How old was Fischer when he got to NM livel?

well if you want to be really outraged you should read about the stay behind group. what they did, what their aims were and who sponsored the.

But you will lose your title if you don't defend it.

Who knows? But it was Spassky who won the All-Soviet-Championship in 1973! He then was surely no. 2 in the world!

And have a look at Fischer's opponents: They never get as strong as before their defeat to Fischer. What would have happened to Karpov after a (clear?) defeat in WCC (in 1975)? Could he ever recover like he did against Kasparov? (And even Nigel Short has defeated Karpov to become Kasparov's WCC-challenger in 1993!)

(In 1975) Unzicker wrote: "Who should win 10-8 against Bobby Fischer?" He then continued: "Should Fischer not return on the board Karpov won't have to fear any opponent in 1978!" Unzicker was right.

hey never get as strong as before their defeat to Fischer. i always thought so too.

Would someone answer the question, please?

i would guess 7

the whole ratings thing were still new back then so maybe they didnt assign those tittles yet

They had master titles then.

Post #19 already answered the question. The ratings mentioned didn't exist in the 1950ies! (Prof. Apard Elö introduced his rating system in 1970 to FIDE.)

NM was not documented for Robert James Fischer. But he got IM and GM title by FIDE which was much more than NM. By the way Judit Polgar was 14 years old when she got the GM-title.

They were Harkness ratings. Elo replaced them in the 60s, and though Elo produced international ratings before 1970, it wasn't until then that FIDE officially adopted the Elo system.

Capa_a, you are entitled to an opinion, but Fischer was not a coward, you did not know the man personally, at least if you post an opinion, show a little grace and respect in doing so, labeling the greatest chess player who ever lived as a coward after the man is dead only shows your horrible ignorance and total lack of chess knowledge, and your moron like thinking.  

He only learned how the pieces moved when he was 6, he lost to Max Pavey in 15minutes in a simul when he was 7 (according to wikipedia it was Fischers first serious attempt at playing chess).

Brilliant or not, I doubt he went from learning how the pieces move to NM strength in 1 year and having only played one serious chess event.

According to Wikipedia Judit Polgar was 15 yrs 4 month old, one moth younger than Fischer ...

Judit played twice together with her sisters Zsuzsa and Zsofia and Ildiko Madl the womens olympiad (1988 and 1990) and HUN as well as Judit won twice gold! (There Judit should easily have fullfilled the WGM title norm - as it is equal to the FM title ... - Maybe there were round robin tournaments missing - but other tournaments were far above WGM title norm!)

15 years 4 months and 28 days, so 5 months really

I'm a bit confused but we are trying to be accurate here, do we also have the hours and minutes for Judit Polgar ? ( ie: 15 yrs 4 mo 28 days _ hours & _ minutes ).

Here is a quote from someone who knew Bobby closely and someone I think you might agree has sufficient chess knowledge:

"He wanted probably to play the kid from Russia, Karpov, and beat him.  I mean it would be an easy task.  On the other hand, part of him knew he could lose and that was death to Bobby.  He didn't want to risk that.  So what came out was a series of new demands on the rules."  -- Dr. Anthony Saidy

Also, another person who met Bobby and is certainly knowledgeable about chess and the chess world:

"I think he was unable to cope with his own invincibility.  He got more or less scared to sit down in front of the board and risk losing.  But only he who never plays never loses."  -- Anatoly Karpov

Anyway, this question of whether he was a coward or not isn't very interesting.  More interesting to imagine what would have happened if he didn't quit (like a yellow-bellied mama-boy coward).  You can commence again now to hurl your frothy-mouthed insults at me for offending the God of your Fischer Religion.

Let's see he learned chess at 8 right? Soo I guess 8 and a half.

Capa i think knowing Bobby closely and saying that say more about Saidys character then it says about Bobby. Well at least thats my personal take on it.

Do you know who he is?

Knowing someone closely doesn't mean you are duty bound to say nothing but good things about them.

In fact, a lot of the time, it means the opposite. Sometimes it takes someone close to you to make you realise you are being a tit.

ghenkis as i said its my take on it, not the correct view necessarily.