Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess prodigy, grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion. He is considered by many to be the greatest chess player who ever lived.
At age 13, Fischer won a "brilliancy" that became known as The Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a point. At the age of 15 years, 6 months and 1 day, he became both the youngest grandmaster and the youngest candidate for the World Championship up to that time. He won the 1963–64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. He was then 20 years old. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, remains a revered work in all chess literature.
In the early 1970s he became one of the most dominant players in history—winning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. He became the first official World Chess Federation (FIDE) number one ranked player in July 1971, and spent 54 total months at number one. In 1972, he captured the World Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation. The match, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, attracted more worldwide interest and publicity than any chess match before or since.
In 1975, Fischer declined to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE over one of the conditions for the match. Afterward, Fischer became a recluse, disappearing from the public eye until 1992, when he won an unofficial rematch against Spassky. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time. This led to a conflict with the U.S. government, which also sought income tax on his match winnings. Fischer never returned to his homeland, thus becoming a fugitive.
In the 1990s, Fischer proposed a new variant of chess as well as a modified chess timing system. His idea of adding a time increment after each move is now standard practice in top tournament and match play, and his variant Chess960 is gaining in popularity.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, Japan, and Iceland. During this time he made increasingly anti-American and anti-semitic statements on various radio stations. His U.S. passport was revoked, and he was subsequently detained by Japanese authorities for nine months in 2004 and 2005 under threat of deportation. In March 2005, Iceland granted Fischer full citizenship, and Japanese authorities released him to Iceland, where he lived until his death in 2008.
Contents
1 Early years
1.1 Paul Nemenyi as Fischer's father
1.2 Chess beginnings
1.3 The Hawthorne Chess Club
2 Young champion
2.1 Wins first U.S. title
3 Grandmaster, candidate, author
3.1 Drops out of school
4 U.S. Championships
5 Olympiads
6 1960–61
7 1962: success, setback, accusations of collusion
7.1 Accuses Soviets of collusion
8 Religious affiliation
9 Semi-retirement in the mid-1960s
10 Successful return
10.1 Withdraws while leading Interzonal
10.2 Second semi-retirement
11 World Champion
11.1 Road to the World Championship
11.2 World Championship match
11.3 Forfeiture of title
12 Sudden obscurity
13 1992 Spassky rematch
14 Life as an émigré
14.1 Anti-semitic statements
14.2 Anti-American and anti-Israel statements
14.3 Detention in Japan
14.4 Asylum in Iceland
15 Death, estate dispute, and exhumation
16 Contributions to chess
16.1 Opening theory
16.2 Endgame
16.3 Fischer clock
16.4 Fischerandom Chess
16.5 Legacy
17 In popular culture
18 Writings
18.1 Under Fischer's name
19 Tournament and match summaries
19.1 Tournaments
19.2 Matches
19.3 Team events
20 Notable games
21 References
22 Further reading
23 External links
Early years
Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943. His birth certificate listed his father as Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, also known as Gerardo Liebscher, a German biophysicist. His mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was an American citizen of Polish-Russian Jewish descent, born in Switzerland and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She later became a teacher, a registered nurse, and then a physician.
After graduating college in her teens, Regina traveled to Germany to visit her brother. It was there that she was hired by Hermann Joseph Muller, a geneticist and future Nobel Prize winner, who persuaded Regina to move to Moscow and enroll at I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University to study medicine. It was there that Regina met and married Hans-Gerhardt in November 1933.
They had a daughter, Joan Fischer, and lived in Moscow until 1938, when the anti-semitism that was spreading under Joseph Stalin forced Regina to leave school and move to Paris, France, with Joan in tow. While in Paris, Regina became an English teacher for a short time, until the threat of a German invasion of France led her to flee with Joan to the United States in 1939. Hans-Gerhardt tried to follow Regina and Joan, but was prevented from entering the United States because he was a German citizen. As it turned out, Hans-Gerhardt never did come to the United States. In fact, Regina and Hans-Gerhardt had separated in Moscow (although they did not officially divorce until 1945). As a result, Regina was a single parent, raising Bobby along with his elder sister, Joan. Regina lived an itinerant life, shuttling between different jobs and schools all over the country, and engaging in political activism. In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse.
