1974, p. 283.
211. Mednis 1997, pp. x–xi, 179–83, 202–11.
212. Larry Evans, in Müller 2009, p. 7.
213. "I am certain that in his form at that time, Bobby would have helped carry our squad to a medal. In other words, both United States Chess Federation officials and American Chess Foundation 'philanthropists' were more concerned with controlling Fischer (at the risk of thwarting his talent and thus harming the team) than doing all that was legitimately possible to boost our country in a run for that elusive medal... In short, for the years when I began to participate in Olympiads, Sammy [Reshevsky] had lost the ambition to grind out games as a team player!... As for Fischer, no matter how many U.S. Championships Bobby won, or what his results in the world championship cycle, the USCF officials and those at the ACF... always accommodated Sammy". Lombardy 2011, pp. 94–96.
214. The Games of Robert J. Fischer, Batsford, 1973, section on chess Olympiads by Robert Wade.
215. "Fischer, Robert James, Men's Chess Olympiads". olimpbase. 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
216. "United States (USA) Men's Chess Olympiads". olimpbase. 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
217. Di Felice 2010, p. 485.
218. Di Felice 2013a, p. 251.
219. Di Felice 2013b, p. 326.
220. Di Felice 2013c, p. 366.
221. Kažić 1974, pp. 75, 81, 94, 108.
222. "Fischer, Robert James". Wojciech Bartelski & Co. August 2003. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
223. "Fischer... scored a remarkable 15 out of 17 (+14, =2, −1). Unfortunately... his winning percentage of 88.23% was 0.23 of a point lower than Petrosian's 88.46%, although Bobby had played four more games and faced, overall, stronger opposition than [Petrosian]". Müller 2009, pp. 276–77.
224. "Later Gheorghiu stated that when he offered Fischer the draw, he was convinced he actually had a won game but that he wanted Fischer to be awarded the gold medal. It was obvious that Fischer was trying too hard and had tired and overextended himself. He lost the game decisively. Nevertheless, all of the players and spectators considered Bobby to be the real hero of the most magnificent chess event in history". Brady 1973, p. 120.
225. Brady 1973, p. 65.
226. Müller 2009, pp. 224–25.
227. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 286–87.
228. "'It is important to draw a distinction between the myth of the 'extravagant, capricious, uncontrollable' Fischer and those actions that he undertook quite consciously. Many of his demands in Lugano were absolutely justified. 'It was not only Fischer who did not like the conditions,' writes Petrosian. 'This also applied to me and my colleagues. Imagine a hall, in which three thousand players, trainers and spectators are gathered, a hall without any ventilation and in addition with poor lighting. I have never complained about my eyesight, but I only needed once or twice in a game to think intensively over a move, and my eyes began to hurt.'" Kasparov 2004, p. 335.
229. "Fischer was clearly the best and highest rated U.S. player and also the U.S. Champion. But in consideration of his lifelong prestige, Reshevsky would not yield first board". Lombardy 2011, p. 184.
230. Müller 2009, p. 156.
231. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 183.
232. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 12.
233. Bronstein wrote of their first meeting at Mar del Plata, "They became friends instantly and have remained so until this day". Bronstein & Fürstenberg 1995, p. 121.
234. Donner 2006, p. 228.
235. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 189.
236. Benko & Silman 2003, p. 422 (interview with Evans).
237. "One of his rivals in that tournament was American grandmaster Larry Evans, and the story goes that he found a Bovaryan lady prepared for a small sum to surround Fischer with her charms. This approach proved successful for Evans, as Fischer finished thirteenth in the tournament..." Donner 2006, p. 228.
238. Benko & Silman, pp. 426–27 (interview with Benko).
239. Wade & O'Connell 1972, pp. 196–97.
240. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 198.
241. "The officers of the American Chess Foundation maintained that Reshevsky was the better player, and they arranged to have him prove it". Brady 2011, p. 135.
242. Brady 1973, p. 42.
243. Brady 1973, pp. 43–46.
244. "The match was forfeited by Fischer when he refused to continue play because the time of the twelfth game was changed to suit the convenience of Mrs. Piatigorsky". Sunnucks 1970, p. 136.
245. Brady 1973, p. 46.
246. Di Felice 2013a, p. 17.
247. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 68.
248. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 199.
249. Di Felice 2013a, p. 223.
250. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 75.
251. Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 369.
252. Brady 1973, p. 51.
253. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 81.
254. Brady 1973, pp. 53–54.
255. Barden, Leonard (January 18, 2008). "Obituary, Bobby Fischer". The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
256. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 82.
257. Kažić 1974, pp. 188–89.
258. Benko & Silman, p. 155.
259. According to Lombardy, Fischer's lack of a sole second "proved a main reason for his failure": "As a second, Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier had to divide his talents between Bobby and Pal Benko... Bobby was hopping mad over the miserable arrangement made by the American Chess Foundation, which was responsible for the funding for the American participants at Curaçao". Lombardy 2011, p. 122.
260. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 29–30, 37, 40, 83.
261. "Victim of His Own Success: The Tragedy of Bobby Fischer", Wall Street Journal, January 22, 2008, p. D8.
262. Wade & O'Connell 1972, pp. 331–46.
263. Wade & O'Connell 1972, pp. 207–08.
264. Bisguier, in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 49.
265. "As his mother was Jewish, under Jewish law he was Jewish himself, although this was a label he always rejected. When he discovered that he had been included in a list of famous Jews in the Encyclopedia Judaica, he wrote to the editor to declare how distressed this mistake had made him and to demand that it not be repeated". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 26–27.
266. Ginzburg 1962, p. 54.
267. "Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master". Ralph Ginzburg's January 1962 interview, Harper's Magazine. Retrieved January 21, 2008.
268. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 15.
269. "Where was Fischer? For several years, he lived in the bosom of the Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena, where he was called 'a co-worker.' The church fed him, they gave him comfortable accommodation in Mocking Bird Lane, they even flew him around in a private jet. In return, Fischer handed over around a third ($61,200) of his Icelandic prize money". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 301–02.
