The years of Bobby Fisher's life. American chess player Bobby Fischer: biography, interesting facts, photos
Robert Fisher was born in Chicago on March 9, 1943. His father, Hans-Gerhard Fischer, was a German biologist and ideological communist living in the USSR. Mother, Regina Wender, was a Swiss Jew. Bobby's parents met in Moscow medical university, where Regina studied. In 1939, they left the USSR, but their paths diverged: Gerhard moved to Chile, and Regina settled in Brooklyn, USA.
The fact that the spouses lived separately for a long time haunted Fischer's biographers and gave rise to the version that the real father of the chess player was Paul Nemeny, a mathematician who fled from Germany to the USA during the war. This version is supported by the fact that Nemenyi took an active part in raising the boy, paid for his studies and helped him financially in every possible way.
When Robert was 6 years old, his sister taught him to play chess. He became so carried away by this game that he gradually began to withdraw into himself. Bobby stopped communicating with his classmates, and at some point his worried mother turned to doctors. They advised not to hinder their son’s passion, but rather to encourage it. At the age of 10, his mother sent him to a chess club, and he won the first tournament in his life.
At school Robert also showed unusual abilities. Possessing phenomenal memory, he independently taught himself German, Spanish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian. Already in early age he freely read foreign chess literature. Bobby said more than once that there was nothing to learn at school, and that all the teachers were “stupid.” The only intelligent person at school, according to Fisher, was the physical education teacher. He played chess well, so he was almost Robert's only friend.
In the end, Fischer dropped out of school and devoted his life entirely to his favorite sport. According to Robert, all he wanted to do was play chess. He quarreled with his mother, and she left him the apartment and left. From that moment on, Bobby was left to his own devices.
Robert Fischer's goal was the world championship, and for this he did everything possible. To maintain his health, he practiced not only chess, but also other sports: tennis, skating, swimming, skiing.
At the age of 14, Robert won the US Championship, and at 15 he became an international grandmaster. Most famous chess players saw him as just a child with an unusual mentality, but when they started playing, they encountered a mature master, ready to do anything to win.
In 1959, at his first international tournament in Yugoslavia, he lost to Mikhail Tal with a dry score of 0:4. In games with top-class grandmasters, Bobby's inexperience was visible: he overestimated his chances and neglected tournament tactics.
However, failures only spurred Fischer to improve himself. Over time, he began to win brilliant victories, and in 1971, in a fight against contenders, he reached the final, where he beat Tigran Petrosyan with a score of 6.5:2.5. This gave him the right to fight the current world champion Boris Spassky. In 1972, one of the most exciting and passionate games in the history of chess took place in Reykjavik. And Fischer confidently won, becoming world champion.
11th world chess champion Bobby Fischer called the most brilliant chess player of all time - and the most famous paranoid of the 21st century, a national hero of America and at the same time - a deserter and traitor. Perhaps this is one of the most scandalous, paradoxical and mysterious figures recent times. And perhaps a confirmation of the fact that genius and madness are always somewhere nearby.
Robert James Fisher inherited the most from his mathematician father and polyglot mother best qualities: he spoke 5 languages, had a phenomenal memory, his IQ was 186. Since then elder sister gave him chess for his 6th birthday, he became so interested in it that it soon replaced his entire the world. At the age of 10, Bobby took part in his first tournament and won it, at 14 he became the youngest US champion, and at 15 he became the youngest international grandmaster in the world. Chess was his main, but far from his only hobby. All his life he was interested in history, philosophy, music, literature, studied foreign languages(German, Russian, Spanish, Serbian, Croatian).
Also in at a young age he puzzled reporters during an interview: “I like not just winning, but crushing the egos of my opponents. According to the horoscope, I was born under the constellation Pisces. I - big fish, I will swallow all the grandmasters and become the world champion." From 1960 to 1970 Bobby Fischer played 65 games, of which he won 40. But when he became famous, his demands and whims began to irritate the organizers: a hotel room of at least luxury class, the start of the game no earlier than 16.00, since he liked to wake up late, before the game - tennis court or swimming pool.
In 1972, Bobby Fischer achieved a legendary victory over Russian chess player Boris Spassky in the world championship match. This was his last official game. At the top of his career, he decided to take a break from chess for a while and became interested in books about world conspiracies and racist theories, despite his Jewish origin, complained that the Jews had seized all the power in the world and suggested that blacks return to Africa and give American lands to the Indians.
In 1975, he was stripped of his championship title because he refused to defend it. In 1992, Bobby Fischer agreed to participate in the fatal tournament for him - it was an unofficial commercial rematch with Spassky. The match took place in Yugoslavia, which the United States had boycotted at that time. The chess player knew that violating the ban would threaten him with 10 years in prison, but did not give up his intentions. As a result, he was unable to return to the United States. Since then, he has never missed an opportunity to express contempt for the American government, and after the terrible terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, he publicly declared his support for terrorists: “I applaud this operation and want to witness how America disappears from the world map.”
The computer is the only opponent that makes no excuses when it loses to me.
Bobby Fischer
There are people whom we never cease to admire, even knowing their entire history inside and out, understanding its negative aspects. One of these guys is the legendary Robert James Fischer, better known as Bobby Fischer, the first American chess player to earn the title of world chess champion.
It seems that we have a lot of really cool chess players, so why did Fischer attract us? Now we'll tell you.
He was born in Chicago in 1943 and grew up in Brooklyn. His parents were from Russia, although not Russian by origin. This boy took up chess at the age of 6, and at 15 he had already earned the title of international grandmaster.
