Bobby Fischer 1943-2008

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday January 21, 2008

Peter Parr

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was born in Chicago, USA on March 9, 1943 and died

of kidney failure in Reykjavik, Iceland on January 17, 2008 at the age of 64 (the

number of squares on the chessboard!).

Fischer never knew his father (probably Paul Nemenyi) and was brought up in poverty in Brooklyn, NY by his mother Regina and elder sister Joan who was given a chess set as a present when Bobby was six. Regina contacted a psychiatrist to curb Bobby's interest in chess the next year but was advised to give seven-year-old

Bobby freedom of choice. Bobby joined Brooklyn Chess Club at the age of 7 and

improved rapidly, "I just got good". He was USA Under-18 Champion at the age of 13

and sensationally won the Mens USA Championship, scoring 10.5/13(+8=5) at the age of 14.

Fischer's IQ was in the 180s (high genius), he taught himself Russian and other languages so he could read overseas chess magazines but he had no interest in

schoolwork. Fischer in 1958 at the age of 15 qualified from the Portoroz (Slovenia)

Interzonal (gaining the Grandmaster Title) for the eight player candidates tournament to determine the World Title Challenger.

Fischer won eight US Championships (1964 by 11-0) and won most tournaments

he competed in. Fischer reached his peak in the 1971 Candidates matches beating Taimanov 6-0, Larsen 6-0 and Petrosian 6.5-2.5 to qualify for a World Title Match with Boris Spassky.

The best game of the match follows.

R.Fischer - B.Spassky 1972 Game six D59 1 c4 e6 2 Nf3 d5 3 d4 Nf6 4 Nc3 Be7

5 Bg5 0-0 6 e3 h6 7 Bh4 b6 8 cxd5 Nxd5 9 Bxe7 Qxe7 10 Nxd5 exd5 11 Rc1 Be6! 12

Qa4 c5 13 Qa3 Rc8 14 Bb5 a6 15 dxc5 bxc5 16 0-0 Ra7 17 Be2 Nd7 (Furman- Geller Moscow 1970 continued 17..a5) 18 Nd4! Qf8 19 Nxe6! fxe6 20 e4! d4 21 f4 Qe7 22 e5 Rb8 23 Bc4 Kh8 24 Qh3! Nf8 25 b3 a5 26 f5! exf5 27 Rxf5 Nh7 28 Rcf1 Qd8 29 Qg3 Re7 30 h4 Rbb7 31 e6! Rbc7 32 Qe5 Qe8 33 a4 Qd8 34 R1f2 Qe8 35 R2f3 Qd8 36 Bd3 Qe8 37 Qe4 Nf6 38 Rxf6 gxf6 39 Rxf6 Kg8 40 Bc4 Kh8 41 Qf4 1-0.

Fischer won 12.5-8.5 becoming the 11th World Champion at the age of 29. Fischer

played numerous classical memorable games at the highest level. Fischer had

broken the hegemony of Soviet chess. The Match of the Century was front page news world-wide. The eccentric American had defeated the might of the Soviet Union.

Sadly Fischer, the chess genius, became a virtual recluse in the last 35

years of his life. He came back briefly in 1992 beating Spassky in a return match but played no other competition games after 1972. He became an Icelandic citizen in 2005. Fischer was, like Capablanca and Kasparov, one of the most naturally gifted

chess players of all time. The charismatic Fischer combined his talent with thousands of hours studying the game but throughout his lonely life he rejected friendship and often launched controversial attacks on everyone. The King is dead but his games and legend will last for ever.

Wijk aan Zee (NED) Leading scores after round seven (14 players av 2742, 13

rounds) M.Carlsen (NOR 2733) 5, V.Kramnik (RUS 2799) and L.Aronian (ARM 2739) 4.5, T.Radjabov (AZE 2735) 4. World Champion V. Anand (IND 2799) and ex-World Champion V.Topalov have 50%.

Progress scores in the New Zealand Championship in Auckland after round seven (22 players,11 rounds) GM M.Chandler (2540), IM R.Dive (2341) 5 and six players on 4.5 points. FM T.Reilly (NSW 2276) has scored 3.5/7

Leading scores in the Australian Junior Championships at Cranbrook School,

Bellevue Hill, Sydney - Under-18 Open - C.Wallis (VIC 2172) 6/6, J.Ikeda (ACT 2233) 5.5,Y.Yuan (ACT 1935), A.Brown (ACT 1973), F.Zulfic (SA 1767) 5. Under- 18 Girls- S.Yu (VIC 1573) 7/7, T.Oliver (ACT 1510), D.Ng (NSW 1480) 6. Under- 12 Open -L.Matheson (VIC 1547) 5.5/6, A.Stahnke (QLD 1695), J.Lau (NSW 1469), Y.Liu (QLD 1593), H.Ruan (NSW 1200) 5.

Under-12 Girls - L.Simmonds (QLD 921) 5/6, A.Kanagarajah (QLD 1030), C.Koh

(NSW 872) 4.5. The NSW Chess Association Australia Day Weekend Tournament will be held January 26-27 over seven rounds at Norths, Cammeray, Sydney and is the first event in the Australian Myer Tan Grand Prix 2008.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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