B. Fisher, chess player: biography, photos and achievements

Robert James "Bobby" Fisher is a world-famous chess player, the 11th world champion in this discipline. Also, his achievements include the invention and introduction of a new type of time control based on the addition after each move. Such a chess clock is called the "Fisher Clock". They were patented by him in 1990.

Childhood and youth

Fisher's date of birth is March 9, 1943. His father is German by birth, and his mother has Swiss and Jewish roots. At the age of two, Bobby survived the first tragedy in his life - the departure of his father from the family. He returned to Germany, and his mother moved with the children to Brooklyn.

The first experience of playing chess happened at the age of six. The older sister, who taught Robert James to play in them, immediately noticed that the younger brother had a natural talent for the strategist. In subsequent years he constantly improved in the game of chess. The presence of excellent memory allowed him to learn several languages (Spanish, Russian, Serbian-Croatian, German), and with this knowledge foreign chess literature was studied by Bobby in the original.

The first competition

As a teenager, Fischer participated in many competitions. But the first big result was his victory in the US junior championship (1957). And a year later everyone congratulated Bobby on the title of champion of America. It was the first 14-year-old champion of the country in history. But this victory, he just started to amaze his fans. In 1958, at the age of fifteen, Bobby became the youngest Grandmaster in the world.

At about the same time, a fifteen-year-old Fischer, a chess player to the core, leaves school to devote himself entirely to chess. The title of world champion is his biggest dream. And Bobby with enviable persistence went to this goal.

However, sports were not limited to chess. This unique person also practiced tennis, swimming, skiing and speed skating.

The first time to make his way to the world championship American chess player Fischer tried in 1959. Then he was one of the participants in the tournament of contenders for the title of world champion in Yugoslavia. But at that time he failed.

The first insults

In 1962, another tournament of applicants was held in Curacao. This was Fischer's last tournament before a long four-year break. Then he lost again, finishing only fourth. On this account, he had his reasons and explanations. He believed that there were too many chess players from the Soviet Union. A kind of seclusion lasted until Bobby could not self-critically assess the situation. Then he realized that it was not the competitors at all, but the lack of his skill.

Development of chess career

After that, he won a series of high-profile victories in the most prestigious tournaments, becoming one of the strongest chess players in the world. At that time, Fischer - a chess player whose games, held in America, almost 100% ended in his winnings, more and more strengthened in the title of the undefeated in this sport. In the US championship in 1963 he won with a 100% result. During the period from 1960 to 1970, headed the team of his country at the World Olympiads, he held 65 parties: 40 of them he won, 18 drawn in a draw, and lost only 7.

In the early seventies, he began to show record results. He finished the games with the best chess players of the world in the tournament of pretenders of 1971 with an unprecedented result - 85% of points.

Bobby Fisher is a chess player with a scandalous character

This man combined a rare chess gift and excessive self-conceit and scandal. He always and in all aspired to put himself above other competitors, demanding privileges. He often went so far as to violate regulations, making rude demonstrative attacks on the organizers of the competition and competitors. For example, being a participant in the interzonal tournament in Sousse in 1967, he categorically stated that, based on religious beliefs, he can not hold matches on Friday, and on Saturday can play only after seven in the evening. The organizers went to meet him and made a schedule of his matches in accordance with these requirements. However, his "whims" did not end there. Further, he demanded that the parties of other participants on Saturdays also start only after 19.00. This absurd request, of course, was rejected, after which Bobby Fisher, a chess player with a scandalous character, and did "spit" on all the decorum and did not appear at all for two matches. According to the regulations, in these failed parties he was credited with a technical defeat, in response to which he refused to continue participating in the tournament.

Fischer showed outstanding results, thus deserving respect among chess players. But at the same time he was repeatedly condemned for his rudeness, extravagance and excessive demand for his person. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that his increased demands both on terms and fees, contributed to improving the tournament life and improving the well-being of chess players. In particular, as a result of constant criticism from Fisher's small size of the prize fund of the world championship, he was increased several times. Colleagues often jokingly called him "our trade union", knowing how he tries to be treated with respect.

World champion

In the 1972 match in Reykjavik, in which Fischer played with B. Spassky, he won with a score of 12.5: 8.5.

The victory match with Spassky was the last official match played by Fischer. Having won the title of the new champion, he began to play seldom, and only informal parties. Speeches on serious tournaments were no more. People from his entourage noted an even greater exacerbation of the self-esteem of the new champion. And the extreme painfulness of even thoughts about possible defeats led to the fact that Fischer - a chess player who could more than once please his fans with deafening victories, in fact, withdrew from the distance.

Why did not the match with Karpov take place

Long before the match with Anatoly Karpov, the acting champion put forward a huge number of demands (64 in total) for his organization and conduct. Most of them were of a purely business nature, although to many they seemed curious. It's enough to give one example as an example: Fisher demanded that at the entrance to the premises where the match goes, everyone must remove their headdresses. There were also such conditions, which obviously contradicted the practice of holding such kind of competitions that had developed by that time. All this suggested that in this way B. Fisher, a chess player who did not even admit his defeat, tried to break the match with a rival who could be stronger than him.

The current champion put forward the following requirements regarding the rules of the match: he must last up to 10 winning games, not counting draws; The number of parties should not be regulated in any way; If the score is 9: 9, then the title of champion remains behind Fisher.

When the first two points were fulfilled, the duration of the match was impossible to predict at all. It could last several months, which would be unacceptable. Therefore, the commission, consisting of the leading members of FIDE, decided that 6 won parties would be enough. To which Bobby "threatened" with a rejection of the chess crown and a match with Karpov. And here the organizers made concessions. The number of won lots was raised to 9. Only one claim, which was rightly considered absurd and unfair, did not satisfy. It's about the account. After all, if the active account is 9: 8 in favor of Karpov, then for victory in the next game he must win, that is, the challenger should win 2 games more than the current champion.

In response, Fisher still refused the match, for which he lost the chess crown. Anatoly Karpov was declared champion, and Fischer's act was discussed for a long time in the chess environment.

Recluse

Bobby Fischer is a chess player (photo below), who has such an eccentric character, after an unsuccessful match with Karpov, he no longer participated in official chess competitions. It is known that in 1976-1977 he himself expressed a desire to hold a match with the current champion Karpov and even negotiated on this matter. But they were unsuccessful, and the meeting did not take place. It is also known that such chess players as Enrique Macking, Svetozar Gligorich, Viktor Korchnoi and Ian Timman, also interested Fischer as potential rivals, but it was not the case with them either.

At the end of the seventies, reports appeared in the press that Fisher had joined the religious sect "The World Church of the Creator". However, after the failed end of the world, which was predicted by its leader, he left the sect.

The last years of life and death

Until 1992, the name of chess player Fischer almost did not appear in the press. In the same year, he unexpectedly agrees to the proposal of a Yugoslav banker to play a commercial match with Anatoly Karpov. Fischer won in it, but, as many critics noted, the skill of both masters compared to what they demonstrated in the 1970s, markedly decreased.

Following the victory was followed by a loud scandal, clashes with the tax department and the US State Department. The fact is that Fischer, having taken part in the match, violated the international embargo, which was a boycott of Yugoslavia, declared by the United States. He also did not pay taxes on the winnings. After that, Bobby more than once did not respond impartially to the US government. As a result, it came to the point that his passport was revoked. When after some time he tried to enter the States, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 months in prison.

After the imprisonment, he lived in Iceland, in Reykjavik. Bobby Fisher, a chess player whose biography is filled with such different and controversial events, died of kidney failure on January 17, 2008.