270. Darrach, Brad (August 11, 1972). "Bobby is Not a Nasty Kid". Life. p. 40. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
271. This led Fischer to believe that Armstrong was really a "false prophet". Brady 2011, p. 212.
272. Martin, Douglas (September 17, 2003). "Garner Ted Armstrong, Evangelist, 73, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
273. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 302.
274. Arthur Bisguier, in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 49.
275. "At the time he was also writing for Chess Life, a column called "Fischer Talks Chess," and he made some very favorable comments about the overall quality of the opposition he faced as well as the organization of the tournaments". Müller 2009, p. 237.
276. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 49, 149–51.
277. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 49, 152–53.
278. Brady 1973, p. 70.
279. Levy 1975, p. 91.
280. [Sports Illustrated 13 January 1964 http://www.si.com/vault/1964/01/13/608156/the-amazing-victory-streak-of-bobby-fischer]
281. "Body of chess legend Bobby Fischer to be exhumed as his former lovers battle over £1.3m estate". London: Daily Mail. June 18, 2010. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
282. Bisguier, in Wade & Connell 1973, pp. 49–50.
283. Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 81.
284. Soltis 2002, pp. 81–83.
285. Sunnucks 1970, p. 76.
286. Fischer 1969, 2008, p. 305.
287. Müller 2009, p. 248.
288. Chess Life, August 1964, p. 202. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 155.
289. Brady 1973, pp. 80–81.
290. Donaldson 2005, pp. 7, 11.
291. Donaldson 2005, p. 11.
292. Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 285.
293. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 127–28.
294. Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 209.
295. Bisguier & Soltis 1974, p. 213.
296. Brady 1973, pp. 86–89.
297. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 127–31.
298. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 160, 209.
299. Pachman 1975, p. 215.
300. Brady 1973, pp. 88–89.
301. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 127.
302. Brady 1973, pp. 86–88.
303. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 209.
304. Di Felice 2013b, p. 167.
305. Brady 1973, pp. 92–94.
306. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 82–86.
307. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 134.
308. Kashdan 1977, p. v.
309. Kasparov 2004, p. 322.
310. Müller 2009, pp. 284–85.
311. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 87–91.
312. Di Felice 2013b, p. 396.
313. Di Felice 2013b, pp. 423–24.
314. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 236–47.
315. Wade & O'Connell 1972, pp. 450–53.
316. "[At the Sousse Internzonal], Fischer quit at the halfway mark... faced with four games in four consecutive days... for religious reasons, [Bobby] will not play between sundowns on Friday and Saturday. He objected to the consecutive playoffs, claiming that the judges were taking advantage of him, subjecting him to cruel and inhuman punishment. He also pointed out, correctly, that he had entered the tournament with the assurance that such conditions would not prevail. But the judges would not change their ruling..." Schonberg 1973, pp. 256–57.
317. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 161–66.
318. The World Chess Championship: A History, by Al Horowitz, Macmillan, New York, 1973
319. Di Felice 2013c, pp. 56–57.
320. Di Felice 2013c, p. 91.
321. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 248–59.
322. Müller 2009, pp. 320–21.
323. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 154–55.
324. "In this new book, his first—and, ultimately, only—serious work as an adult, Fischer was anything but sparse... what he produced was one of the most painstakingly precise and delightful chess books ever written, rivaling the works of Tarrasch, Alekhine, and Reti... If Fischer had never played another game of chess, his reputation, certainly as an analyst, would have been preserved through its publication". Brady 2011, pp. 162–63.
325. Benko & Silman, p. 426.
326. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 84–86.
327. Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 137.
328. Müller 2009, p. 343.
329. Leonard Barden, in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 342.
330. Brady 1973, p. 174.
331. "The only condition I asked for stepping down was for Fischer to agree not to withdraw from the Interzonal or the ensuing matches should he qualify for them – and he fulfilled this condition". Chess Life & Review, July 1975, Vol. XXX, No. 7.
332. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 82.
333. "I was acting as Fischer's second..." Evans, Larry Melvyn (April 20, 1970). "The Rest Of The World Sort Of Strikes Back". Sports Illustrated, cited on chessgames.com. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
334. Brady 2011, p. 164.
335. "Fischer was intrigued and agreed to play on first board for the '"Rest of the World"' team".
336. Müller 2009, p. 321.
337. "USSR vs Rest of the World: Belgrade 1970". Wojciech Bartelski & Co. August 2003. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
338. "[Fischer] announced that he would relinquish his board one position and allow Larsen the top spot on the World team '"as a matter of principle"' Everyone was astonished..." Brady 1973, p. 161.
339. "To even greater amazement, when the Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen demanded that he play on Board One for the Rest against the leading Soviet, pointing out quite reasonably that he had achieved the best tournament results over the previous two years, Fischer yielded the point and agreed to step down to Board Two. It meant that he played Petrosian rather than Spassky". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 82–83.
340. Brady 2011, p. 165.
341. Schonberg 1973, p. 267.
342. Chess Digest 1971, p. 83.
343. Denker & Parr 1995, p. 105.
344. Chess Digest 1971, pp. 83–92.
345. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 188–89.
346. Kasparov 2004, p. 343.
347. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 183.
348. "I was among the best blitz players around [due to the fact that] I trained regularly with Bobby since he was 11-years old". Lombardy 2011, p. 90.
349. "As for Bobby's ability at speed chess, it came as no shock that Bobby would win the world blitz championship in 1970 in Belgrade. I expected Bobby to win by a wide margin, but his winning by a margin of 4½ points ahead of Tal did come as a pleasant surprise!" Lombardy 2011, pp. 90–91.
350. Kasparov 2004, p. 342.
351. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 263–70.
352. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 271–78.
353. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 201–02.
354. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 279.
