Life of Bobby Fischer

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess Grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Already as a teenager, he was a chess prodigy. In 1972, he became the first, and so far the only, American to win the official World Chess Championship defeating defending champion Boris Spassky (USSR) in a match held in Reykjavik.

Chess fans around the world were disappointed, when in 1975, Fischer failed to defend his title against Anatoly Karpov.

After this, he did not play competitive chess until 1992, when he won a rematch against Spassky. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a strict United Nations embargo. Breaking the embargo, led to a conflict with the US government. Fischer never returned to United States.

In his later years, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, and Japan. During the 2004–2005 time period, after his US passport was revoked, he was detained by Japanese authorities for nine months under threat of extradition. After Iceland granted him citizenship, the Japanese authorities released him to that country, where he lived until his death in 2008.