Paul Nemenyi as Fischer's father
Sources implying that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist (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. During the 1950s, the FBI investigated Regina and her circle for her alleged communist sympathies and her previous life in Moscow. The files from that FBI investigation into the family identify Nemenyi as Bobby's biological father. Government documents show that Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by U.S. immigration officials because of alleged Communist sympathies. Regina and Nemenyi were reported to have had an affair in 1942. Additionally, Paul Nemenyi made monthly child support payments to her, and paid for Fischer's schooling until his own death in 1952. Nemenyi also lodged complaints with social workers saying he was concerned about the way that Regina was raising the child, on one occasion breaking down in tears when making the complaints. Separately, Bobby later told the Hungarian chess player Zita Rajcsanyi that Paul Nemenyi would sometimes show up at the family's Brooklyn apartment and take him on outings. 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: "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." Regina also 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. 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.
Chess beginnings
In May 1949, the six-year-old Bobby, and his sister Joan, learned how to play chess using the instructions from a chess set bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. When Joan lost interest in chess and Regina didn't have time to play, it left Fischer to play many of his first games against himself. When the family vacationed at Patchogue, Long Island that summer, Bobby found a book of old chess games, and studied it intensely. On November 14, 1950, his mother 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 would be giving a simultaneous exhibition on January 17, 1951. Fischer played in the exhibition, losing in 15 minutes. One of the spectators was Carmine Nigro, president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, who introduced Fischer to the club and began teaching him. Fischer attended the club regularly, intensified his interest, and gained playing strength rapidly. In the summer of 1955, the then 12-year-old Fischer joined the Manhattan Chess Club, the strongest in the country. Fischer's relationship with Nigro lasted five years, from 1951 to 1956, when Nigro moved away to Florida.
Carmine Nigro introduced Fischer to future grandmaster William Lombardy, and, starting in September 1954, Lombardy began coaching Fischer in private, training him to be totally immersed in the game: "We spent hours in our sessions, simply playing over quality games", and that he "tried to instill in Bobby the secret of his own speedy rise. Eidetic Imagery and Total Immersion." Based on a 1956 game Lombardy played against Pavilias Vaitonis (in which he agreed to a draw offer after only 13 moves), he advised Fischer to play for wins, rather than draws: "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". Lombardy would play a key part in Fischer becoming World Champion. He was Fischer's aide at Portorož where they analyzed Fischer's games. He was Bobby's second in Reykjavik, where he analyzed with Fischer, and helped keep Fischer in the match.
The Hawthorne Chess Club
In June 1956, Fischer began attending the "Hawthorne Chess Club", which was actually master John "Jack" W. Collins' home.
For many years it was believed that Collins was Fischer's teacher and coach, even though Collins stated that he did not teach Fischer. It is now believed that Collins was Fischer's mentor, not his teacher or coach.
"A mentor and a friend, Fischer played thousands of blitz and offhand games with Collins and other strong players, began studying the books in Collins' large chess library, and ate almost as many dinners at Collins' home as his own."
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. Denker wrote that Bobby enjoyed those treats and never forgot them; the two became lifelong friends.
Young champion
Fischer experienced a "meteoric rise" in his playing strength during 1956. On the tenth national rating list of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), published on May 20, 1956, his rating was a modest 1726, over 900 points below top-rated Samuel Reshevsky (2663).
Fischer was 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 ten and drawing two. On this tour the club played a series of matches against other clubs. Fischer played on second board, behind strong master Norman Whitaker. Whitaker and Fischer were the leading scorers for the club, each scoring 5½ points out of 7 games.
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, a record that still stands. 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. In the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956, he scored 7/10 to tie for 8–12th places, with Larry Evans winning. In November, Fischer played in the 1956 Eastern States Open Championship in Washington DC. He tied for second with William Lombardy, Nicholas Rossolimo, and Arthur Feuerstein, with Hans Berliner taking first by a half point.