355. Kasparov 2004, pp. 342–44.
356. Di Felice 2013c, pp. 320–21.
357. Weeks, Mark (1997–2008). "World Chess Championship 1970 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal Tournament". Printer. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
358. Fischer's 3½-point margin set a new record for an Interzonal, beating Alexander Kotov's 3-point margin at Saltsjöbaden 1952. Kažić 1974, pp. 171–72.
359. Panno refused to play in protest of the organizers' rescheduling of the game to accommodate Fischer's desire not to play on his religion's Sabbath. Panno was not present when the game was to begin. Fischer waited ten minutes before playing his first move (1.c4) and went to get Panno to convince him to play. Forty-five minutes later, Panno came to the board and resigned. Brady 1973, p. 179.
360. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 344, 410.
361. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 214.
362. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 86.
363. Brady 2011, p. 81.
364. Brady 2011, p. 167.
365. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 88.
366. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 220–22.
367. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 225–26.
368. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 226.
369. "'What happened next during the resumption of the 5th game,' Tal wrote later, 'had to be seen to be believed. It is simply incredible that three grandmasters could have left a rook en prise a mere three moves after the resumption of the game.'" Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 232.
370. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 412–16.
371. Leonard Barden, From Portorož to Petrosian, in Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 345.
372. Byrne & Nei 1974, p. 1.
373. "The British chess player P.H. Clarke wrote that 'this performance by Fischer may be the best, in statistical terms anyway, ever recorded in a single competition.'" Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 89.
374. Pozner 1990, p. 272.
375. Brady 1973, p. 188. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 168.
376. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 91–92.
377. Brady 2011, p. 168.
378. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 92.
379. Cafferty 1972, p. 102.
380. "...the chess world... was positively sent reeling by Bobby's crushing 6–0 defeat of Larsen". Müller 2009, p. 360.
381. Byrne & Nei 1974, p. 19.
382. Kasparov 2004, pp. 405–06.
383. Sonas, Jeff (April 28, 2005). "The Greatest Chess Player of All Time – Part II". chessmetrics.com. Retrieved November 1, 2009.
384. Di Felice 2014, pp. 48–49.
385. "Petrosian's opponents have declared him to be 'the hardest player in history to defeat.'" Steiner 1974, p. 21.
386. Karpov 1991, p. 114.
387. "'Karpov: It was already clear that the winner [of the Petrosian-Korchnoi Semi-Final Candidates Match] would have to play Fischer, who on the other staircase was rapidly ascending to the chess throne. There was practically no doubt that Spassky would be able to deal with him, but in the Sports Committee they decided that it was better if it didn't come to this... And so the officials summoned Petrosian and Korchnoi and asked them directly which of them had the better chances against Fischer. Korchnoi said that the 'generation beaten by Fischer' had practically no chances. But Petrosian said that he believed in himself. After this it was suggested to Korchnoi that he should allow Petrosian to win, and in compensation they promised to send him to three major tournaments (which for a Soviet player in those times was a princely reward).'" Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 273.
388. Brady 2011, p. 169.
389. Brady 1973, p. 195.
390. Kasparov 2004, pp. 408–17.
391. Jan Timman, The Art of Chess Analysis, R.H.M. Press, 1980, pp. 36–42. ISBN 0-89058-048-0.
392. Soltis 2003, pp. 259–62.
393. Soltis 2002, p.?
394. Mednis 1997, pp. 266–70.
395. Reuben Fine, The Final Candidates Match Buenos Aires, 1971: Fischer vs Petrosian, Hostel Chess Association, 1971, pp. 13–32.
396. Cantwell, Robert (November 8, 1971). "Bobby Clears The Board For The Title". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
397. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 96.
398. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 289.
399. Schonberg 1973, p. 269.
400. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 293.
401. Alexander 1972, p. 74.
402. Chess Informant, Volume 14, Šahovski Informator, 1973, pp. 302–07.
403. All Time Rankings. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
404. Elo 1978, p. 43.
405. Life, November 12, 1971, "The Deadly Gamesman".
406. Kasparov 2004, p. 429.
407. "[Petrosian:]'...I must warn Spassky that Fischer is armed with all the new ideas in chess. As soon as Fischer gains even the slightest advantage, he begins playing like a machine. You cannot hope for some mistake. Fischer is a quite extraordinary player. His match with Spassky will be tough.'" Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 336.
408. Gligorić 1972, pp. 10–11.
409. Gligorić 1972, pp. 11–12.
410. "CPI Inflation Calculator". data.bls.gov. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
411. Gligorić 1972, p. 13.
412. Gligorić 1972, p. 47.
413. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 308.
414. Alexander 1972, p. 141.
415. Moss, Stephen (2008-01-19). "Death of a madman driven sane by chess". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
416. Alexander 1972, pp. 84–87.
417. Gligorić 1972, p. 37.
418. Alexander 1972, p. 87.
419. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 271–73.
420. Byrne & Nei 1974, p. vii.
421. Perhaps the best-selling book on the match was subtitled The New York Times Report on the Chess Match of the Century
422. "Even before a move has been made, this breathtaking, blood-curdling and heartrending encounter is justly being labelled as 'the Match of the Century'". Donner 2006, p. 136 (originally published in De Tijd, June 28, 1972).
423. Roberts, Schonberg, Horowitz & Reshevsky 1972, pp. 195–96.
424. Müller 2009, p. 370. The match made the covers of Time and Newsweek. Id. at 19.
425. Kasparov 2004, p. 206.
426. Müller 2009, p. 15.
427. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, p. 89.
428. Müller 2009, p. 13.
429. Soltis 2003, pp. 10–11.
430. "Wearing city's gold medal and accompanied by Mayor John Lindsay, Bobby shakes hands with some 3,000 fans attending..." Saidy & Lessing 1974, photo on pp. 224–25; captions on p. 227.
