--- description: 1943 to 2008 title: Bobby Fischer - Chess Prodigy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) # Bobby Fischer - Chess Prodigy by [TIME](/author/time/) Jan 18, 2008 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jan 18, 2008 5:00 AM CUT 1943 to 2008 ### Enigmatic Grand Champion  Born to a Jewish family in Chicago but raised in Brooklyn, New York, Fischer was the only American to ever claim the mantle of world chess champion. Richard Meek / Sports Illustrated ### Endgame  Though Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second because he refused to play in front of cameras, which, he said, disturbed him, he quickly regrouped and won 7 of the next 19 games, to become the 11th World Chess Champion. His victory made him an instant celebrity, featured on the covers of Life and Sports Illustrated. Though Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second because he refused to play in front of cameras, which, he said, disturbed him, he quickly regrouped and won 7 of the next 19 games, to become the 11th World Chess Champion. His victory made him ### Rematch  After winning the title, Fischer lost it by default to Anatoly Karpov, and did not compete again until 1992, when he challenged Spassky to play again. They met in a match held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, despite a United Nations embargo that included sanctions on sporting events. Jerry Cooke / Corbis ### Pyrrhic Victory  Fischer won the match handily, but enraged American authorities, who warned him that playing in Yugoslavia and claiming the prize money was illegal. To make matters worse, Fischer was filmed spitting on the U.S. order forbidding him to play. Dragan Filiipovic / AFP / Getty ### More Trouble  After dropping out of sight for over ten years, Fischer reappeared in Japan in 2005 (above), where he was arrested for using a revoked U.S. passport. Fischer was wanted by the American authorities in connection with the match in Yugoslavia. The matter was resolved when Fischer renounced his U.S. citizenship. Iceland agreed to give him political asylum. Junko Kimura / Getty ### Farewell to a Grandmaster  Fischer passed away in Reykjavik on January 17\. He was 64 years old. John Lent / AP ### Portrait of the Genius as a Young Man  By the age of 13, Fischer's talents were already gaining notice. In a feature story filed in 1956, a journalist wrote, "While his hands may be fidgety, the eighth grader's eyes are riveted on the chessboard before him. His goal is the U.S. National Chess Championships, and he's made an excellent start toward it." Bettmann / Corbis ### Serial Challenge  In an event staged to help finance his trip to the U.S. National Open Chess Tournament, the 13-year-old Fischer (right) took on 21 opponents, 20 of them adults, in a YMCA in Jersey City, New Jersey. He won 19 of the games, lost one and tied one. Bettmann / Corbis ### U.S. Chess Champion  From 1957 to 1967, Fischer played in eight national championships and won every one of them. On the occasion of the sixth victory (above) he was presented with a cake in the shape of a chessboard. Arthur Pomerantz / Time Life Pictures / Getty ### Brooklyn Boy  In a 1962 Life profile, photographer Carl Mydans spent a day traveling with Fischer around his native New York. Carl Mydans / Time Life Pictures ### Gamesman  At Coney Island, Mydans photographed Fischer as he tried his hand at pinball. Carl Mydans / Time Life Pictures ### Signs of Trouble  After 1968, Fischer slowed the pace of his competition. He made outlandish demands on tournament directors, complained that opponents were trying to poison his food, or that his hotel rooms were bugged. AP ### Path to the World Championship  Fischer returned to international attention in 1970, when the world's best players gathered in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in a match billed as 'The USSR vs. The Rest of the World'. Though the Soviets prevailed, Fischer beat Tigran Petrosian (facing Fischer, above center), whom Boris Spassky had dethroned as world champion the year before. Authenticated News / Getty ### The Match of the Century  In 1972, Fischer and Spassky faced in Reykjavik for the World Championship. Staged in the middle of the cold war, when the USSR and the United States were engaged in space and arms races, the contest quickly came to be seen as a symbol of the battle for world supremacy. 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