Fischer accepted an invitation to play in the Third Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament at New York City 1956, a premier tournament limited to the 12 players considered the best in the country. Fischer received entry by special consideration, since his rating was certainly not among the top 12 in the country at that stage. In that elite company, the 13-year-old Fischer could only score 4½/11, tying for 8th–9th place. This was his first truly strong round-robin event, and he achieved a creditable result, certainly above what his rating predicted.
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." "'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." "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.'"
In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York, losing ½–1½. On the USCF'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. This made him at that time the country's youngest master ever. In July, Fischer successfully defended his U.S. Junior title, scoring 8½/9 at San Francisco. 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 then defeated the young Filipino master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6–2 in a New York match sponsored by Pepsi-Cola.
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. The tournament included such luminaries as six-time champion Samuel 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%. Bisguier predicted that Fischer would "finish slightly over the center mark". 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 U.S. Champion in history—a record that still stands. Since the championship that year was also the U.S. Zonal Championship, Fischer's victory earned him the International Master title.
Grandmaster, candidate, author
Fischer's victory in the U.S. Championship sent his rating up to 2626, landing him second (in the United States) only to Reshevsky (2713), and qualified him to participate in the 1958 Portorož Interzonal, the next step toward challenging the World Champion.
Bobby had wanted to go to Moscow for a long time, and, at his pleading, Regina Fischer requested he be invited. "In 1957, Regina wrote directly to the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, requesting an invitation for her son to participate in the World Youth and Student Festival. The reply—affirmative—came too late for him to go." Regina did not have the money to pay the air fare to send Bobby to Europe to play, but 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.
Once in Russia, Fischer was invited by the Soviet Union to come to Moscow. "The Soviet Union had agreed to invite Bobby to Moscow, and generously pay all expenses for him and his sister..." International Master Lev Abramov served as Fischer and Joan's guide to Moscow. Upon arrival, Fischer immediately demanded that he be taken to the Moscow Central Chess Club.
Upon arriving, Fischer played speed chess with "two young Soviet masters": Evgeni Vasiukov and Alexander Nikitin. Fischer won every game. "Back in 1958, in the Central Chess Club, [grandmaster] 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... On arriving home, Vladimir said in admiration to his wife: 'This is the future world champion!'"
Fischer demanded that he play against then reigning World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. When he was told that this was not possible, 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. "When Bobby discovered that he wasn't going to play any formal games... he went into a not-so-silent rage." Fischer said he was fed up "with these Russian pigs", which angered the Soviets who saw Fischer as their honored guest. It was then that the Yugoslavian chess officials phoned Regina and offered to take in Fischer and his sister as early guests to the Interzonal Tournament. The officials arranged for training matches for Fischer. Fischer left Moscow, touched down in Yugoslavia, and played two short training matches against masters Dragoljub Janošević and Milan Matulović. Fischer drew both games against Janošević, and then defeated Matulović in Belgrade by 2½–1½.
The top six finishers in the Interzonal would qualify for the Candidates Tournament. 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." 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 5th–6th. 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." Bronstein said of Fischer: "We had breakfast, lunch and dinner. And like that for a whole month... 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."
Fischer became the youngest person ever to qualify for the Candidates. He also became the youngest grandmaster in history at 15 years and 6 months. This record stood until 1991 when it was broken by Judit Polgár. "By then everyone knew we had a genius on our hands."
Before the Candidates' tournament, Fischer competed in the 1958–59 U.S. Championship (winning with 8½/11) and then in international tournaments at Mar del Plata, Santiago, and Zürich. He played unevenly in the two South American tournaments. At the strong Mar del Plata event, he finished tied for third with Borislav Ivkov, half a point behind tournament winners Ludek Pachman and Miguel Najdorf; this confirmed his status as a grandmaster. At Santiago, he tied for 4th–6th places, behind Ivkov, Pachman, and Herman Pilnik.
Fischer did better at the very strong Zürich International Tournament, finishing a point behind future World Champion Mikhail Tal and half a point behind Svetozar Gligorić. Tal recalled an encounter typical of 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!'"
Although Fischer had ended his formal education at age 16, he subsequently taught himself several foreign languages, to gain access to foreign chess periodicals. 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!"