431. Larry Evans, in Müller 2009, p. 13.
432. [Sports Illustrated, August 14, 1972, "BOBBY'S CHESSBOARD MASTERY". http://www.si.com/vault/issue/43123/1/1]
433. Cavett, Dick (February 8, 2008). "Was It Only a Game?". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
434. "About the USCF". The United States Chess Federation. August 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
435. "Breaking news: Anand Wins Chess Oscars for 2007". chessbase.com. May 8, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
436. "Anand wins Chess Oscar for third time". Rediff. May 6, 2004. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
437. Karpov beat Lev Polugaevsky in a Candidates quarter-final match in January–February 1974 (+3−0=5). Byrne 1976, p. 19. In the semi-finals, held in April–May 1974, he beat Spassky (+4−1=6). Id., p. 79. In the finals, held in September–November 1974, he beat Viktor Korchnoi (+3−2=19). Id., p. 113.
438. Kasparov 2004, p. 471.
439. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 412–13.
440. Brady 2011, pp. 218–19.
441. Kasparov 2004, p. 472.
442. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 413–14.
443. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 414.
444. Grandmaster Hans Ree remarked of Fischer's demand that the champion keep his title in the event of a 9–9 tie, "They [FIDE] thought that this demand was too severe. It was rejected, understandably". Böhm & Jongkind 2003, p. 46.
445. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 417–18.
446. Korchnoi and Alburt observed that Karpov, in later securing the right to a rematch if he lost the World Championship, was given a greater advantage by FIDE than Fischer had asked for. Over two matches, Korchnoi was required to beat Karpov by at least 6–5 and 6–5: an aggregate score of +2 and a minimum win requirement +2 greater than Karpov would have needed in 1975. This scenario nearly materialized since the 1978 match was tied 5–5 after 31 games before Karpov won the 32nd game. Korchnoi could, in theory, have won 6–0 in the first match and lost 5–6 in the second, with an aggregate win total of 11 games to Karpov's 6. Recognizing this, FIDE president Euwe proposed that the champion should only have a rematch in the event he lost 5–6, but Karpov rejected this proposal. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 418–19.
447. In a letter to Larry Evans, published in Chess Life in November 1974, Fischer claimed the usual system (24 games with the first player to get 12½ points winning, and the champion retaining his title in the event of a 12–12 tie) encouraged the player in the lead to draw games, which he regarded as bad for chess. Not counting draws would be "an accurate test of who is the world's best player". Donaldson & Tangborn 1999, p. 159.
448. Former U.S. Champion Arnold Denker, who was in contact with Fischer during the negotiations with FIDE, claimed that Fischer wanted a long match to be able to play himself into shape after a three-year layoff. Denker & Parr 1995, pp. 110–11.
449. Mednis 1997, p. 282.
450. Bozidar Kazic. 1975. "Anatoly Karpov New World Champion." Chess Informant 19.
451. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 414–16.
452. Kasparov 2004, p. 473.
453. Karpov 1991, pp. 159–165.
454. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 419–20.
455. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 418.
456. "'Karpov... knew he could hardly draw a game with Fischer, never mind score one or two wins. His only chance was to disrupt the match. So a whole arsenal of tricks was worked out, designed to upset the sensitive American, unaccustomed to such methods. As Karpov himself said, 'This match cannot end normally. Either I'll be taken to hospital (Anatoly weighed only 48kg at the time and even at the end of his Moscow match with Korchnoi he required pep pills to keep him going) or else he'll be taken to a lunatic asylum.'" Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 419.
457. "'Roger Cohen: Why, after turning down so many offers to make a comeback, did you accept this one? Bobby Fischer: That's not quite true. As I recall, for example, Karpov in 1975 was the one who refused to play me under my conditions...'" Brady 2011, p. 247.
458. Seirawan & Stefanovic 1992, p. 22.
459. Bisguier, Arthur (June 22, 1988). "When Bobby Fischer took on a computer". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
460. Fischer 1982, p. 1.
461. Fischer 1982, p. 2.
462. Fischer 1982, pp. 3–14.
463. Fischer 1982, pp. 10–12.
464. Fischer 1982, p. 14.
465. Fischer, Bobby (1982). "I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!". Printer. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
466. Chun, Rene (December 2002). "Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
467. Brady 2011, p. 224.
468. Nack, William (July 29, 1985). "Bobby Fischer". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
469. Weeks, Mark (1997–2008). "1992 Fischer – Spassky Rematch Highlights". Printer. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
470. Seirawan & Stefanovic 1992, p. 8.
471. Soltis 2003, p. 280.
472. Müller 2009, p. 382.
473. Waitzkin 1993, p. 298.
474. Seirawan & Stefanovic 1992, p. 283.
475. The tenth press conference was not transcribed. Seirawan & Stefanovic 1992, p. 272. The content of the other nine press conferences can be found, in full, in id. at pp. 13, 15–21, 53–57, 86–90, 114–18, 149–54, 170–75, 208–14, 227–31, 256–60.
476. Seirawan & Stefanovic 1992, p. 291.
477. Seirawan & Stefanovic, pp. 85, 96, 303.
478. Sloan, Sam. "Threatening Letter to Bobby Fischer". anusha.com. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
479. Cohen, Roger (September 2, 1992). "Bobby Fischer Ends Silence With Rancor". The New York Times. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
480. Labaton, Stephen (December 16, 1992). "FISCHER IS INDICTED OVER CHESS MATCH". The New York Times. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
481. "Will Fischer be extradited?". chessbase.com. July 19, 2004. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
482. "Indictment" (PDF). U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Federal Circuit). December 15, 1992. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
483. "On December 15, 1992, a single count indictment in federal court in Washington, D.C., was handed down by a grand jury against Bobby Fischer for violating economic sanctions, through an executive order issued by President George Bush. A letter to that effect was sent to Bobby in Belgrade, and upon announcement of the indictment, federal officials issued a warrant for his arrest". Brady 2011, p. 255.
484. Winter, Edward. "Fischer v Gligorić Training Match (1992)", Chess Notes
485. Daniszewski, John (September 4, 1992). "Fischer's 19-Year-Old Companion Shares Chess Limelight". Community.seattletimes.nwsource.com. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
486. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 65, 106–09.
