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- Bobby Fischer was the greatest American chess player in history and might have been the most talented chess player ever to play the game. His career and legacy were marred by eccentricities that developed into what likely was full-blown mental illness that made him an exile from his country of birth that he represented in the greatest proxy battle of the Cold War and from the game he loved.
The chess legend was born Robert James Fischer on March 9, 1943 in Chicago to Regina Wender Fischer. His mother was a Jew who had been born in Switzerland but raised in St. Louis who became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The actual identity of his father is unknown. Regina listed German biophysicist Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, her first husband, as the father on Bobby's birth certificate, but they had been separated since 1939. Bobby's actual father likely was Hungarian physicist Paul Newmenyi, who like his mother, was Jewish. As his mental stability broke down late in life, Bobby became a vicious anti-Semite, insisting he wasn't Jewish.
The young Bobby grew up without a father with his mother and older sister. It was his sister who whet his appetite for chess when she bought a chess set when Bobby was six year old. Reportedly possessed of a super genius I.Q. of 180, Bobby had a remarkably retentive memory. A monomaniac when it came to chess, his memory combined with an uncanny knack for the game and a determination to win transformed him into the greatest chess player in the world.
Bobby became a National Master at the age of 12 and won America's Junior Chess Championship at the age of 13, making him the youngest Junior Champ in history. The 13 year-old Bobby defeated 26-year-old Donald Byrne, winner of America's chess championship, in a 1956 game heralded as "The Game of the Century." By this age, Fischer was showing gifts for improvisation and innovation that marked him as a chess genius.
As a 14 year-old on the cusp of his 15th birthday, he won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1958, giving him the title of International Master. Later that same year, he broke future opponent Boris Spassky's record to become the youngest World Chess Federation Grand Master; Bobby was 15, and Boris was 18 when he set the distinction. The two names would become linked forever in chess history. (When the two first played each other in 1960, Fischer lost during an Argentine tournament, though the two tied and were co-winners of the tourney. He would not beat Spassky until their famous world title match in Iceland in 1972.)
Bobby quit high school at the age of 16 to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow as a chess player. In a 1961 match against American champ Samuel Reshevsky, Bobby dropped out of the match claiming a scheduling dispute with the match organizer after tying Reshevsky in 11 games. Such eccentric behavior heralded his future.
By '62, Fischer was considered the best non-Soviet chess player in the world. Bobby came to hate the Soviet players, who he claimed colluded with each other to him at a disadvantage. In 1966, Bobby placed second behind Boris Spassky in a super-tournament held in California. A year later, he withdrew from the tournament cycle that culminated in the World Championship, again over a scheduling dispute. The cycle ended in 1969 with Spassky crowned as the World Chess Champion.
In 1968, Fischer began an 18-month-long sabbatical from the game, which included sitting out the '69 American Championship tournament as he was dissatisfied with the prize money and the tourney format. Failing to compete should have disqualified him from the 1969-72 Championship cycle, but he was able to compete for the world title when an American Grand Master surrendered his own spot for Fischer.
Starting with the 1970 USSR v. Rest of the World tournament in which he beat former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, the master who had been defeated by Spassky in '69, Bobby began his march to the world championship. Through 1971, he had won 20 straight games in international tournament play, the second-longest win streak in the history of the game. Petrosian broke the streak but was in turn defeated by Fischer to win the right to challenge Spassky, a player he had never beaten, for the world title.
Though he hated Soviet players for what he considered collusion (drawing matches between themselves so they could concentrate on beating non-Soviet players like Fischer), he liked and respected Boris Spassky. Spassky returned the affection and esteem.
By 1972, he was in the position to make good his boast that he was the greatest chess player in the world. His difficult nature when it came to setting match and tournament conditions flared up again, and though he wanted to play in Yugoslavia, he accepted Spassky's suggestion of Iceland for the world title match. Negotiations were so prickly, President Richard Nixon's national security adviser, Henry Kissinger intervened, personally contacting Bobby to ensure that he did not drop out of the match, which was seen as a proxy battle in the ongoing Cold War between America and the Soviet Union.
