Claim: Pawn Sacrifice has a male character.

Robert James Fischer -LRB- March 9 , 1943January 17 , 2008 -RRB- was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion . Many consider him to be the greatest chess player of all time . In 1972 , he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík , Iceland , publicized as a Cold War confrontation , which 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 , the game 's international governing body , over one of the conditions for the match . This allowed Soviet GM Anatoly Karpov , who had won the qualifying Candidates ' cycle , to become the new world champion by default under FIDE rules .   Fischer showed skill at an early age . At age 13 , he won a '' '' that became known as `` The Game of the Century '' . Starting at age 14 , Fischer played in eight United States Championships , winning each by at least a one-point margin . At age 15 , Fischer became both the youngest grandmaster up to that time and the youngest candidate for the World Championship .   At age 20 , Fischer won the 1963 -- 64 U.S. Championship with 11/11 , the only perfect score in the history of the tournament . His book My 60 Memorable Games -LRB- published 1969 -RRB- is regarded as a classic work of chess literature . Fischer won the 1970 Interzonal Tournament by a record 3 1/2 - point margin and won 20 consecutive games , including two unprecedented 6 -- 0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches . In July 1971 , he became the first official FIDE number-one-rated player .   After losing his title as World Chess Champion , Fischer became reclusive and sometimes erratic , disappearing from both competitive chess and the public eye . 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 U.S. government , which sought income tax on Fischer 's match winnings , and ultimately issued a warrant for his arrest . After that , he lived his life as an émigré . In 2004 , he was arrested in Japan and held for several months for using a passport that had been revoked by the U.S. government . Eventually , he was granted an Icelandic passport and citizenship by a special act of the Icelandic Althing , allowing him to live in Iceland until his death in 2008 .   Fischer made numerous lasting contributions to chess ; in the 1990s , he patented a modified chess timing system , which added a time increment after each move , now a standard practice in top tournament and match play . He also invented a new variant of chess named Fischerandom -LRB- known today as `` Chess960 '' -RRB- .