487. Brady 2011, pp. 255–62.
488. "Sofia Polgar discussing Bobby Fischer". youtube.com. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
489. Cabreza, Vincent (January 19, 2008). "Fischer has a Pinoy heir born in Baguio – friends". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
490. Marilyn Young's name was written behind a photograph dated December 14, 2000, sent to her by Fischer. The photograph is displayed on the Chessbase website. See also: "Fischer's daughter Jinky files claim to his estate". chessbase.com. November 11, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
491. Ochoa, Francis (February 7, 2008). "Fischer's Filipino heirs going after estate". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
492. "Bobby Fischer's Pinay heir may get settlement". GMANews.tv. February 26, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
493. "Fischer's Pinay love child in Iceland to claim inheritance". Manila Bulletin. December 4, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
494. "Fischer's daughter Jinky files claim to his estate". chessbase.com. November 11, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
495. "4 gera kröfu í dánarbú Fischers (Four parties make claims)". RÚV. April 22, 2008. Archived from the original on April 23, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
496. "DNA tests on chess champion's corpse exclude paternity". Reuters. August 17, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
497. "DNA results settle Bobby Fischer paternity case". Cnn.com. August 18, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
498. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 30, 44.
499. Nathaniel Popper, "Chess Master Pawned Identity for Hatred", The Jewish Daily Forward, July 23, 2004.
500. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 41, 45, 61, 66, 90, 92, 95, 101, 107, 117–20.
501. Parr, Larry: "Is Bobby Fischer Anti-Semitic?", Chess News, May 2001.
502. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, p. 123.
503. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 41, 65–66, 118–19, 121.
504. DeLucia 2009, pp. 160–62, 166. Chess historian Edward Winter, in his review of DeLucia's book, calls it "[o]ne of the most extraordinary of all chess books". Winter 2009.
505. Fischer wrote of Nature's Eternal Religion in a 1979 letter to Benko, "'The book shows that Christianity itself is just a Jewish hoax and one more Jewish tool for their conquest of the world. ... Unfortunately the author is an extreme racist and this somewhat spoils the book.'" DeLucia 2007, p. 280.
506. DeLucia 2009, pp. 290, 292.
507. "Fischer was able to separate his hatred for Judaism as a religion and Jews as an ethnic group from Jewish people as individuals. He was on perfectly amicable terms with Jewish chess masters in the United States and the USSR." Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 27.
508. Bamber, David; Chris Hastings (December 2, 2001). "Bobby Fischer speaks out to applaud Trade Centre attacks". The Sunday Telegraph. p. 17.
509. "The Bin Laden defense; Diatribe; Bobby Fischer speaks out in favor of 9/11 attacks; Brief Article; Transcript". Harper's Magazine 304 (1822): 27. March 1, 2002. 0017-789X.
510. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, p. 122.
511. "In 2001, though, with the Internet rapidly expanding, his rants were heard all over the world, and what he said brought renewed scrutiny by the United States government". Brady 2011, p. 279.
512. Weber, Bruce (January 19, 2008). "Bobby Fischer, Troubled Genius of Chess, Dies at 64". The New York Times. Retrieved January 11, 2013.
513. Fischer's radio broadcasts show that he was "out of his mind ... a victim of his own mental illness". Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 66–67.
514. Brady 2011, p. 279.
515. "Archive of official site". Web.archive.org. January 21, 2008. Archived from the original on January 21, 2008. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
516. Frederick, Jim (August 23, 2004). "King's Gambit". TIME. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
517. "Fischer er jákvæður og skýr í hugsun". (Icelandic).
518. "There was problems with the revocation of the passport, however. Fischer never received the notice and therefore couldn't appeal it, which according to law he had the right to do. The Justice Department claimed that the letter had been sent to the hotel in Bern (the location Bobby had given to the embassy) and was returned to them with no forwarding address appended. It was dated December 11, 2003, and when a faxed copy of the letter was ultimately examined, it didn't have an address for Fischer on it, the implication being that the embassy had never sent the letter to Bern". Brady 2011, pp. 281–82.
519. Suzuki, Hiroshi (August 6, 2004). "Bobby Fischer Renounces U.S. Citizenship, Seeks Refugee Status". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
520. "Spassky to Bush: Arrest me!". chessbase.com. August 10, 2004. Retrieved October 7, 2015. I would not like to defend or justify Bobby Fischer. He is what he is. I am asking only for one thing. For mercy, charity. If for some reason it is impossible, I would like to ask you the following: Please correct the mistake of President François Mitterrand in 1992. Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.
521. "Profile: Bobby Fischer: Endgame on the darker side of genius". timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
522. "Fischer's next moves: renounce U.S. citizenship and marry a Japanese | The Japan Times Online". japantimes.co.jp. August 17, 2004. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
523. "Fischer renounces US citizenship". chessbase.com. August 15, 2004. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
524. Koerner, Brendan (August 9, 2004). "How To Renounce Your Citizenship: Tips from Bobby Fischer". Slate. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
525. "Bobby Fischer's Deportation Appeal Rejected". Associated Press. July 28, 2004. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
526. '"Honorable Members of Althingi: I... sincerely thank the Icelandic nation for the friendship it has shown to me ever since I came to your country many years ago and competed for the title of World Champion in chess... For the past six months I have been forcibly and illegally imprisoned in Japan... During this period my health has steadily deteriorated... I would therefore like to formally request that Althingi grant me Icelandic citizenship so that I may actually enjoy the offer of residence in Iceland that your Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. David Oddsson had so graciously extended to me. Most Respectfully, BOBBY FISCHER'" Brady 2011, pp. 288–89.
527. "Fangavist fáránleikans" (PDF) (in Icelandic). Morgunbladid. February 2, 2005. Retrieved October 7, 2015..