Though he later denounced the United States, at the time, Bobby embraced the Cold War rhetoric, declaring the match was "the free world against the lying, cheating hypocritical Russians."
Held in Reykjavik, Iceland from July through September 1972, the drama of the world championship boosted the image and popularity of chess to new heights. Bobby lost the first two games, the first on a bad end move and the second by forfeit when he refused to participate. Because of his eccentric demands, he came close to forfeiting the match, but Spassky agreed to his demand to play in a new room with no TV cameras, the presence of which had upset Fischer.
Fischer won the third game of the match, the first time he had beaten Boris Spassky in 12 years. For the rest of their play in 1972 and their 1992 rematch, Fischer never fell behind Spassky in terms of play or points. Spassky was baffled by Fischer's innovative moves, as he played new lines and combinations that Boris had never encountered before. Fischer won the match and became World Chess Champion by a score of 12.5 points to 8.5 on seven wins, one loss and 11 draws in 19 games.
His championship was heralded by the U.S. media as a victory for the individualistic America over the collectivist U.S.S.R., whose players had dominated chess since the end of the Second World War. It was front page news, and it made Bobby Fischer a celebrity. He reportedly turned down a $1-million offer to endorse a chess set brand as he faded from the public spotlight.
Fischer did not play competitively for the next three years, and in 1975, he forfeited his title by refusing to defend it when the World Chess Federation did not meet one or two of his many demands (estimated at between 64 and a hundred). The world title went to Anatoli Karpov by default, though Fischer continued to insisted he was the world chess champion.
Fischer did not play competitively until 1992 when he met Boris Spassky for a rematch on the resort island of Sveti Stefan in in Montenegro, which was part of all that remained of Yugoslavia along with Serbia. The match was held in defiance of United Nations sanctions against Slobodan Miloseviæ's Serbia for war crimes.
Bobby beat Boris, winning $3.35 million in prize money (approximately $5.65 million in 2012 dollar, when factored for inflation), but because the United States intended to enforce the U.N. sanctions, he had violated American law and could have served up to 10 years in jail upon returning to America. A defiant Fischer went into exile instead, living in Hungary before moving to the Philippines and then Japan.
It was while living in the Philippines during the opening days of the new millennium that Bobby Fischer established himself as a world-class crank. After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, he praised the attacks and spewed forth anti-Semitic drivel on radio broadcasts. The Soviet hater of the Cold War era had become a rabid America hater and Jew-basher at the start of the global war on terror. His anti-Semitism became so extreme, he renamed himself "Robert James" and insisted he wasn't Jewish.
During a stop-over in Japan, Fischer was arrested for traveling with an invalid U.S. passport. He promptly renounced his American citizenship. The arrest meant he could not leave Japan as he was a stateless person wanted by the United States. Facing a potential extradition to the country of his birth, Iceland came through and granted him citizenship, which allowed him to leave Japan. The country was still grateful for the publicity he had brought to its then-unknown capital of Reykjavik. Thus, Fischer moved to Iceland, the place where he had became part of not only chess lore, but of world history
Bobby Fischer died on January 17, 2008 in Reykjavik after having been gravely ill. He made it to his 64th year, which was symbolic, as a chessboard has 64 squares. - Additional Crew
- Director
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Harold Prince was born on 30 January 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for West Side Story (1961), The Phantom of the Opera (2004) and Cabaret (1972). He was married to Judith Arlene Chaplin. He died on 31 July 2019 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Edda Heidrún Backman was born on 27 November 1957 in Akranes, Iceland. She was an actress, known for Schwarz und ohne Zucker (1986), 101 Reykjavík (2000) and The Beast (1986). She died on 1 October 2016 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Gunnar Eyjólfsson was born on 24 February 1926. He was an actor, known for Beowulf & Grendel (2005), The Sea (2002) and The Viking Sagas (1995). He died on 21 November 2016 in Reykjavík, Iceland.
