Among juniors, and at the age of 14 he became the champion of the United States - the youngest in history.
From a very young age, Fischer attracted attention not only for his phenomenal chess successes. He became known for his extraordinary, often scandalous actions and public statements. So, for example, a teenager responded about school as follows: “There is nothing to learn at school. The teachers are stupid. Women should not be teachers. In my school, only the physical education teacher was not stupid - he played chess well.
At the age of 15, Fischer left school to devote himself entirely to chess. “All I ever want to do is play chess,” he said.
Chess career
Young Fisher plays against John Collins
Among chess players, Fischer was highly respected for his outstanding successes, although they were condemned for his extravagance. Commentators noted that Fischer, while demanding ideal conditions and higher fees, actually did a lot to improve tournament life and improve the well-being of leading chess players. For example, thanks to Fischer's requests, the size of the prize fund of the World Chess Championship match increased significantly. On this occasion, Boris Spassky joked: "Fischer is our trade union." Fischer himself said: “I will ensure that chess is treated with no less respect than boxing. No matter how much Muhammad Ali asks for his next speech, I will demand more.
World champion
It was reported that for some time Fisher was a member of the religious sect "World Church of the Creator", but after the end of the world predicted by its leaders did not take place, he left the sect. In an interview, he spoke of the leaders of the sect as "terrible hypocrites", called them "dishonest people who only think how to take money."
After winning the match, Fischer was not allowed to return to the US. In addition to being accused of violating the Yugoslav embargo, he was also charged by the tax authorities; for non-payment of taxes since 1976, including the tax on the fee of the last match, he was threatened with a fine of 250 thousand dollars. For some time Fischer lived in Hungary, in Budapest. In 1994, he broke up with Zita Raicani, but he met and became a friend of the family of sisters Judit and Zsuzsa Polgar, also young chess players. In 1996, Fischer presented to the public his invented chess 960. Then significant changes took place in Fischer's life again: he suddenly broke with his Hungarian acquaintances and moved to live in the East. In the Philippines, he met a 20-year-old local native, who in 2000 gave birth to his daughter, Jinky Ong (however, Fisher did not communicate with this woman or with her daughter afterwards). Fischer mostly lived in Japan with his old girlfriend Miyoko Watai, a Japanese chess player whom he met back in the 1970s. In 2000, Fischer was even in America; he had come there illegally, through Canada, to attend his sister's funeral. Although all the previous charges remained on him, the special services did nothing, or simply did not know about his arrival.
After 2000
The case dragged on. Fisher spent 8 months in prison, during which time he managed to propose to Miyoko to marry him and enter into a marriage contract with her. Montenegro, Germany and Iceland declared their readiness to grant citizenship to Fischer, and on March 24, 2005 he was deported to Iceland. Before flying out of Japan, Fischer told reporters that he believed his arrest was a kidnapping, repeated the accusations against Bush and Koizumi, and said they "should be hanged as war criminals."
last years of life
After being deported from Japan, Fischer lived in Reykjavik, Iceland. In November 2007, he was hospitalized with kidney failure. Fischer was offered an operation, but he refused. This disease, apparently, caused the death on January 17, 2008 of the legendary and most mysterious chess player of the 20th century. He was buried in Iceland, in the cemetery of the Catholic parish of the town of Selfoss, 50 km from Reykjavik. The funeral, at the request of Fischer himself, was modest, attended only by a few of his Icelandic friends and Miyoko Watai.
Characteristics of creative manner
He was distinguished by his extraordinary capacity for work, fanatical devotion to chess, encyclopedic knowledge. Fischer was an outstanding researcher of the opening and enriched chess theory with many developments. Fischer began the vast majority of his games with the king's pawn move 1.е4, brilliantly playing both open openings (including the king's gambit!), and semi-closed ones. Known so-called. "Fischer Defense" in the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Kf3 d6). Fischer's successes in the exchange variation of the Spanish game made this ramification of the popular opening fashionable for a long time to come. With Black, Fischer fought for the initiative, playing in response to 1.e4 most often the Sicilian Defense (most often the Najdorf Variation), and on 1.d4 the King's Indian Defense and the Grunfeld Defense. In the match with Spassky (1972), Fischer appeared transformed - his debut arsenal was enriched with new thoroughly worked out openings.
Fischer managed to follow not only the men's competitions, he also studied the games from the women's tournaments, trying to find a "fresh" idea there as well. He read specialized literature in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, German. In his youth, Fischer himself called himself a follower of the Soviet chess school, from which he took his best achievements.
Grandmaster A. Suetin characterized Fischer's creative style as follows:
A distinctive feature of Fischer's game is the remarkable clarity, concreteness, rationality of thinking. Even the strongest grandmasters in search over the board are not alien to hobbies: tempting, unrealistic; but fantastic continuations can prevent them from calculating the variations correctly. But when you study Fischer's game (even in blitz games!), one gets the impression that he coldly, without hesitation, automatically discards all these beauties. But all efforts are directed to finding the truth.
