Read or listen to the book: https://amzn.to/39VnowD
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, at age 14 he won the 1958 U.S. Championship. In 1964, he won the same tournament with a perfect score (11 wins). Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since.
In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, chess’s international governing body, over the match conditions. As a result, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default. Fischer subsequently disappeared from the public eye, though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged. In 1992, he reemerged to win an unofficial rematch against Spassky. It was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time. His participation led to a conflict with the US government, which warned Fischer that his participation in the match would violate an executive order imposing US sanctions on Yugoslavia. The US government ultimately issued a warrant for his arrest. After that, Fischer lived as an émigré. In 2004, he was arrested in Japan and held for several months for using a passport that the US government had revoked. Eventually, he was granted an Icelandic passport and citizenship by a special act of the Icelandic Althing, allowing him to live there until his death in 2008.
Fischer made numerous lasting contributions to chess. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, is regarded as essential reading in chess literature. In the 1990s, he patented a modified chess timing system that added a time increment after each move, now a standard practice in top tournament and match play. He also invented Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960, a chess variant in which the initial position of the pieces is randomized to one of 960 possible positions.
Fischer made numerous antisemitic statements and denied the Holocaust; his antisemitism, professed since at least the 1960s, was a major theme in his public and private remarks. There has been widespread comment and speculation concerning his psychological condition based on his extreme views and unusual behavior.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
The 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer, adopted from its eponymous book, uses Fischer’s name in the title even though the film and book are about the life of chess prodigy Joshua Waitzkin whose father wrote the book.[570] Outside of the United States, it was released as Innocent Moves.[571] The title refers to the search for Fischer’s successor after his disappearance from competitive chess, since Waitzkin’s father feels that his son could be that successor. Fischer never saw the film and complained that it invaded his privacy by using his name without his permission.[572] Fischer never received any compensation from the film, calling it “a monumental swindle”.[573]
In April 2009, the documentary Me and Bobby Fischer, about Fischer’s last years as his old friend Saemundur Palsson gets him out of jail in Japan and helps him settle in Iceland, was premiered in Iceland. The film was produced by Friðrik Guðmundsson with music by Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson, Björk and Einar Arnaldur Melax.
In October 2009, the biographical film Bobby Fischer Live[574] was released, with Damien Chapa directing and starring as Fischer.
In 2011, documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus released Bobby Fischer Against the World, which explores the life of Fischer, with interviews from Garry Kasparov, Anthony Saidy, and others.[575]
On September 16, 2015, the American biographical film Pawn Sacrifice was released, starring Tobey Maguire as Fischer, Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, Lily Rabe as Joan Fischer, and Peter Sarsgaard as William Lombardy.[576]
The musical Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, tells the story of two chess champions. The musical is loosely based on the 1972 World Championship match between Fischer and Spassky, and in later stage productions the American player is named “Freddie Trumper”, a reference to Fischer.[577] During the 1972 Fischer–Spassky match, the Soviet bard Vladimir Vysotsky wrote an ironic two-song cycle “Honor of the Chess Crown”. The first song is about a rank-and-file Soviet worker’s preparation for the match with Fischer; the second is about the game. Many expressions from the songs have become catchphrases in Russian culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
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