528. "Then I asked him if he had given Bill Lombardy a call. A few weeks earlier his former second had written an article supporting his case that had been published in Morgunbladid. 'Yeah, I phoned him from jail and told him to write an article', Bobby said. 'I told him that he was obliged to be of assistance. And he did it without asking any questions'". Ólafsson 2014, p. 67.
529. Bobby Fischer: ich bin ein Icelander!. March 21, 2005.
530. Smith-Spark, Laura (March 23, 2005). "Fischer 'put Iceland on the map'". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
531. "The RJF [Robert James Fischer] members called virtually every member of parliament to lobby for citizenship: full, permanent citizenship... an Extraordinary Session of Parliament was called for Saturday, Match 21, 2005. Three rounds of discussion took place in the space of twelve minutes, and questions were posed regarding the extent of the emergency. The answers were succinct and forthcoming: Bobby Fischer's improper incarceration was a violation of his rights; all he was really guilty of was moving some wooden pieces across a chessboard; he'd been a friend of Iceland and had a historical connection to it, and now he needed the country's help". Act Respecting the Granting of Citizenship, no. 16/2005. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 293.
532. Yanchulis, Kelly. "ESPN's Jeremy Schaap Opens Up with Students". Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, University of Maryland. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
533. "Bobby Fischer dies in Iceland". chessbase.com. January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
534. Brady 2011, p. 305.
535. Brady 2011, p. 319.
536. "Bobby Fischer's final manoeuvre". The Sunday Times. April 20, 2008.
537. "Bobby Fischer and the missed combination". chessbase.com. December 17, 2006. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
538. Fischer on Icelandic Radio April 11, 2006.
539. Böhm & Jongkind 2003, p. 118.
540. Brady 2011, p. 317.
541. "Dánarorsök Fischers var nýrnabilun" (in Icelandic). mbl.is. January 20, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
542. Death:
     • "Chess genius Bobby Fischer, from American hero to paranoid fugitive". AFP. January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
     • "Obituary: Bobby Fischer". BBC News. January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
     • "Chess legend Fischer dies at 64". BBC News. January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
     • "Bobby Fischer: Obituary". The Sunday Times. January 19, 2008.
543. Weber, Bruce (January 19, 2008). "Bobby Fischer, Chess Master, Dies at 64". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
544. "Bobby started to have urinary problems and thought it might simply be caused by an enlarged prostate gland, at first denying that anything was seriously wrong with him. His lungs were also bothering him and he was having difficulty breathing. Since he had a lifelong distrust of doctors, he tolerated the discomfort until late September 2007, when his pain and inability to urinate became excruciating. He went to a doctor... [who conducted a blood test which showed that] he had a blocked urinary tract... [and that] his kidneys... were not functioning properly... Bobby refused to take any medicine, and the idea of being hooked up to a dialysis machine to cleanse his blood every few days for the rest of his life was out of the question". Brady 2011, pp. 316–17.
545. "It's possible that Bobby was just giving up, letting go of his life, beginning a slow form of suicide". Interview of Pal Benko by author, summer 2008, New York. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 317.
546. Dirda, Michael (February 10, 2011). "A chess master who defeated himself". The Washington Post.
547. "Síðustu orð Fischers". visir.is. January 20, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
548. "Bobby Fischer – his final weeks". chessbase.com. January 25, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
549. Burial:
     • "Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland". chessbase.com. January 22, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
     • "Find A Grave – Robert James Fischer". findagrave.com. January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
     • "Útför Fischers í kyrrþey" (in Icelandic). January 21, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014..
     • "Unnustan ræður hvílustað Bobbys" (in Icelandic). visir.is. January 19, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2014..
     • Bragadottir, Kristin Arna (January 21, 2008). "Chess champion Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland". Reuters. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
550. Andrew Soltis,Fi$cher Family Feud, New York Post, November 15, 2009. Retrieved November 16, 2009.
551. McClain, Dylan Loeb (July 5, 2010). "Bobby Fischer Is Exhumed". The New York Times (Online Chess Blog). Retrieved January 29, 2014.
552. "Fischer's remains to be exhumed?". chessbase.com. April 1, 2010. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
553. McClain, Dylan Loeb (June 17, 2010). "Iceland: Bobby Fischer's Estate Dispute". The New York Times Europe. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
554. "Court rules Bobby Fischer's body can be exhumed". CNN.com. June 17, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
555. Helgason, Gudjon (July 5, 2010). "Chess icon Fischer's body exhumed over paternity". Associated Press. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
556. "Miyoko Watai Ruled Bobby Fischer's Legal Heir". Iceland Review Online. March 3, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
557. McClain, Dylan Loeb (March 4, 2011). "Iceland Court Hands Bobby Fischer Estate to Japanese Claimant". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
558. "He employs a limited range of openings. Of course, this is not a sign of Fischer's limited creativity, since he compensates for this by a very profound and sound knowledge of the variations he favours [sic]." Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 270.
559. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, pp. 251–62.
560. "Fischer's main and almost exclusive weapon with White is 1 e4. The range of stratagems that he employs after 1 e4 is extremely wide." Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 251.
561. 90½/118 (+72−9=37): 76.69% "Robert James Fischer playing the Sicilian as Black (B20-B99)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
562. 135/182 (+111−23=48): 74.17% "Robert James Fischer playing the Sicilian as White (B20-B99)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
563. 38/52 (+31−7=14): 73.07% "Robert James Fischer playing the Caro-Kann as White (B10-B19)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
564. 42/68 (+34−18=16): 61.76% "Robert James Fischer playing the French Defense as White (C00-C19)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
565. 22/40 (+17−13=10): 55% "Robert James Fischer playing the French Winawer as White (C15-C19)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
566. Müller 2009, p. 31.
567. Fischer 1969, p. 151.
568. Bisguier & Soltis 1974, p. 208.
569. Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 322 (quoting March 20, 1972 letter from Paul Keres to the USSR Chess Federation).
570. "The Exchange Variation was a feared weapon in the hands of Bobby Fischer." Kasparov & Keene 1989, p. 382.