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". A director of the Manhattan Chess Club had once banned Fischer for not being "properly accoutered", forcing Denker to intercede to get him reinstated. Now, encouraged by Pal Benko to dress more smartly, Fischer "began buying suits from all over the world, hand-tailored and made to order". He boasted to journalist Ralph Ginzburg in 1961 that he had 17 suits, all hand-tailored, and that his shirts and shoes were also handmade.
At the age of 16, Fischer finished a creditable equal fifth out of eight, the top non-Soviet player, at the Candidates Tournament held in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1959. He scored 12½/28 but was outclassed by tournament winner Tal, who won all four of their individual games.
Fischer published his first book of collected games at age 16, in 1959, entitled Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess, and published by Simon & Schuster.
Drops out of school
Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.In 1959, its student council awarded him a gold medal for his chess achievements. The same year, Fischer dropped out of high school when he turned age 16, the earliest he could legally do so. He later explained to Ralph Ginzburg, "You don't learn anything in school. It's just a waste of time."
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." 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. Despite the alienation from her son, Regina in 1960 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.
U.S. Championships
Fischer played in eight U.S. Chess Championships, each held in New York City, winning every one. His margin of victory was always at least one point.
His results were:
U.S. Champ.ScorePlaceMarginPercentageAge
1957–195810½/13 (+8−0=5)First1 point81%14
1958–19598½/11 (+6−0=5)First1 point77%15
1959–19609/11 (+7−0=4)First1 point82%16
1960–19619/11 (+7−0=4)First2 points82%17
1962–19638/11 (+6−1=4)First1 point73%19
1963–196411/11 (+11−0=0)First2½ points100%20
19658½/11 (+8−2=1)First1 point77%22
1966–19679½/11 (+8−0=3)First2 points86%23
Fischer missed the 1961–62 Championship (he was preparing for the upcoming Interzonal), and there was no 1964–65 event. His total score was 74/90 (61 wins, 26 draws, 3 losses), with the only losses being to Edmar Mednis in the 1962–63 event, and in consecutive rounds to Samuel Reshevsky, and Robert Byrne in the 1965–66 championship. For his career, he achieved 82.2 percent in the U.S. Championship.
At age 13, Fischer won a "brilliancy" that became known as The Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a point. At the age of 15 years, 6 months and 1 day, he became both the youngest grandmaster and the youngest candidate for the World Championship up to that time. He won the 1963–64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. He was then 20 years old. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, remains a revered work in all chess literature.
In the early 1970s he became one of the most dominant players in history—winning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. He became the first official World Chess Federation (FIDE) number one ranked player in July 1971, and spent 54 total months at number one. In 1972, he captured the World Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation. The match, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, attracted more worldwide interest and publicity than any chess match before or since.
In 1975, Fischer declined to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE over one of the conditions for the match. Afterward, Fischer became a recluse, disappearing from the public eye until 1992, when he won an unofficial rematch against Spassky. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time. This led to a conflict with the U.S. government, which also sought income tax on his match winnings. Fischer never returned to his homeland, thus becoming a fugitive.
In the 1990s, Fischer proposed a new variant of chess as well as a modified chess timing system. His idea of adding a time increment after each move is now standard practice in top tournament and match play, and his variant Chess960 is gaining in popularity.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, Japan, and Iceland. During this time he made increasingly anti-American and anti-semitic statements on various radio stations. His U.S. passport was revoked, and he was subsequently detained by Japanese authorities for nine months in 2004 and 2005 under threat of deportation. In March 2005, Iceland granted Fischer full citizenship, and Japanese authorities released him to Iceland, where he lived until his death in 2008.