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Herdís Þorvaldsdóttir was born on 15 October 1923. She was an actress and director, known for The Sea (2002), The Cliff (2009) and The Girl Gogo (1962). She died in March 2013 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Gísli Halldórsson was born on 2 February 1927 in Iceland. He was an actor, known for Children of Nature (1991), Devil's Island (1996) and Cold Fever (1995). He died on 27 July 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Actor
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Flosi Ólafsson was born on 27 October 1929 in Reykjavík, Iceland. He was an actor and director, known for When the Raven Flies (1984), The Girl Gogo (1962) and Running Blind (1979). He was married to Lilja Margeirsdóttir. He died on 24 October 2009 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Guðrún Þ. Stephensen was born on 29 March 1931. She was an actress, known for A Policeman's Life (1985), Murder Story (1977) and Gildran (2001). She died on 16 April 2018 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Jón Páll Sigmarsson was born on 28 April 1960 in Reykjavik, Iceland. He died on 16 January 1993 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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Baldvin Halldórsson was born on 23 March 1923 in Iceland. He was an actor and director, known for Kristrún í hamravík (1972), The Girl Gogo (1962) and Children of Nature (1991). He died on 13 July 2007 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Steindór Hjörleifsson was born on 22 July 1926. He was an actor and writer, known for The New Year's Lampoon (1966), Running Blind (1979) and The Girl Gogo (1962). He died on 13 September 2012 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- María Guðmundsdóttir was an actress, known for Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014), The Night Shift (2007) and Heiðin (2008). She died on 14 December 2021 in Reykjavík, Iceland.
- Árni Tryggvason was born on 19 January 1924. He was an actor, known for The White Viking (1991), Agnes (1995) and Devil's Island (1996). He died on 13 April 2023 in Reykjavík, Iceland.
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Stefan Islandi was born on 6 October 1907 in Skagafjörður, Iceland. He was an actor, known for Rams (2015) and Sommerglæder (1940). He was married to Else Brems. He died on 1 January 1994 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Guðbergur Bergsson was born on 16 October 1932 in Ísólfsskáli, Iceland. He was a writer, known for The Swan (2017) and Lobster Soup (2020). He died on 4 September 2023 in Reykjavík, Iceland.
- Guðmunda Elíasdóttir was born on 23 January 1920 in Bolungarvík, Iceland. She was an actress, known for Jar City (2006), Privacy (1995) and Shadow of the Raven (1988). She was married to Sverrir Kristjánsson and Henrik Knudsen. She died on 2 August 2015 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Kristmann Gudmundsson was born on 23 October 1901 in Thverfell, Iceland. Kristmann was a writer, known for Du darfst nicht länger schweigen (1955). Kristmann died on 20 November 1983 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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Sigurveig Jónsdóttir was born on 10 January 1931. She was an actress, known for The Seagull's Laughter (2001), Agnes (1995) and Devil's Island (1996). She was married to Valdimar Pálsson. She died on 3 February 2008 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Art Department
- Actress
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Guðrún Helgadóttir was born on 7 September 1935 in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. She was an actress and writer, known for The Twins (1981) and Kom skal vi lese! (1974). She died on 23 March 2022 in Reykjavik, Iceland.- Helga Bachmann was born on 24 July 1931 in Reykjavík, Iceland. She was an actress, known for Shadow of the Raven (1988), Atomic Station (1984) and Hernámsárin (1967). She was married to Helgi Skúlason. She died on 7 January 2011 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Jórunn Viðar was born on 7 December 1918 in Reykjavík, Iceland. She was a composer, known for The Last Farm in the Valley (1950) and The Word Music: Jorunn Vidar (2009). She was married to Larus Fjeldsted. She died on 27 February 2017 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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Höddi Björnsen was born on 7 December 1989 in Reykjavík, Iceland. He was an actor and writer, known for The Breeding (2007), Clownie & The Satanic Cult (2006) and Knight of the Living Dead (2005). He died on 14 October 2015 in Reykjavík, Iceland.- Hannes Hafstein was born on 4 December 1861 in Möðruvöllum, Hörgárdal, Iceland. He was married to Ragnheidur Stefánsdóttir Hafstein. He died on 13 December 1922 in Reykjavik, Iceland.