Robert James "Bobby" Fischer is a world-famous chess player, the 11th world champion in this discipline. Also among his merits is the invention and introduction into practice of a new type of time control, based on the addition after each move. Such a chess clock bears the name of its inventor - "Fischer's Clock". They were patented by him in 1990.
Childhood and youth
Fischer's date of birth is March 9, 1943. His father is German by nationality, and his mother has Swiss and Jewish roots. At the age of two, Bobby experienced the first tragedy in his life - the departure of his father from the family. He returned to Germany, and his mother and children moved to Brooklyn.
The first experience of playing chess happened at the age of six. The older sister, who taught Robert James to play them, immediately noticed the natural talent of a strategist in his younger brother. In subsequent years, he constantly improved in the game of chess. The presence of an excellent memory allowed him to learn several languages (Spanish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, German), and withwith such knowledge, foreign chess literature was studied by Bobby in the original.
First competition
As a teenager, Fischer competed in many competitions. But the first high-profile result was his victory in the US Junior Championship (1957). And a year later, everyone congratulated Bobby on the title of American champion. It was the first ever 14-year-old national champion. But with this victory, he only began to surprise his fans. In 1958, at the age of fifteen, Bobby became the youngest grandmaster in the world.
About this time, fifteen-year-old Fischer, a chess player to the marrow of his bones, leaves school to devote himself entirely to chess. The title of world champion is his biggest dream. And Bobby went to this goal with enviable persistence.
However, sports hobbies were not limited to chess. This unique individual also played tennis, swimming, skiing and speed skating.
The American chess player Fischer tried to break into the World Championship for the first time in 1959. Then he was one of the participants in the tournament of contenders for the title of world champion in Yugoslavia. But that time he failed.
First insults
In 1962, the next Candidates Tournament was held in Curacao. This was Fischer's last tournament before a long four-year hiatus. Then he was again defeated, taking only fourth place. He had his own reasons and explanations for this. He believed that there were too many chess players from the Soviet Union among the participants. Peculiarthe seclusion continued until Bobby was unable to self-critically assess the situation. Then he realized that it was not at all in competitors, but in the insufficiency of his skill.
Chess career development
After that, he won a number of high-profile victories in the most prestigious tournaments, becoming one of the strongest chess players in the world. At that time, Fischer, a chess player whose games played in America almost 100% ended in his wins, was increasingly strengthening his title of invincible in this sport. In the 1963 US Championship, he won with a 100% result. During the period from 1960 to 1970, leading his country's team at the World Olympiads, he played 65 games: 40 of them he won, 18 drew, and lost only 7.
In the early seventies, he began to show record results. He finished his games with the world's best players in the 1971 Candidates Tournament with an unprecedented score of 85%.
Bobby Fischer is a chess player with a scandalous temper
This man combined the rarest chess gift and exorbitant conceit and scandalousness. He always and in everything sought to put himself above other competitors, demanding privileges. He often went so far as to violate the regulations, making rude demonstrative attacks against the organizers of the competition and competitors. For example, as a participant in the Interzonal tournament in Sousse in 1967, he categorically stated that, based on religious beliefs, he could not play matches on Friday, but on Saturdaycan only play after seven o'clock in the evening. The organizers met him halfway and compiled the schedule of his matches in accordance with these requirements. However, his "whims" did not end there. Further, he demanded that the games of the other participants on Saturdays also begin only after 19.00. This absurd request, of course, was rejected, after which Bobby Fischer, a chess player with a scandalous character, completely "spit" on all decorum and did not show up for two matches at all. According to the regulations, in these failed games he was given a forfeit defeat, in response to which he refused to further participate in the tournament.
Fischer showed outstanding results, thereby earning respect among chess players. But at the same time, he was repeatedly condemned for rudeness, extravagance and excessive demands on his person. In fairness, it should be noted that his increased requirements both to the conditions and to the size of the fees contributed to the improvement of tournament life and the well-being of chess players. In particular, as a result of Fischer's constant criticism of the small size of the world championship prize fund, it was increased several times. Colleagues often jokingly referred to him as "our union", knowing how much he tries to ensure that chess is treated with respect.
World Champion
In the match for the championship in 1972, held in Reykjavik, in which Fischer played with B. Spassky, he won with a score of 12, 5:8, 5.
Winning match withSpassky was the last official match played by Fischer. Having won the title of the new champion, he began to play rarely, and only unofficial games. There were no more performances in serious tournaments. People from his entourage noted an even greater exacerbation of the pride of the newly-minted champion. And the extreme pain of even thinking about possible defeats led to the fact that Fischer, a chess player who could please his fans more than once with resounding victories, in fact, fell out of the race.
Why didn't the match with Karpov take place
Long before the match with Anatoly Karpov, the current champion put forward a huge number of requirements (64 in total) to its organization and conduct. Most of them were of a purely business nature, although they seemed to many curious. It suffices to cite one of them as an example: Fischer demanded that everyone take off their hats when entering the room where the match is taking place. There were also conditions that clearly conflicted with the practice of holding such competitions that had developed by that time. All this suggested that in this way B. Fischer, a chess player who did not even allow the thought of his defeat, tried to disrupt the match with an opponent who could be stronger than him.
The current champion put forward the following requirements regarding the rules of the match: it must last up to 10 winning games, not counting draws; the number of parties should not be regulated in any way; if the score is 9:9, then the champion title remains with Fischer.
When the first two items are completed, the durationThe match was completely unpredictable. It could last several months, which would be unacceptable. Therefore, a commission consisting of leading FIDE members decided that 6 won games would be enough. To which Bobby “threatened” with the refusal of the chess crown and the match with Karpov. And here the organizers made concessions. The number of games won was increased to 9. Only one requirement, which was rightfully considered absurd and unfair, was not satisfied. It's about the account. After all, if the active score is 9:8 in favor of Karpov, then in order to win the next game, he definitely needs to win, that is, the challenger must win 2 games more than the current champion.
In response, Fischer still refused the match, for which he lost the chess crown. Anatoly Karpov was proclaimed the champion, and Fischer's act was discussed for a long time in the chess community.
Reclusion
Bobby Fischer, a chess player (see photo below), with such an eccentric character, after the failed match with Karpov, no longer participated in official chess competitions. It is known that in 1976-1977 he himself expressed a desire to play a match with the reigning champion Karpov and even negotiated about this. But they were not successful, and the meeting did not take place. It is also known that such chess players as Enrique Mecking, Svetozar Gligoric, Viktor Korchnoi and Jan Timman were also interested in Fischer as potential opponents, but the matter did not come to matches with them either.
In the late seventies, the press appearedreports that Fischer had joined the "Worldwide Church of the Creator" religious sect. However, following the failed end of the world predicted by its leader, he left the sect.
Last years of life and death
Until 1992, the name of the chess player Fischer hardly appeared in the press. In the same year, he unexpectedly agrees to the proposal of the Yugoslav banker to play a commercial match with Anatoly Karpov. Fischer won it, but, as many critics have noted, the skill of both masters has noticeably decreased compared to what they demonstrated in the 1970s.
Following the victory was a loud scandal, clashes with the tax department and the US State Department. The fact is that Fischer, having taken part in the match, violated the international embargo, which consisted in the boycott of Yugoslavia, announced by the United States. He also paid no taxes on his winnings. After that, Bobby repeatedly spoke impartially about the US government. As a result, it came to the point that his passport was cancelled. When he tried to enter the States some time later, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 months in prison.
After imprisonment, he lived in Iceland, in Reykjavik. Bobby Fischer, a chess player whose biography is filled with such different and controversial events, died from kidney failure on January 17, 2008.