Other commentators also noted in Fischer's game the amazing clarity, concreteness of thinking and rare sportiness: he strove only for victory, but at the same time did not violate the principles of positional struggle. If his games ended in a draw, this meant that all the resources to achieve victory were really exhausted. Fischer was not a modernist in chess, like Tal or Larsen, he gravitated toward “pure”, clear chess, but this did not make his game dry and boring. Anatoly Karpov, describing Fischer's contribution to chess, said: "I don't know anyone else in the history of chess to whom our game would be so indebted."
Sports achivments
| Year | Tournament | + | - | = | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | New York, Brooklyn Chess Club championship | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4½ out of 7 | 3-5 |
| New Jersey US Amateur Championship | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2½ out of 6 | 32 | |
| New York, Washington Park Championship | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4½ out of 8 | 15-60 | |
| Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. Junior Championships | 2 | 2 | 6 | 5 out of 10 | 11-21 | |
| 1956 | New York, New York Championship | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 out of 7 | 5-7 |
| New York, Manhattan Chess Club Tournament "A" | 7 | 1 | 4 | 9 out of 12 | 1 | |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 4½ out of 5 | - | ||
| Asburn Park, New Jersey, US Amateur Championships | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 of 6 | 12 | |
| Philadelphia U.S. Junior Championships | 8 | 1 | 1 | 8½ out of 10 | 1 | |
| Oklahoma City LVII US Open | 5 | 0 | 7 | 8½ out of 13 | 4-8 | |
| Montreal, Canadian Open | 6 | 2 | 2 | 7 out of 10 | 8-12 | |
| New York, 3rd Rosenwald Prize Tournament | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4½ out of 11 | 8-9 | |
| Washington, Eastern States Open | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5½ out of 7 | 2-5 | |
| 1956/57 | New York, Manhatton Chess Club semi-finals | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2½ out of 5 | 4 |
| 1957 | West Orange, New Jersey, Long Cabin Open | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 of 6 | 6-11 |
| Long Cabin, 50-50 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 out of 5 | ||
| new york metropolitan league team championship | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 out of 5 | - | |
| New York, match with M. Euwe | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ of 2 | ||
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Western States Open | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 out of 8 | 7 | |
| San Francisco U.S. Junior Championships | 8 | 0 | 1 | 8½ out of 9 | 1 | |
| Cleveland, OH LVIII US Open | 8 | 0 | 4 | 10 out of 12 | 1-2 | |
| East Orange, New Jersey, New Jersey State Championship | 6 | 0 | 1 | 6½ out of 7 | 1 | |
| New York, match with D. Bennison | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3½ out of 4 | ||
| New York, match with R. Cardoso (8 games) | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 out of 8 | ||
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mid-North Open | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 out of 7 | 6-16 | |
| 1957/58 | New York, XII US Championship | 8 | 0 | 5 | 10½ out of 13 | 1 |
| 1958 | Belgrade, match against D. Janosevic | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 of 2 | |
| Belgrade, match against M. Matulovic | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2½ out of 4 | ||
| Portorož Interzonal Tournament | 6 | 2 | 12 | 12 out of 20 | 5-6 | |
| 1958/59 | New York, XIII US Championship | 6 | 0 | 5 | 8½ out of 11 | 1 |
| 1959 | Mar del Plata | 8 | 2 | 4 | 10 out of 14 | 3-4 |
| Santiago, A. Palma Memorial | 7 | 4 | 1 | 7½ out of 12 | 4-6 | |
| Zurich | 8 | 2 | 5 | 10½ out of 15 | 3-4 | |
| Bled - Zagreb - Belgrade Candidates Tournament | 8 | 11 | 9 | 12½ out of 28 | 5-6 | |
| 1959/60 | New York, XIV US Championship | 7 | 0 | 4 | 9 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1960 | Mar del Plata | 13 | 1 | 1 | 13½ out of 15 | 1-2 |
| Buenos Aires | 3 | 5 | 11 | 8½ out of 19 | 13-16 | |
| Reykjavik | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3½ out of 4 | 1 | |
| Berlin, match USA - West Germany (game with Darga) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| Leinzig, XIV Olympiad | 10 | 2 | 6 | 13 out of 18 | ||
| 1960/61 | New York, XV US Championship | 7 | 0 | 4 | 9 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1961 | New York - Los Angeles, match with Samuel Reshevsky (out of 16 games) | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5½ out of 11 | |
