Remarks on Fischer

 Remarks on Fischer by his Peers:

Garry Kasparov:

With the death of Bobby Fischer chess has lost one of its greatest figures. Fischer's status as world champion and celebrity came from a charismatic and combative personality matched with unstoppable play. I recall thrilling to the games of his 1972 Reykjavik world championship match against Boris Spassky when I was nine years old. The American had his share of supporters in the USSR even then, and not only for his chess prowess. His outspokenness and individuality also earned him the quiet respect of many of my compatriots.

Fischer's beautiful chess and his immortal games will stand forever as a central pillar in the history of our game. And the story of the Brooklynite iconoclast's rise from prodigy to world champion has few peers for drama. Apart from a brief and peculiar reappearance in 1992, Bobby Fischer's chess career ended in 1972. After conquering the chess Olympus he was unable to find a new target for his power and passion.

Fischer's relentless energy exhausted everything it touched - the resources of the game itself, his opponents on and off the board, and, sadly, his own mind and body. While we can never entirely separate the deeds from the man, I would prefer to speak of his global achievements instead of his inner tragedies. It is with justice that he spent his final days in Iceland, the site of his greatest triumph. There he has always been loved and seen in the best possible way: as a chessplayer.

Jan Timman:

A great player and a great example for many. His book My 60 memorable games had a big impact on me. It is a shame he didn’t continue to enrich the world of chess with his unparalleled understanding after 1972

Ljubomir Ljubojevic:

A man without frontiers. He didn’t divide the east and the west, he brought them together in their admiration for him.

Lajos Portisch:

A big shock; the best chess player in history has passed away.

Viktor Kortchnoi:

A chess genius has died; a loss for humanity.

Susan Polgar:

In spite of his obvious flaws, he will be remembered as "The King of Chess," a genius on the board and the man who broke through the Iron Curtain. I mostly admired him as a chess player and what he did for chess. He put chess on the map in the U.S. and changed the economic opportunities for chess players. If it weren't for him, demanding reparation and prizes in the '60s and '70s, players wouldn't be making the money they are today.

He was fanatic about chess; he was working on chess most of his life, even years and years after he retired. His dedication, passion and love for the game, it was his life. It was his profession. It was how he expressed himself. It's symbolic that he died at age 64, for the 64 squares of the chessboard.

Raymond Keene:

He achieved his success because of a burning, incandescent desire to win. Most other champions had other intellectual pretensions or pursuits and interests such as art or photography but for Fischer there was nothing but chess, chess, chess. Nothing distracted him - he had no relationships with women or other people - it was just chess