Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943. In May 1949, the six-year-old Fischer and his sister learned how to play chess using the instructions from a chess set bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. When the family vacationed at Patchogue, Long Island that summer, Bobby found a book of old chess games, and studied it intensely.
Fischer was also involved with the Log Cabin Chess Club of Orange, New Jersey, which in March 1956 took him on a tour to Cuba, where he gave a 12-board simultaneous exhibition at Havana's Capablanca Chess Club, winning 10 and drawing 2.
On the tenth national rating list of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), published on May 20, 1956, Fischer's rating was a modest 1726, over 900 points below top-rated Samuel Reshevsky (2663). Fischer's first real success was winning the United States Junior Chess Championship in July 1956. He scored 8½/10 at Philadelphia to become the youngest-ever junior champion at age 13, a record that stood until 1994.In the 1956 U.S. Open Chess Championship at Oklahoma City, Fischer scored 8½/12 to tie for 4th-8th places, with Arthur Bisguier winning.Fischer accepted an invitation to play in the Third Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament at New York 1956, a premier tournament limited to the 12 players considered the best in the country. In that elite company, the 13-year-old Fischer could only score 4½/11, tying for 8th-9th place. However, he won the first brilliancy prize for his game against Donald Byrne. Hans Kmoch christened it "The Game of the Century", writing, "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."
On the United States Chess Federation's eleventh national rating list, published on May 5, 1957, Fischer was rated 2231, a master - over 500 points higher than his rating a year before.In August, he played in the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Cleveland, scoring 10/12 and winning on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier, making Fischer the youngest U.S. Open Champion ever. He next won the New Jersey Open Championship, scoring 6½/7. Fischer beat the young Filipino Master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6-2 in a match in New York.
Based on Fischer's rating, the USCF invited him to play in the 1957-58 U.S. Championship. The tournament included such luminaries as four-time champion Reshevsky, defending champion Bisguier, and William Lombardy, who in August had won the World Junior Championship with the only perfect score (11-0) in its history. Fischer was expected to score around 50%. He scored eight wins and five draws to win the tournament with 10½/13, a point ahead of Reshevsky. Still two months shy of his 15th birthday, he became the youngest US champion in history - a record that still stands. Fischer earned the International Master title for this victory, since the championship that year was also the U.S. Zonal Championship; zonal champions from around the world receive either the IM or grandmaster titles.