| Bled, A. Alekhine memorial | 8 | 0 | 11 | 13½ out of 19 | 2 | |
| Consulting party on the radio with London | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ of 1 | ||
| 1962 | Stockholm Interzonal Tournament | 13 | 0 | 9 | 17½ out of 22 | 1 |
| Copenhagen, game with B. Larsen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| Curacao Candidates Tournament | 8 | 7 | 12 | 14 out of 27 | 4 | |
| Varna, XV Olympiad | 8 | 3 | 6 | 11 out of 17 | ||
| Match USA - Poland (game with B. Plum) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| 1962/63 | New York, 17th US Championship | 6 | 1 | 4 | 8 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1963 | Bay City Michigan Western States Open | 7 | 0 | 1 | 7½ out of 8 | 1 |
| Pogueskipie, New York, New York State Open | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 out of 7 | 1 | |
| 1963/64 | New York, XVIII USA Championship | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1965 | Havana, IV Capablanca Memorial ((by phone and teletype) | 12 | 3 | 6 | 15 out of 21 | 2-4 |
| 1965/66 | New York, XX US Championship | 8 | 2 | 1 | 8½ out of 11 | 1 |
| 1966 | Los Angeles, Piatigorsky Cup Tournament | 7 | 3 | 8 | 11 out of 18 | 2 |
| Havana, XVII Olympiad | 14 | 1 | 2 | 15 out of 17 | ||
| 1966/67 | New York, XXI US Championship | 8 | 0 | 3 | 9½ out of 11 | 1 |
| 1967 | Monaco | 6 | 1 | 2 | 7 out of 9 | 1 |
| Skopje | 12 | 2 | 3 | 13½ out of 17 | 1 | |
| Sousse Interzonal Tournament | 7 | 0 | 3 | 8½ out of 10 | ||
| 1968 | Natanya, Israel | 10 | 0 | 3 | 11½ out of 13 | 1 |
| Vinkovci, Yugoslavia | 9 | 0 | 4 | 11 out of 13 | 1 | |
| 1969 | New York Metropolitan League (game with Sadie) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | |
| 1970 | "Match of the century" (match between the national teams of the USSR and the rest of the world), 2nd board vs. T. Petrosyan |
2 | 0 | 2 | 3 of 4 | |
| Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia, international blitz tournament | 17 | 1 | 4 | 19 out of 22 | 1 | |
| Zagreb | 10 | 1 | 6 | 13 out of 17 | 1 | |
| Buenos Aires | 13 | 0 | 4 | 15 out of 17 | 1 | |
| Siegen, XIX Olympiad | 8 | 1 | 4 | 10 out of 13 | ||
| Siegen, game with Andersson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| Palma de Mallorca Interzonal Tournament | 15 | 1 | 7 | 18½ out of 23 | 1 | |
| 1971 | Vancouver, Candidates quarterfinal match against M. Taimanov | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 out of 6 | |
| Denver Candidates Semifinal vs. B. Larsen | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 out of 6 | ||
| Buenos Aires, Candidates final match against T. Petrosyan | 5 | 1 | 3 | 6½ out of 9 | ||
| 1972 | Reykjavik, World Championship match with Boris Spassky | 7 | 3 | 11 | 12½ out of 21 | |
| 1992 | Sveti Stefan, Belgrade, Match with Boris Spassky | 10 | 5 | 15 | 17½ out of 30 |
Personal accounts
|
|
Among juniors, and at the age of 14 he became the champion of the United States - the youngest in history.
From a very young age, Fischer attracted attention not only for his phenomenal chess successes. He became known for his extraordinary, often scandalous actions and public statements. So, for example, a teenager responded about school as follows: “There is nothing to learn at school. The teachers are stupid. Women should not be teachers. In my school, only the physical education teacher was not stupid - he played chess well.
At the age of 15, Fischer left school to devote himself entirely to chess. “All I ever want to do is play chess,” he said.
Chess career
Young Fisher plays against John Collins
Among chess players, Fischer was highly respected for his outstanding successes, although they were condemned for his extravagance. Commentators noted that Fischer, while demanding ideal conditions and higher fees, actually did a lot to improve tournament life and improve the well-being of leading chess players. For example, thanks to Fischer's requests, the size of the prize fund of the World Chess Championship match increased significantly. On this occasion, Boris Spassky joked: "Fischer is our trade union." Fischer himself said: “I will ensure that chess is treated with no less respect than boxing. No matter how much Muhammad Ali asks for his next speech, I will demand more.
World champion
It was reported that for some time Fisher was a member of the religious sect "World Church of the Creator", but after the end of the world predicted by its leaders did not take place, he left the sect. In an interview, he spoke of the leaders of the sect as "terrible hypocrites", called them "dishonest people who only think how to take money."