Contents
1 Early years
1.1 Paul Nemenyi as Fischer's father
1.2 Chess beginnings
1.3 The Hawthorne Chess Club
2 Young champion
2.1 Wins first U.S. title
3 Grandmaster, candidate, author
3.1 Drops out of school
4 U.S. Championships
5 Olympiads
6 1960–61
7 1962: success, setback, accusations of collusion
7.1 Accuses Soviets of collusion
8 Religious affiliation
9 Semi-retirement in the mid-1960s
10 Successful return
10.1 Withdraws while leading Interzonal
10.2 Second semi-retirement
11 World Champion
11.1 Road to the World Championship
11.2 World Championship match
11.3 Forfeiture of title
12 Sudden obscurity
13 1992 Spassky rematch
14 Life as an émigré
14.1 Anti-semitic statements
14.2 Anti-American and anti-Israel statements
14.3 Detention in Japan
14.4 Asylum in Iceland
15 Death, estate dispute, and exhumation
16 Contributions to chess
16.1 Opening theory
16.2 Endgame
16.3 Fischer clock
16.4 Fischerandom Chess
16.5 Legacy
17 In popular culture
18 Writings
18.1 Under Fischer's name
19 Tournament and match summaries
19.1 Tournaments
19.2 Matches
19.3 Team events
20 Notable games
21 References
22 Further reading
23 External links
Early years
Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943. His birth certificate listed his father as Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, also known as Gerardo Liebscher, a German biophysicist. His mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was an American citizen of Polish-Russian Jewish descent, born in Switzerland and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She later became a teacher, a registered nurse, and then a physician.
After graduating college in her teens, Regina traveled to Germany to visit her brother. It was there that she was hired by Hermann Joseph Muller, a geneticist and future Nobel Prize winner, who persuaded Regina to move to Moscow and enroll at I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University to study medicine. It was there that Regina met and married Hans-Gerhardt in November 1933.
They had a daughter, Joan Fischer, and lived in Moscow until 1938, when the anti-semitism that was spreading under Joseph Stalin forced Regina to leave school and move to Paris, France, with Joan in tow. While in Paris, Regina became an English teacher for a short time, until the threat of a German invasion of France led her to flee with Joan to the United States in 1939. Hans-Gerhardt tried to follow Regina and Joan, but was prevented from entering the United States because he was a German citizen. As it turned out, Hans-Gerhardt never did come to the United States. In fact, Regina and Hans-Gerhardt had separated in Moscow (although they did not officially divorce until 1945). As a result, Regina was a single parent, raising Bobby along with his elder sister, Joan. Regina lived an itinerant life, shuttling between different jobs and schools all over the country, and engaging in political activism. In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse.
Paul Nemenyi as Fischer's father
Sources implying that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist (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. During the 1950s, the FBI investigated Regina and her circle for her alleged communist sympathies and her previous life in Moscow. The files from that FBI investigation into the family identify Nemenyi as Bobby's biological father. Government documents show that Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by U.S. immigration officials because of alleged Communist sympathies. Regina and Nemenyi were reported to have had an affair in 1942. Additionally, Paul Nemenyi made monthly child support payments to her, and paid for Fischer's schooling until his own death in 1952. Nemenyi also lodged complaints with social workers saying he was concerned about the way that Regina was raising the child, on one occasion breaking down in tears when making the complaints. Separately, Bobby later told the Hungarian chess player Zita Rajcsanyi that Paul Nemenyi would sometimes show up at the family's Brooklyn apartment and take him on outings. 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: "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." Regina also 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. 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.
Chess beginnings
In May 1949, the six-year-old Bobby, and his sister Joan, learned how to play chess using the instructions from a chess set bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. When Joan lost interest in chess and Regina didn't have time to play, it left Fischer to play many of his first games against himself. When the family vacationed at Patchogue, Long Island that summer, Bobby found a book of old chess games, and studied it intensely. On November 14, 1950, his mother 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 would be giving a simultaneous exhibition on January 17, 1951. Fischer played in the exhibition, losing in 15 minutes. One of the spectators was Carmine Nigro, president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, who introduced Fischer to the club and began teaching him. Fischer attended the club regularly, intensified his interest, and gained playing strength rapidly. In the summer of 1955, the then 12-year-old Fischer joined the Manhattan Chess Club, the strongest in the country. Fischer's relationship with Nigro lasted five years, from 1951 to 1956, when Nigro moved away to Florida.
