TIMES

The BrainBehind the GameA look in to the life of the greatest!

Robert J. “Bobby” Fischer was an American chess

grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time.

A chess prodigy, at age 13

Fischer won a “brilliancy” that became known as The Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships,

winning each by at least a point. At age 15½, he became both the youngest grandmaster and the youngest candidate for the World Championship up to that time. He won the 1963–64 U.S. Championship 11–0, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, remains a revered part of chess literature for advanced players.

In the early 1970s he be-came one of the most domi-nant players in history—win-ning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. He became the first official World Chess Federa-tion (FIDE) number-one rated chess player in July 1971, and spent 54 total months at num-ber one. In 1972, he captured the World Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in

tion was held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a United Nations embargo. This led to a conflict with the U.S. govern-ment, which was also seeking income tax from Fischer on his match winnings. Fischer never returned to his native country. After ending his competitive ca-reer, he proposed a new variant of chess and a modified chess timing system.

a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation. The match, held in Reykjavík, Ice-land, attracted more worldwide interest than any chess match before or since.

In 1975, Fischer declined to

defend his title when he could not reach agreement with FIDE over the conditions for the match. He became more reclu-sive and did not play competitive chess again until 1992, when he won an unofficial rematch against Spassky. The competi-

The Brain Behind The GameBy: Edwin D Torres Rivera