After winning the match, Fischer was not allowed to return to the US. In addition to being accused of violating the Yugoslav embargo, he was also charged by the tax authorities; for non-payment of taxes since 1976, including the tax on the fee of the last match, he was threatened with a fine of 250 thousand dollars. For some time Fischer lived in Hungary, in Budapest. In 1994, he broke up with Zita Raicani, but he met and became a friend of the family of sisters Judit and Zsuzsa Polgar, also young chess players. In 1996, Fischer presented to the public his invented chess 960. Then significant changes took place in Fischer's life again: he suddenly broke with his Hungarian acquaintances and moved to live in the East. In the Philippines, he met a 20-year-old local native, who in 2000 gave birth to his daughter, Jinky Ong (however, Fisher did not communicate with this woman or with her daughter afterwards). Fischer mostly lived in Japan with his old girlfriend Miyoko Watai, a Japanese chess player whom he met back in the 1970s. In 2000, Fischer was even in America; he had come there illegally, through Canada, to attend his sister's funeral. Although all the previous charges remained on him, the special services did nothing, or simply did not know about his arrival.
After 2000
The case dragged on. Fisher spent 8 months in prison, during which time he managed to propose to Miyoko to marry him and enter into a marriage contract with her. Montenegro, Germany and Iceland declared their readiness to grant citizenship to Fischer, and on March 24, 2005 he was deported to Iceland. Before flying out of Japan, Fischer told reporters that he believed his arrest was a kidnapping, repeated the accusations against Bush and Koizumi, and said they "should be hanged as war criminals."
last years of life
After being deported from Japan, Fischer lived in Reykjavik, Iceland. In November 2007, he was hospitalized with kidney failure. Fischer was offered an operation, but he refused. This disease, apparently, caused the death on January 17, 2008 of the legendary and most mysterious chess player of the 20th century. He was buried in Iceland, in the cemetery of the Catholic parish of the town of Selfoss, 50 km from Reykjavik. The funeral, at the request of Fischer himself, was modest, attended only by a few of his Icelandic friends and Miyoko Watai.
Characteristics of creative manner
He was distinguished by his extraordinary capacity for work, fanatical devotion to chess, encyclopedic knowledge. Fischer was an outstanding researcher of the opening and enriched chess theory with many developments. Fischer began the vast majority of his games with the king's pawn move 1.е4, brilliantly playing both open openings (including the king's gambit!), and semi-closed ones. Known so-called. "Fischer Defense" in the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Kf3 d6). Fischer's successes in the exchange variation of the Spanish game made this ramification of the popular opening fashionable for a long time to come. With Black, Fischer fought for the initiative, playing in response to 1.e4 most often the Sicilian Defense (most often the Najdorf Variation), and on 1.d4 the King's Indian Defense and the Grunfeld Defense. In the match with Spassky (1972), Fischer appeared transformed - his debut arsenal was enriched with new thoroughly worked out openings.
Fischer managed to follow not only the men's competitions, he also studied the games from the women's tournaments, trying to find a "fresh" idea there as well. He read specialized literature in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, German. In his youth, Fischer himself called himself a follower of the Soviet chess school, from which he took his best achievements.
Grandmaster A. Suetin characterized Fischer's creative style as follows:
A distinctive feature of Fischer's game is the remarkable clarity, concreteness, rationality of thinking. Even the strongest grandmasters in search over the board are not alien to hobbies: tempting, unrealistic; but fantastic continuations can prevent them from calculating the variations correctly. But when you study Fischer's game (even in blitz games!), one gets the impression that he coldly, without hesitation, automatically discards all these beauties. But all efforts are directed to finding the truth.
Other commentators also noted in Fischer's game the amazing clarity, concreteness of thinking and rare sportiness: he strove only for victory, but at the same time did not violate the principles of positional struggle. If his games ended in a draw, this meant that all the resources to achieve victory were really exhausted. Fischer was not a modernist in chess, like Tal or Larsen, he gravitated toward “pure”, clear chess, but this did not make his game dry and boring. Anatoly Karpov, describing Fischer's contribution to chess, said: "I don't know anyone else in the history of chess to whom our game would be so indebted."