Carmine Nigro introduced Fischer to future grandmaster William Lombardy, and, starting in September 1954, Lombardy began coaching Fischer in private, training him to be totally immersed in the game: "We spent hours in our sessions, simply playing over quality games", and that he "tried to instill in Bobby the secret of his own speedy rise. Eidetic Imagery and Total Immersion." Based on a 1956 game Lombardy played against Pavilias Vaitonis (in which he agreed to a draw offer after only 13 moves), he advised Fischer to play for wins, rather than draws: "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". Lombardy would play a key part in Fischer becoming World Champion. He was Fischer's aide at Portorož where they analyzed Fischer's games. He was Bobby's second in Reykjavik, where he analyzed with Fischer, and helped keep Fischer in the match.
The Hawthorne Chess Club
In June 1956, Fischer began attending the "Hawthorne Chess Club", which was actually master John "Jack" W. Collins' home.
For many years it was believed that Collins was Fischer's teacher and coach, even though Collins stated that he did not teach Fischer. It is now believed that Collins was Fischer's mentor, not his teacher or coach.
"A mentor and a friend, Fischer played thousands of blitz and offhand games with Collins and other strong players, began studying the books in Collins' large chess library, and ate almost as many dinners at Collins' home as his own."
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. Denker wrote that Bobby enjoyed those treats and never forgot them; the two became lifelong friends.
Young champion
Fischer experienced a "meteoric rise" in his playing strength during 1956. On the tenth national rating list of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), published on May 20, 1956, his rating was a modest 1726, over 900 points below top-rated Samuel Reshevsky (2663).
Fischer was 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 ten and drawing two. On this tour the club played a series of matches against other clubs. Fischer played on second board, behind strong master Norman Whitaker. Whitaker and Fischer were the leading scorers for the club, each scoring 5½ points out of 7 games.
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, a record that still stands. 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. In the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956, he scored 7/10 to tie for 8–12th places, with Larry Evans winning. In November, Fischer played in the 1956 Eastern States Open Championship in Washington DC. He tied for second with William Lombardy, Nicholas Rossolimo, and Arthur Feuerstein, with Hans Berliner taking first by a half point.
Fischer accepted an invitation to play in the Third Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament at New York City 1956, a premier tournament limited to the 12 players considered the best in the country. Fischer received entry by special consideration, since his rating was certainly not among the top 12 in the country at that stage. In that elite company, the 13-year-old Fischer could only score 4½/11, tying for 8th–9th place. This was his first truly strong round-robin event, and he achieved a creditable result, certainly above what his rating predicted.
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." "'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." "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.'"
In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York, losing ½–1½. On the USCF'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. This made him at that time the country's youngest master ever. In July, Fischer successfully defended his U.S. Junior title, scoring 8½/9 at San Francisco. 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 then defeated the young Filipino master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6–2 in a New York match sponsored by Pepsi-Cola.
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. The tournament included such luminaries as six-time champion Samuel 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%. Bisguier predicted that Fischer would "finish slightly over the center mark". 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 U.S. Champion in history—a record that still stands. Since the championship that year was also the U.S. Zonal Championship, Fischer's victory earned him the International Master title.
Grandmaster, candidate, author
Fischer's victory in the U.S. Championship sent his rating up to 2626, landing him second (in the United States) only to Reshevsky (2713), and qualified him to participate in the 1958 Portorož Interzonal, the next step toward challenging the World Champion.
Bobby had wanted to go to Moscow for a long time, and, at his pleading, Regina Fischer requested he be invited. "In 1957, Regina wrote directly to the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, requesting an invitation for her son to participate in the World Youth and Student Festival. The reply—affirmative—came too late for him to go." Regina did not have the money to pay the air fare to send Bobby to Europe to play, but 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.
Once in Russia, Fischer was invited by the Soviet Union to come to Moscow. "The Soviet Union had agreed to invite Bobby to Moscow, and generously pay all expenses for him and his sister..." International Master Lev Abramov served as Fischer and Joan's guide to Moscow. Upon arrival, Fischer immediately demanded that he be taken to the Moscow Central Chess Club.
Upon arriving, Fischer played speed chess with "two young Soviet masters": Evgeni Vasiukov and Alexander Nikitin. Fischer won every game. "Back in 1958, in the Central Chess Club, [grandmaster] 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... On arriving home, Vladimir said in admiration to his wife: 'This is the future world champion!'"