571. "The modern version of the Spanish Exchange variation, in which White moves 5.0-0 after the exchange on move 4, should be named after former World Champion Bobby Fischer." Fischer, after finding an improvement on a 1965 game Barengdt-Teschner, which Black won, "started to play the Exchange with the move 5.0-0, winning game after game with it, and continued to play it with success even in his 1992 rematch with Boris Spassky, his final formal chess event." Kaufman 2004, pp. 4–5.
572. "Robert James Fischer, Ruy Lopez, Exchange (C68-69)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
573. Andrew Soltis, in Müller 2009, pp. 29, 32–33.
574. L.S. Blackstock, in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 36.
575. Andrew Soltis, in Müller 2009, p. 25.
576. Hansen 2002, p. 132.
577. Pliester 1995, p. 272.
578. Gligorić 1985, p. 65.
579. Watson observed that 7...Qb6 "is an astonishing move that those raised with classical chess principles would simply reject as a typical beginner's mistake. Black goes running after a pawn when he is undeveloped and already under attack." Watson 2006, p. 199.
580. "Referring to the Poisoned Pawn Variation ... the brilliant, classically oriented grandmaster Salo Flohr commented, even as late as 1972: 'In chess, there is an old rule: in the opening, one must make haste to develop the pieces, and must not move the same piece several times, particularly the queen. This ancient law holds good even for Bobby Fischer.'" Watson 1998, p. 18.
581. The Poisoned Pawn Variation "was considered dubious by certain GMs and crazy by Bent Larsen". Polugaevsky, Piket & Guéneau 1995, p. 83.
582. Andrew Soltis, in Müller 2009, p. 30.
583. "Robert James Fischer, Sicilian, Najdorf (B97)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
584. Georgiev & Kolev 2007, p. 6.
585. Mednis 1997, pp. 56, 146.
586. Mednis calls 6.Bc4 against the Najdorf Variation "Fischer's 6 B-QB4". Mednis 1997, pp. 56, 74, 80, 88.
587. "Boris Spassky vs Robert James Fischer, Mar del Plata (1960), King's Gambit: Accepted. Kieseritsky Gambit Rubinstein Variation (C39)". chessgames.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
588. Fischer 1961, p. 4.
589. Fischer 1961, pp. 4–9.
590. Estrin & Glaskov 1982, p. 115.
591. Korchnoi & Zak 1975, p. 39.
592. Andrew Soltis, in Müller 2009, p. 29.
593. Wade & O'Connell 1973, pp. 27, 76–77, 253, 256.
594. Bisguier & Soltis 1974, p. 214.
595. Silman 2007, pp. 510–23.
596. Müller & Lamprecht 2001, p. 304.
597. Mayer 1997, p. 201.
598. Steve Giddins, 2012, The Greatest Ever chess endgames, p. 68.
599. "With the advent of electronic clocks new possibilities arose and in 1990 the recluse Fischer emerged to publicize a chess clock which he had patented. The basis of its novelty is the ability to add available time whenever a player makes a move. He suggested that each player should begin with one hour on the clock and that two minutes be added each time the clock is pressed, thus avoiding the worst features of a time scramble". Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 422.
600. "Bobby's invention of a new chess clock that operated differently from those traditionally used in tournaments had to be specially manufactured for the match, and [Jezdimir] Vasiljevic had it made. Bobby insisted that it be used in the match. The game would start with each player having ninety minutes, and upon his making a move, two minutes would be added to each player's time. Bobby's theory was that in this new system, players would never be left to scramble to make their moves at the end of the time allotment with only seconds to spare, thereby reducing the number of blunders under time pressure. The pride of the game was the depth of its conceptions, Fischer contended, not triumph by mechanical means". Brady 2011, p. 246.
601. "In the 1992 match both players start with one hour and fifty-one minutes. Each move played earns a one-minute bonus. After 40 moves, both players get a 40-minute gift, after 60 moves, 30 minutes and after 80 and each succeeding 20 moves, 20 minutes. The gifts are in addition to the regular bonus of one minute a move. The time controls correspond with the older competition limits of 40 moves in two and a half hours". Müller 2009, p. 382.
602. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 307.
603. "Audio clip of Bobby Fischer". chess960.net. Archived from the original on November 29, 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
604. Brady 2011, p. 260.
605. "Speaking about Fischer...". November 4, 2006. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
606. Kasparov 2004, p. 207.
607. Greatest player ever:
     • Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 47 (Ree interview), 91 (Timman interview), 113 (Short interview).
     • Hartston 1985, p. 157.
     • Levy 1975, p. 9.
     • Lombardy 2011, p. 220.
     • Müller 2009, p. 23.
     • Schonberg 1973, pp. 271, 302.
     • Waitzkin 1993, p. 275 (quoting Kasparov).
     • Wilson 1981, p. 171.
608. Arguably greatest player ever:
     • Böhm & Jongkind 2003, pp. 133–34.
     • Divinsky 1990. p. 67.
     • Eade 2011, p. 308.
     • Euwe 1979, p. ix.
     • Golombek 1977. p. 117.
     • Kasparov 2004, p. 490.
     • Mednis 1997, p. xiii.
     • Soltis 2003, p. 9.
     • Wolff 2001, p. 273.
609. "William Lombardy characterized Fischer's game as machinelike, with 'terrifically accurate positional play but never boring... His opening repertory is encompassing... His end game is practically flawless. Bobby is the most complete player I've ever seen.'" Schonberg 1972, p. 270.
610. "Referring to the future chess computer, Jim Sherwin [aka: James Sherwin], an American [chess] player who knew Fischer well, described him as 'a prototype Deep Blue.' The Soviet analysis showed that even when faced with an unexpected position, Fischer took not longer than fifteen or twenty minutes to make his move; other grandmasters might take twice as long. Nor did Fischer appear to be governed by any psychologically predetermined system or technique". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 22.