Sports achivments
| Year | Tournament | + | - | = | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | New York, Brooklyn Chess Club championship | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4½ out of 7 | 3-5 |
| New Jersey US Amateur Championship | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2½ out of 6 | 32 | |
| New York, Washington Park Championship | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4½ out of 8 | 15-60 | |
| Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. Junior Championships | 2 | 2 | 6 | 5 out of 10 | 11-21 | |
| 1956 | New York, New York Championship | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 out of 7 | 5-7 |
| New York, Manhattan Chess Club Tournament "A" | 7 | 1 | 4 | 9 out of 12 | 1 | |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 4½ out of 5 | - | ||
| Asburn Park, New Jersey, US Amateur Championships | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 of 6 | 12 | |
| Philadelphia U.S. Junior Championships | 8 | 1 | 1 | 8½ out of 10 | 1 | |
| Oklahoma City LVII US Open | 5 | 0 | 7 | 8½ out of 13 | 4-8 | |
| Montreal, Canadian Open | 6 | 2 | 2 | 7 out of 10 | 8-12 | |
| New York, 3rd Rosenwald Prize Tournament | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4½ out of 11 | 8-9 | |
| Washington, Eastern States Open | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5½ out of 7 | 2-5 | |
| 1956/57 | New York, Manhatton Chess Club semi-finals | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2½ out of 5 | 4 |
| 1957 | West Orange, New Jersey, Long Cabin Open | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 of 6 | 6-11 |
| Long Cabin, 50-50 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 out of 5 | ||
| new york metropolitan league team championship | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 out of 5 | - | |
| New York, match with M. Euwe | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ of 2 | ||
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Western States Open | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 out of 8 | 7 | |
| San Francisco U.S. Junior Championships | 8 | 0 | 1 | 8½ out of 9 | 1 | |
| Cleveland, OH LVIII US Open | 8 | 0 | 4 | 10 out of 12 | 1-2 | |
| East Orange, New Jersey, New Jersey State Championship | 6 | 0 | 1 | 6½ out of 7 | 1 | |
| New York, match with D. Bennison | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3½ out of 4 | ||
| New York, match with R. Cardoso (8 games) | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 out of 8 | ||
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mid-North Open | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 out of 7 | 6-16 | |
| 1957/58 | New York, XII US Championship | 8 | 0 | 5 | 10½ out of 13 | 1 |
| 1958 | Belgrade, match against D. Janosevic | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 of 2 | |
| Belgrade, match against M. Matulovic | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2½ out of 4 | ||
| Portorož Interzonal Tournament | 6 | 2 | 12 | 12 out of 20 | 5-6 | |
| 1958/59 | New York, XIII US Championship | 6 | 0 | 5 | 8½ out of 11 | 1 |
| 1959 | Mar del Plata | 8 | 2 | 4 | 10 out of 14 | 3-4 |
| Santiago, A. Palma Memorial | 7 | 4 | 1 | 7½ out of 12 | 4-6 | |
| Zurich | 8 | 2 | 5 | 10½ out of 15 | 3-4 | |
| Bled - Zagreb - Belgrade Candidates Tournament | 8 | 11 | 9 | 12½ out of 28 | 5-6 | |
| 1959/60 | New York, XIV US Championship | 7 | 0 | 4 | 9 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1960 | Mar del Plata | 13 | 1 | 1 | 13½ out of 15 | 1-2 |
| Buenos Aires | 3 | 5 | 11 | 8½ out of 19 | 13-16 | |
| Reykjavik | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3½ out of 4 | 1 | |
| Berlin, match USA - West Germany (game with Darga) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| Leinzig, XIV Olympiad | 10 | 2 | 6 | 13 out of 18 | ||
| 1960/61 | New York, XV US Championship | 7 | 0 | 4 | 9 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1961 | New York - Los Angeles, match with Samuel Reshevsky (out of 16 games) | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5½ out of 11 | |
| Bled, A. Alekhine memorial | 8 | 0 | 11 | 13½ out of 19 | 2 | |
| Consulting party on the radio with London | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ of 1 | ||
| 1962 | Stockholm Interzonal Tournament | 13 | 0 | 9 | 17½ out of 22 | 1 |
| Copenhagen, game with B. Larsen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| Curacao Candidates Tournament | 8 | 7 | 12 | 14 out of 27 | 4 | |
| Varna, XV Olympiad | 8 | 3 | 6 | 11 out of 17 | ||
| Match USA - Poland (game with B. Plum) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| 1962/63 | New York, 17th US Championship | 6 | 1 | 4 | 8 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1963 | Bay City Michigan Western States Open | 7 | 0 | 1 | 7½ out of 8 | 1 |
| Pogueskipie, New York, New York State Open | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 out of 7 | 1 | |
| 1963/64 | New York, XVIII USA Championship | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 out of 11 | 1 |
| 1965 | Havana, IV Capablanca Memorial ((by phone and teletype) | 12 | 3 | 6 | 15 out of 21 | 2-4 |
