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Grandmaster Robert (Bobby) Fischer

Grandmaster PROFILE No. 3    
Robert J. (Bobby) Fischer (1943 - 2007)

What can we say here that hasn't already been said about Bobby Fischer?
Probably not a lot but, because his impact on the game has been so enormous, he has to be included in any series of profiles of the game's greats. 
Who knows what legacy of games he might have left us had he done what he said he would do -  'defend the title as often as possible'. Instead, he abandoned it and disappeared for twenty years.
 
It's no secret that he has frequently been a very difficult (if not impossible) person to deal with and that he has no time for many of the social niceties which most of us would regard as simple, good manners.
And yet, while we might find certain of his characteristics unattractive, it isn't right that we should judge him as anything other than a chess player. 
History records the names of those who have accomplished great things or made important discoveries. The names live on because of what they did, not for whether or not they were easy to get along with. Any field of human endeavour is capable of producing the occasional brilliant eccentric. Bobby Fischer is clearly one of them.
Chess has had its share of gifted players who've displayed less enchanting personal qualities; Alekhine was another example.

William Hartston, International Master and former British Champion, describes Fischer like this in his book 'Chess Grandmasters':-
'Great American champion who shattered the belief of the leaders of Soviet chess that a world champion has to be a cultured, well-rounded personality, made in the USSR.'  Bobby Fischer was not 'well-rounded'; he spent his every waking hour thinking about chess and how he could take the world crown away from the Soviets who had held it for so long that they almost believed they owned it. 
Because of his single-mindedness and what he achieved, he gave chess a massive shot in the arm and boosted its popularity worldwide. 
When he played Spassky for the championship in 1972, he not only increased the prize money of such matches to a level which reflects their importance but he was responsible for huge increases in the sales of chess books etc. and the memberships of many chess clubs throughout the world rocketed.

Let's just take a brief look here at how he first made the chess world sit up and take notice.

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He was born in Chicago on 9 March 1943 and the story goes that when he was six he and his eleven year old sister worked out the moves of the game using a chess set she had bought.

When he was seven he joined the Brooklyn Chess Club in New York and began playing in tournaments five years later.
At the tender age of thirteen he won the United States Junior Championship. A few months later he became famous by winning what Hans Kmoch called 'The game of the century' against Donald Byrne, an International Master. Irving Chernev said of Fischer's performance, 'It is indeed a remarkable game surpassing in depth of strategy and brilliance of execution any of the productions of Morphy or Reshevsky at a similar age.'

It's not at all surprising that Fischer was a chess professional by the time he was 16.

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