by iakul

Created on: August 05, 2009   Last Updated: August 08, 2009

The most famous chess player in history was, without a doubt, Bobby Fischer. There are certainly chess buffs who will disagree with me, who'll mention any number of chess grandmasters who have achieved immortality by advancing chess theory, for holding the title of world chess champion the longest, for creating a new opening. All of them are certainly famous chess players, and well-known to chess buffs. But Bobby Fischer was a name that even people who had had no contact with chess before knew. There were a number of factors that contributed to this.

Firstly, the peak of his chess career was also a time when tension between Russia and America was also at its peak, during the height of the Cold War. He was the best chess player that America had at that time, and the reigning chess champion, Boris Spassky, was from Russia. The series of games Bobby Fischer played against Boris Spassky in 1972, where he managed to vanquish Spassky to become the first offically recognised chess champion born in the United States, were seen not just as a showdown between two chess grandmasters, but also as a battle between the two superpowers of that time, fought by their representatives. It was no longer just a chess world championship that they were fighting for.

Bobby Fischer was a chess genius, a child prodigy who obtained the title of chess International Grandmaster at the age of 15 and who is still regarded as one of the world's greatest chess players. He made several advances to chess opening theory, and has had a chess opening named after him. But sadly, the thing that he was most famous for was not for anything related to chess, but his behavior and the various unusual demands that he made.

Even early in his career, Bobby Fischer had already gained a reputation for erratic behaviour. He would turn up late for tournaments, walk out of matches, refuse to play unless the lighting was adjusted. The most famous instances, of course, happened during his match with Spassky, and the events leading up to it.

Out of the possible locations where the match could be held, Fischer preferred Yugoslavia, while Spassky preferred Iceland. Fischer raised objection after objection to the various arrangements, until eventually they fixed the match location at Iceland.

Fischer then refused to play in Iceland and finally agreed to play only after British financier, Jim Slater, donated an additional US $125,000 to the prize fund, bringing it to $250,000 and setting a new record.

When they eventually did get to play each other, Fischer lost the first match, and refused to play the second match as he objected to the placement of the cameras, and chose to lose the game by forfeit rather than play with the cameras there. Fischer likely would have chosen to do so for the rest of the matches, but Spassky, not wanting to win by default, yielded to Fischer's demands that the rest of the games be played in a room without cameras. Fischer went on to beat Spassky 12.5 points to 8.5 points in 21 games and claim the title of World Champion.

After his 1972 victory, Fischer would retire from competitive chess, emerging only in 1992 to play a rematch against Spassky, which he won. He died at the age of 64, on Jan 17th, 2008.

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