| 1965/66 | New York, XX US Championship | 8 | 2 | 1 | 8½ out of 11 | 1 |
| 1966 | Los Angeles, Piatigorsky Cup Tournament | 7 | 3 | 8 | 11 out of 18 | 2 |
| Havana, XVII Olympiad | 14 | 1 | 2 | 15 out of 17 | ||
| 1966/67 | New York, XXI US Championship | 8 | 0 | 3 | 9½ out of 11 | 1 |
| 1967 | Monaco | 6 | 1 | 2 | 7 out of 9 | 1 |
| Skopje | 12 | 2 | 3 | 13½ out of 17 | 1 | |
| Sousse Interzonal Tournament | 7 | 0 | 3 | 8½ out of 10 | ||
| 1968 | Natanya, Israel | 10 | 0 | 3 | 11½ out of 13 | 1 |
| Vinkovci, Yugoslavia | 9 | 0 | 4 | 11 out of 13 | 1 | |
| 1969 | New York Metropolitan League (game with Sadie) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | |
| 1970 | "Match of the century" (match between the national teams of the USSR and the rest of the world), 2nd board vs. T. Petrosyan |
2 | 0 | 2 | 3 of 4 | |
| Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia, international blitz tournament | 17 | 1 | 4 | 19 out of 22 | 1 | |
| Zagreb | 10 | 1 | 6 | 13 out of 17 | 1 | |
| Buenos Aires | 13 | 0 | 4 | 15 out of 17 | 1 | |
| Siegen, XIX Olympiad | 8 | 1 | 4 | 10 out of 13 | ||
| Siegen, game with Andersson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 of 1 | ||
| Palma de Mallorca Interzonal Tournament | 15 | 1 | 7 | 18½ out of 23 | 1 | |
| 1971 | Vancouver, Candidates quarterfinal match against M. Taimanov | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 out of 6 | |
| Denver Candidates Semifinal vs. B. Larsen | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 out of 6 | ||
| Buenos Aires, Candidates final match against T. Petrosyan | 5 | 1 | 3 | 6½ out of 9 | ||
| 1972 | Reykjavik, World Championship match with Boris Spassky | 7 | 3 | 11 | 12½ out of 21 | |
| 1992 | Sveti Stefan, Belgrade, Match with Boris Spassky | 10 | 5 | 15 | 17½ out of 30 |
Personal accounts
|
|
On January 8, 1957, Robert Fischer, at the age of 13, became the youngest US chess champion.
He made a show out of chess, breathed life and passion into them. Many considered him a madman and a poseur. He literally didn't care. They could not ignore him. He was a child prodigy and a genius. His name was Bobby Fischer.
Fischer is one of the brightest chess players of the 20th century.
Fischer's chess talent showed up early. At the age of 13, he won the US junior title, and on January 8, 1957, he became the youngest US champion.
A year later, he became the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess.
He was constantly in the spotlight, not only due to phenomenal success, but also because of his sensational statements. “There is nothing to learn in school. The teachers are stupid. Women should not be teachers. In my school, only the physical education teacher was not stupid - he played chess well, ”the teenager said.
Bobby promised to beat the Soviet chess players as soon as possible and become the world champion. But it was not so easy to get through the ranks of Soviet grandmasters. Fifteen years Fisher went to the goal. But in the end, he still broke the chain of Soviet world chess champions and became the first and last American to win this title after defeating Boris Spassky in 1972 in Reykjavik (Iceland). Over the years, he has gained a reputation as a chess fanatic.
The last game of the match against Spassky was the last official game played by Fischer.
Scandals have become another constant companion of the American. He always demanded something: either a higher fee, or good lighting, or permission not to play on Saturdays. And if his conditions were not met, he refused to perform, he could pack his bags in the middle of the competition and go home. It is now clear that many of Fischer's demands were fair and justified, but to his contemporaries they seemed outrageous and extravagant.
For example, in 1975, FIDE rejected the conditions set by Fischer for the World Championship, in which he was supposed to play Anatoly Karpov from the USSR, after which Fischer refused to play. The consequence of this act of Fischer was the awarding of the title of world champion to Karpov. After this scandal, Fischer stopped appearing in public for two decades and moved to Europe.
Fanaticism, including in relation to chess, does not lead to good. Fisher was a "client" of one of the religious sects for many years. His ideas about the world around him became not quite adequate. So, he refused the president's traditional reception for American victorious athletes, having learned that he would not be paid money for this. Fischer left because he thought he would be exploited and because he had a lifelong fear of failure. He lost so rarely that a separate book was published about his failures, How Bobby Fischer Won.
Robert James "Bobby" Fisher(Robert James "Bobby" Fischer) was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago (USA), and died on January 17, 2008 in Reykjavik (Iceland). |
He made a show out of chess, breathed life and passion into them. Many considered him a madman and a poseur. He literally didn't care. They could not ignore him. He was a child prodigy and a genius. His name was Bobby Fischer.