611. "[Fischer's] play approached so close to perfection that it seemed to transcend style". Winter 1981, p. 118.
612. "Player Profile: Bobby Fischer". chessmetrics.com. March 26, 2005. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
613. Saidy & Lessing 1974, p. 226.
614. Wade & O'Connell 1972, p. 43.
615. "Petrosian: 'Fischer is exceptionally hard-working. Without fear of over-exaggerating, I am prepared to compare the amount of time spent by him at the board between competitions with the hours devoted to chess by all the members of the Soviet national team taken together.'" Plisetsky & Voronkov 2005, p. 143.
616. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, p. 23.
617. Kasparov, Garry (January 26, 2008). "The Chessman". TIME. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
618. "The Telegraph – Calcutta (Kolkata) | Sports | Fischer is greatest ever, says Anand". Calcutta, India: Telegraphindia.com. January 16, 2009. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
619. "All participants at U.S. Chess Championship now officially ineligible for $64,000 Fischer memorial prize for a 'sweep'". saintlouischessclub.org. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
620. "chess games". chessgames.com. 22 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
621. "There were rumors that Bobby Fischer had often played online chess at I.C.C. to get in a few games, but it was never proven who he was, his games being kept anonymous with a fake handle". Sloan & Aravena 2012, p. 6.
622. "Chess legend 'plays the web'". BBC News. September 9, 2001. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
623. Allerson, Andrew (September 9, 2001). "Bobby Fischer takes on all comers – in cyberspace". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
624. "12468945: R O MITCHELL (Deceased)". uscf.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
625. "12438121: LIONEL L DAVIS". uscf.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
626. Shabazz, Daaim (February 24, 2008). "Did R.O. Mitchell meet Bobby Fischer?". thechessdrum.net. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
627. "Conversation with Bobby Fischer?". July 15, 2001. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
628. "So what do we conclude? It could be that Bobby Fischer hath decended [sic] unto us to play miraculous games of chess. But Occams Razor forces at least the author of this piece to believe that ICC Fischer is a prankster using a fast computer and one or more of the top programs available today to create an urban legend that will stay alive in chess circles for a long time to come." "The third coming of Bobby Fischer?". chessbase.com. September 18, 2001. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
629. ppantazis (October 1, 2009). "Bobby Fischer Live (2009)". imdb. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
630. Edmonds, David (2011-07-04). "Bobby Fischer: Chess's beguiling eccentric genius". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
631. "Pawn Sacrifice". The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
632. Ponteretto, Joseph (December 10, 2010). "A psychological autopsy of Bobby Fischer". Pacific Standard. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
633. Dominic Lawson 'Collusion in Curaçao' Standpoint Magazine July/August 2012 http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/4564/full
634. Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, Chapter 3, "Mimophant".
635. Winter, Edward (December 12, 2015). "Brad Darrach and the Dark Side of Bobby Fischer". Retrieved February 13, 2016.
636. William Hartston, Chess: The Making of the Musical, Pavilion Books, 1986, p. 10. ISBN 1-85145-006-8.
637. Zhaskyran, Musin (January 2001). "Chess Problems (about chess songs of Vladimir Vysotsky)" (in Russian). Retrieved January 29, 2014.
638. Ebert, Roger (August 11, 1993). "Searching for Bobby Fischer review". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
639. "Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)". imdb.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
640. "Bobby was indignant and then irate when he heard about it, proclaiming the film a misrepresentation of his name and, therefore, an invasion of his privacy". Brady 2011, p. 267.
641. "Bobby Fischer Moves to a Satisfying Peace," Chicago Sun-Times, September 26, 1993. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 268.
642. Brady 1973, p. 78.
643. Hooper & Whyld 1992, pp. 138–39.
644. Kasparov, Gary (2011-03-10). "The Bobby Fischer Defense". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
645. Brady 2011, pp. 227–28.
646. Winter, Edward. "Chess Notes 4707, 4721, Chess Notes Archive". chesshistory.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
647. Soltis writes that Fischer "contributed some ideas, but chiefly his name, to Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess". Soltis 2003, p. 10.
648. Bantam Books, May 1972, ISBN 0-553-26315-3.
649. Verwer 2010, pp. 116–18.
650. includes one game where opponent refused to play and resigned on the first move
651. Verwer 2010, p. 118.
652. Wade & O'Connell BFCG Doubleday 1972, p. 11.
653. Müller 2009, p. 400.
654. Donaldson & Tangborn 1999, pp. 51–52.
655. includes one forfeit
656. Verwer 2010, p. 116.
657. "New York's New Prodigy," Chess, November 9, 1956. Quoted in Soltis 2003, p. 13.
658. Brady 1973, p. 74.
659. "Annotating a Short-Svidler game from the 2002 Russia-World match, the magazine 64 commented that even a superbly placed Black knight on an open file will interfere with heavy pieces and therefore should be removed in 'the classic example of the seventh game of the Fischer-Petrosian match.'" Soltis 2003, p. 264.
660. Saidy & Lessing p. 237.
661. Soltis 2003, p. 271.

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Further reading

• Agur, Elie (1992). Bobby Fischer: A Study of His Approach to Chess. Cadogan. ISBN 1-85744-001-3.
• Dautov, Petra (1995). Bobby Fischer – wie er wirklich ist: Ein Jahr mit dem Schachgenie. P. Dautov California-Verlag. ISBN 3-9804281-3-3.
• Hübner, Robert (2008). Chessbase Monograph: World Champion Fischer. Chessbase. ASIN B007J8Z8E4.
• Verwer, Renzo (2010). World Chess Champions. New in Chess. ISBN 978-90-5691-315-1.

External links

• Bobby Fischer player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• A list of books about Fischer and Kasparov compiled by Edward Winter
• Archive of Fischer's personal homepage
• Bobby Fischer Live Radio Interviews (1999–2006)
• Extensive collection of Fischer photographs, Echecs-photos online
• "Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame", Rene Chun, The Atlantic, December 2002