The turning point in the chess player’s career was 1972, when Fischer had a legendary fight with our world champion, Boris Spassky. The fight took place in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. Fischer then triumphantly won. And how can he not be happy? 29 years old, and already a world chess champion, and even the first in the country. Well-being and honors from fellow citizens are guaranteed, but not everything is as rosy as we would like. Although he became the 11th world champion, and according to the Chess Informator magazine, he is generally considered the strongest chess player of the 20th century, he was still a strange person.
I will ensure that chess is treated with no less respect than boxing. No matter how much Muhammad Ali asks for his next performance, I will demand more.
Bobby Fischer
His strangeness manifested itself in many things. Since childhood, he loved to scandalize. There is a famous episode when, as a teenager, he spoke about school as follows:
There is nothing to learn at school. Teachers are stupid. Women should not be allowed to work as teachers. At my school, only the physical education teacher was not stupid - he played chess well.
Bobby Fischer
Geniuses are forgiven a lot, that's why they are geniuses. Although such statements would most likely serve as a reason for expulsion from the federation of chess players in our time.
At the age of 15, Fischer dropped out of school altogether to devote himself entirely to his favorite game. Enough a brave deed for a teenager who had no idea what the future might hold for him, what life had in store for him. Then he immediately determined for himself that, in addition to mental gymnastics, he also needed to train the body. As a result, swimming, tennis, skiing and skating became as commonplace for him as the chessboard. Before each competition, he got himself into excellent physical shape.
Fischer is living proof that only perseverance and grueling preparation can take you straight to your cherished goal. After all, initially he often lost to his rivals, as, for example, in 1959 at an international tournament in Yugoslavia. The victory then went to Mikhail Tal with a score of 4:0.
I feel great seeing my opponent writhing in his death throes.
Bobby Fischer
He was often treated like a child, smart, in some sense a genius, but still a child. All these defeats only provoked Fischer, he trained and eventually began to smash his opponents in such a way that he was given the nickname “cold-blooded killer.” The point was that he gave no quarter to anyone, thereby, in a sense, humiliating his opponent. Usually the chess community has some unspoken rules of decency, Fischer did not have them, a complete and crushing victory was important to him. For example, in 1971 he took part in candidates' matches with Larsen and Taimanov, the final score of which was a crushing 12:0.
Fischer's enough early years was able to overcome inexperience, ignorance and achieve the highest title in one of the the most difficult games peace. His duel with Spassky is rightfully considered one of the most spectacular battles in the history of chess.
Just because someone has been world champion for many years does not mean that he is a great chess player, just as we would not call a ruler great just because he ruled for a long time.
Bobby Fischer
Although perhaps Fischer would not be so cult figure in the world of chess, if not for the scandals that accompanied him everywhere.
Many believed then that he was a real maniac, or at least a definitely unbalanced person. Before each tournament, he had his own requirements, unfamiliar to other participants. His desires were not astronomical, everything was in the area of comfort (only luxury rooms) and the timing of the tournament (he played only in the evenings). But the organizers of chess competitions are not accustomed to such treatment. Once, in 1967, in one of the tournaments, Fischer even called the chief judge a communist because his rider was not executed. You must understand that during cold war the word “communist” was the most terrible curse for a good half of the world, just as, incidentally, the word “capitalist” was a curse in our country.
Particularly interesting is Bobby's behavior after the 1972 game - his own main game. He simply disappeared, disappeared for two decades, completely unwilling to contact the public, chess players and the press. He didn't even defend his title in 1975. Then, as you may know, the title passed into the hands of Karpov, without a fight.
Since then, Fischer has always lived in solitude. Until the 90s he lived in Pasadena, California. There he was listed for some time among the followers of the “World Church of the Creator” sect. Bobby was a surprisingly religious man. And it is quite likely that he found a certain mysticism in the chessboard itself. He hated journalists, but the rest strangers was clearly hostile.
Fischer is painfully honest. If he believes that principle is involved, money does not play any role for him. As are the opinions of others.
Ed Edmonson
There was one more game in his career, which he again played with Boris Spassky. It took place in 1992, exactly 20 years later. It was a rematch of sorts. The prize fund for the rematch was $5 million. The game itself was, in fact, illegal in American law, but Fischer didn’t care. He broke the boycott between the United States and Yugoslavia by taking part in it. Bobby beat Spassky again and received his 3.5 million. However, he spent the rest of his life on the run from the US government. He never returned to his native land: he was threatened with a huge fine and 10 years in prison for breaking the law.
In 2004, Fischer was arrested at Tokyo airport for attempting to leave Japan without a passport. Fischer was clearly out of his mind at that time. Or perhaps he was simply mocking the press. But Bobby explained his arrest as a conspiracy organized by US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. To everything else, the chess player added the eternal “It’s all the Jews’ fault.” The latter suggests that he was still mocking, since he himself had many relatives of this nationality. The US government demanded that its “criminal” be handed over to them, but everything was decided in a different way. Many world grandmasters came to the defense of the famous crazy chess player. In Japan, Bobby was under arrest until May 2005, until he managed to gain support from the Icelandic government, receiving Icelandic citizenship. Last years Fischer spent his life in his new homeland. This eccentric man died in the winter of 2008.
Despite all its oddities, it can definitely be called a kind of reference point for many chess players in the world, and simply for ordinary people. Its features: speak the truth face to face, do not be afraid of consequences, do not be afraid to break social norms and do what your heart desires. This is very impressive, especially in a world that is simply drowning in rules that throw chains on free, but unpleasant for many, opinions.