Brought grandfather
At the tournament in Zurich in 1958, the fifteen-year-old Fischer, in the game with the oldest participant, the Hungarian grandmaster Gedeon Barza, did not have any advantage, but, not wanting to let his opponent go in peace, he played until the 103rd move. The game was adjourned three times, the partners filled out two blanks, but even after only kings were left on the board, Fischer made two more moves! Draw! Shocked by such a fantastic onslaught, Barza barely got up from his chair, and Robert says, as if nothing had happened: “Let's look at the game from the first move. Somewhere after all, I could play harder! And then Bartza begged: “What are you doing! I have a wife, children, who will feed them in the event of my untimely death!
I myself
Another episode that gives an idea of Fischer's character. Shortly before the 1959 Candidates Tournament, where the young chess player sensationally qualified, a businessman decided to sponsor the prodigy. His demand was simple: that Bobby in all interviews say that he achieves success with the help of his sponsor. 16-year-old Fischer reacted immediately: "If I win the tournament, I win it myself!"
"Russian conspiracy"
For the 1959 Candidates Tournament, Bobby was still damp, but Fisher approached the 1962 Candidates Tournament in Curacao as one of the favorites. In any case, he considered himself as such. True, on the way to the first place, namely, it gave the right to a championship match, they had to go through the so-called "Russian row" - the four Soviet grandmasters who participated in the tournament. At first, Fischer was in the lead, but the distance was long, and he failed to stay on top. In particular, Mikhail Tal inflicted 4 defeats on the American. As a result, Fischer accused the trio of prize-winners - Soviet grandmasters - of deliberate conspiracy against him. Like, they made bloodless draws between themselves and thus saved their strength, and with Fischer, who had no opportunity to rest, they gave it their all.
Sousse Interzonal Scandal
After the failure at Curaçao, Fischer dropped out of tournament chess for almost 3 years. Missed one championship cycle. But for the interzonal tournament in Sousse (1967), he pulled himself together, warmed up in the American Championship with a score of 11 out of 11 (!) and went to the start! Bobby smashed opponents left and right. But at the same time, he was constantly capricious, demanding either extra days off or special coverage, and voluntarily dropped out of the tournament, having 8.5 points out of 10! When an outsider leaves, this is understandable, but when there is a clear leader, then this is strange. It seems that Bobby was afraid of getting into the Candidates matches against Boris Spassky, who in those years did not know his equal. The fear of defeat is another of the main distinguishing features of Fischer's athletic character.
Championship match with Spassky
As expected, Spassky won the 1967 Candidates cycle and then the chess crown. That is, in the new cycle (1971), the road to Fischer was open right up to the championship match. And Bobby got down to business! In the quarterfinal match, he defeated Mark Taimanov - 6:0! In the semi-final - Bent Larsen - 6:0! And only in the final match of the candidates could the ex-world champion Tigran Petrosyan resist - 6.5:2.5. The last frontier remained... Spassky.
But Fischer did not appear at the official opening of the match in Icelandic Reykjavik (1972). A scandal was brewing. Bobby demanded an increase in the prize pool. The Soviet leadership wanted to recall Boris Spassky, considering such a brawl humiliating. But two days later, the evil genius showed up (there were sponsors who granted Fisher's request). The world held its breath in anticipation of an unprecedented chess action...
In the very first game, the Soviet champion wins! And Fischer immediately became capricious. He began to demand that the red light of the traffic light should not be on anywhere while he was being taken to the gaming hall. He demanded to remove all television cameras, as he was annoyed by their noise. And then he issued an ultimatum: play the next part in the back room, not on stage! Otherwise, he is removed from the match. The organizers thought Bobby was bluffing. An no. Fischer did not show up for the second game and was given a forfeit defeat. 2-0 in favor of Spassky.
This would have been the end of the tale, but Boris, apparently, considered such a victory unworthy of a champion and agreed to play the 3rd game behind the scenes. Psychological concession! Bobby won the 3rd game beautifully, seized the initiative in the match and eventually became the world champion.
Renunciation
After the championship match, Bobby retired from chess and, according to eyewitnesses, began to turn into a paranoid. Fischer's tragedy was that the scale of his chess talent did not match the scale of his personality. But a new cycle of the chess crown was approaching, and Bobby had to defend his title. The fear of losing in the upcoming match in 1975 with the young Anatoly Karpov weighed heavily on Fischer. He put forward different conditions, but Karpov, not like Spassky, did not make any concessions, and the match did not take place. The crown passed to Karpov without a fight. However, Bobby stated that the real world champion is he and no one else. For the world champion is determined by the principle of succession, and he did not lose the match to anyone, for the simple reason that he did not play it! Chess lovers still regret the failed match...