Fischer demanded that he play against then reigning World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. When he was told that this was not possible, 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. "When Bobby discovered that he wasn't going to play any formal games... he went into a not-so-silent rage." Fischer said he was fed up "with these Russian pigs", which angered the Soviets who saw Fischer as their honored guest. It was then that the Yugoslavian chess officials phoned Regina and offered to take in Fischer and his sister as early guests to the Interzonal Tournament. The officials arranged for training matches for Fischer. Fischer left Moscow, touched down in Yugoslavia, and played two short training matches against masters Dragoljub Janošević and Milan Matulović. Fischer drew both games against Janošević, and then defeated Matulović in Belgrade by 2½–1½.
The top six finishers in the Interzonal would qualify for the Candidates Tournament. 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." 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 5th–6th. 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." Bronstein said of Fischer: "We had breakfast, lunch and dinner. And like that for a whole month... 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."
Fischer became the youngest person ever to qualify for the Candidates. He also became the youngest grandmaster in history at 15 years and 6 months. This record stood until 1991 when it was broken by Judit Polgár. "By then everyone knew we had a genius on our hands."
Before the Candidates' tournament, Fischer competed in the 1958–59 U.S. Championship (winning with 8½/11) and then in international tournaments at Mar del Plata, Santiago, and Zürich. He played unevenly in the two South American tournaments. At the strong Mar del Plata event, he finished tied for third with Borislav Ivkov, half a point behind tournament winners Ludek Pachman and Miguel Najdorf; this confirmed his status as a grandmaster. At Santiago, he tied for 4th–6th places, behind Ivkov, Pachman, and Herman Pilnik.
Fischer did better at the very strong Zürich International Tournament, finishing a point behind future World Champion Mikhail Tal and half a point behind Svetozar Gligorić. Tal recalled an encounter typical of 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!'"
Although Fischer had ended his formal education at age 16, he subsequently taught himself several foreign languages, to gain access to foreign chess periodicals. 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!"
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". A director of the Manhattan Chess Club had once banned Fischer for not being "properly accoutered", forcing Denker to intercede to get him reinstated. Now, encouraged by Pal Benko to dress more smartly, Fischer "began buying suits from all over the world, hand-tailored and made to order". He boasted to journalist Ralph Ginzburg in 1961 that he had 17 suits, all hand-tailored, and that his shirts and shoes were also handmade.
At the age of 16, Fischer finished a creditable equal fifth out of eight, the top non-Soviet player, at the Candidates Tournament held in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1959. He scored 12½/28 but was outclassed by tournament winner Tal, who won all four of their individual games.
Fischer published his first book of collected games at age 16, in 1959, entitled Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess, and published by Simon & Schuster.
Drops out of school
Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.In 1959, its student council awarded him a gold medal for his chess achievements. The same year, Fischer dropped out of high school when he turned age 16, the earliest he could legally do so. He later explained to Ralph Ginzburg, "You don't learn anything in school. It's just a waste of time."
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." 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. Despite the alienation from her son, Regina in 1960 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.
U.S. Championships
Fischer played in eight U.S. Chess Championships, each held in New York City, winning every one. His margin of victory was always at least one point.
His results were:
U.S. Champ.ScorePlaceMarginPercentageAge
1957–195810½/13 (+8−0=5)First1 point81%14
1958–19598½/11 (+6−0=5)First1 point77%15
1959–19609/11 (+7−0=4)First1 point82%16
1960–19619/11 (+7−0=4)First2 points82%17
1962–19638/11 (+6−1=4)First1 point73%19
1963–196411/11 (+11−0=0)First2½ points100%20
19658½/11 (+8−2=1)First1 point77%22
1966–19679½/11 (+8−0=3)First2 points86%23
Fischer missed the 1961–62 Championship (he was preparing for the upcoming Interzonal), and there was no 1964–65 event. His total score was 74/90 (61 wins, 26 draws, 3 losses), with the only losses being to Edmar Mednis in the 1962–63 event, and in consecutive rounds to Samuel Reshevsky, and Robert Byrne in the 1965–66 championship. For his career, he achieved 82.2 percent in the U.S. Championship.