Match with Spassky in Belgrade
As time went on, new heroes appeared in the chess world: after a titanic confrontation that lasted for many years, Anatoly Karpov was replaced by Garry Kasparov. But 20 years after the last match, Fischer stepped out of the shadows! He said that he still considers himself world champion and gives Boris Spassky the right to a rematch. The chess community was delighted! Sponsors were quickly found. The match was decided to be held in Belgrade. Just at that time, the United States imposed economic sanctions against Yugoslavia. The American government sent Fischer an official letter banning him from the match. Fisher spat on this letter in front of journalists and tore it up. This act meant that upon returning to the United States, Bobby was waiting for a prison, so he never returned to his homeland. He commented on the situation as follows: “Due to the fact that I played chess, should I go to jail? I have never seen more idiocy in my life." By the way, Bobby won the match again.
It's a pity that Bobby Fischer didn't write a single chess book at the end of his life. After all, his 1972 work "My 60 Memorable Games" is rightfully considered one of the best chess books ever written...
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Biography, life story of Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) American chess player.
Childhood and youth
Robert James Fisher (aka Bobby) was born March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Regina Fischer, was Swiss Jewish. Regarding the father, the opinions of historians differ - he was either the German Jew Hans-Gerhard Fischer, or the Hungarian Jew Paul Nemeny. However, biological kinship is not so important, because it was Paul who raised the boy, it was he who helped him financially, constantly supported and even tried to arrange sole custody of him, referring to the fact that Regina suffers from a mental disorder and cannot raise her son.
Bobby Fischer was the first American to become world chess champion. He was distinguished by unusual features inherent in a brilliant personality. Fischer grew up in Brooklyn, learned to play chess at the age of 6 and quickly became a master at it. In August 1958, at the age of 15, he became an International Grandmaster. At the same time, he left school to devote himself to chess. Because of this, he terribly quarreled with his mother, who, tired of constant arguments, left, leaving Bobby's Brooklyn apartment.
Career
Young Bobby was bright, passionate and unapologetic. In his youth, he often made mistakes, but with enviable persistence he did not admit them, considering himself a 100% genius. Over time, his chess skills reached a new level, his opponents sincerely feared this "cold-blooded killer", as he was called.
Bobby Fischer is especially famous as an American chess player who won in 1972. In 1972, the chess player staged an unforgettable, sensational duel with the Russian champion in Reykjavik, Iceland. After winning 21 games, Fischer became the champion. But Fisher was a very strange, eccentric figure, a recluse. He never defended his crown, turning down a 1975 match with a representative of the International Chess Federation. The federation awarded the title, and Fischer did not appear in public for almost 2 decades.
CONTINUED BELOW
In 1992, he again played with in Belgrade, the prize fund of the game was five million dollars. By agreeing to the game, Fischer broke the boycott between the United States and Yugoslavia. He won the match, receiving 3.5 million. However, Fischer spent the next decade as a recluse, fleeing American power.
On July 4, 2004, Fischer was arrested at the Tokyo airport in an attempt to leave Japan without a passport. He was held in Japan until March 2005, when he received Icelandic citizenship and was deported to his new homeland.
Personal life
There were many women in Bobby Fischer's life, however, as his biographers assure, he did not love any of them like chess. Fischer had a long affair with Petra Stadler, a chess player from Hungary, which ended with Petra, tired of her lover's constant anti-Semitic conversations, leaving Bobby.
After breaking up with Petra, seventeen-year-old Hungarian Zita Raicani appeared in Bobby's life. Bobby several times offered Zita to become his wife, but she constantly refused, finding various pretexts. As a result, their union broke up.
In 2000, it became known that Fischer had a romantic relationship with Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai. There were rumors that everything was very serious with them, that they found in each other what they had been looking for all their lives. But soon the public learned that behind Miyoko's back, Bobby was having an affair with a Filipino Mariling Young, who in 2001 gave birth to a daughter from him. However, Fischer himself was not very worried about this, calmly continuing to enjoy life with Miyoko.
Miyoko stayed with Bobby until the very end. It was she who sought his release from Japan, it was she who saw him off on his last journey, it was she who loved him so sincerely and so purely that she was already happy that she could be close to her beloved.
Death
In the fall of 2007, Bobby Fischer was hospitalized with a prostate tumor. Doctors wanted to perform an operation on the chess player, but he categorically refused, entrusting his life to fate. On January 17, 2008, Fischer died.
The funeral was modest. Only a few of his close friends came to say goodbye to the chess player. On Fischer's grave there is only a small tombstone with his name and years of life.
Interesting Facts
Fischer wrote the books Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (1966), My 60 Memorable Games (1969).
The 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer was not, per se, about Bobby Fischer. The tape told about a young gifted chess player, and the life story of Joshua Waitzkin was taken as a basis.
In 1990, Bobby Fischer patented his invention - a chess clock that adds additional seconds to players after each move. The clock was named after its creator.
Bobby, whose parents were full-blooded Jews, remained a virulent anti-Semite all his life.
Bobby Fischer has died at the age of 64. There are 64 cells on a chessboard.
