The World Chess Champion American - Business Insider Bobby Fischer, the last US World Chess Champion. Da Nes via flickr It's been a very long drought for Americans when it comes to the World Chess Championship. The last American to win was, famously, Bobby Fischer in 1972. Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in Iceland, but never defended his title. It was of course a long drought before 1972: in the modern era, post-1900, there had never been a World Chess Champion from the United States, prior to Fischer, and the only players who even had a shot after him were Robert Byrne and Gata Kamsky. Norways's Magnus Carlsen, the current WCC, is actually the first player from the West since Fischer to claim the title. On Friday in Moscow, the next World Championship cycle began, with the 2016 Candidates Tournament. Eight Grandmasters will compete to face Carlsen in New York in November . And for the first time ever, two Americans are in the field, both with excellent chances to win. Fabiano Caruana, 23, is the number three player in the world by ranking.

Hikaru Nakamura, 28, is number six. As it turns out, the players faced each other in Round 1 of the Candidates; Naka had the white pieces, Fabby had the black, and they played to a draw, splitting a point. The remainder of the field consists of only three other players in the current world top ten, as ranked by FIDE, chess's governing body: Anish Giri of the Netherlands, Levon Aronian of Armenia, and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. The Candidates lineup isn't selected based on ratings, but rather on competitive criteria derived from a variety of different tournaments and tournament cycles. Viswanathan Anand, for example, is in because he won the last Candidates and met Carlsen for the WCC match, ultimately losing for the second straight time. That said, Anand, the world number 12, seems to save his best for the Candidates: he notched a win in the first round with white against Topalov (who was the World Champ in 2005). World 13 Sergey Karjakin and wildcard Peter Svidler, world number 16, both from Russia, round out the field.

GM Hikaru Nakamura. US Chess Championship But all eyes will be on the Americans, for obvious reasons: Carlsen is the most captivating World Champion since Fischer, a global celebrity; the WCC is coming to New York; and while Anand was a great World Champion, five times, and spurred a chess boom in India, a Carlsen vs. Nakamura or Caruana would be a spectacle and boost chess to a level of excitement it hasn't seen since the Fischer boom. Of the two, Nakamura has on paper the better chances, given that his form has been solid for several years . He won a big tournament in Zurich recently. But he a dismal record against Carlsen, no wins and 12 losses (18 draws). He has had Carlsen on the ropes a few times and still lost in demoralizing fashion. GM Fabiano Caruana. Alina L'Ami Caruana's recent play, after an astonishing 2014, has been iffy. However, he is ranked higher than Nakamura (although his rating, 2794, is only slightly better than Naka's 2790).

And he switched his affiliation from Italy to the US only last year . That said, he's beaten Carlsen more than he's lost to the World Champion, 5 wins against 8 losses and 10 draws. Carlsen himself said that he thinks Caruana has the best chance of the two Americans to win the Candidates — but that could just be Carlsen trying to get in Nakamura's head. The Candidates is pretty grueling: 14 rounds played over the next two weeks. I'll try to highlight the more interesting games and keep track of the American challengers. World Champion Magnus Carlsen. FIDE For what it's worth, an interesting media dustup has developed as the Candidates is kicking of. For the first time since the internet has become a major factor in chess fandom, both the Candidates and the World Chess Championship will only be viewable on WorldChess.com . This includes the game moves. Before, a lot of real-time coverage and analysis was generated across the internet by sites freely distributing the information. But now everyone will be obliged to register at WordChess.com (it's free, by the way).

"This is a substantial change from the way chess has been broadcasted," World Chess and its organizing parent, Agon Ltd., said in a statement. "Previously it was common practice that all websites were able to receive moves without broadcast limitations, resulting in a diffusion of major tournaments’ audiences and sponsorship values," the organization added. "The move is designed to enhance and safeguard the viewing experience for chess fans and to protect the commercial future of World Championship events." Other sites can recap the games, but Agon and World Chess are stipulating a two-hour delay. Chess.com wrote a lengthy post analyzing the legal ramification of this. It's worth a read if you've been following major chess events at a variety of sites. Other outlets have taken strong exception to World Chess' decision. Chessdom.com, for example, claimed that the move was an offense against journalism and the growth of the game and complained that it had already put its coverage plan in place long before World Chess and Agon limited coverage. Bobby Fischer - Author, Chess Player - Biography.com Bobby Fischer Bobby Fischer was a record-setting chess master who became the youngest player to win the U.S. Chess Championship at 14, and the first American-born player to win the World Chess Championship.

IN THESE GROUPS Bobby Fischer Synopsis Bobby Fischer was born on March 9, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois. Fischer first learned the game of chess at age 6 and eventually became the youngest international grand master at the age of 15. In 1972, he became the first American-born world chess champion after defeating Boris Spassky . An eccentric genius, who was believed to have an I.Q. of 181, Fischer became known for his controversial public remarks in his later years. He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005, following legal trouble with the United States. He died on January 17, 2008. Early Life Robert James Fischer was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 9, 1943. Fischer's parents divorced when he was a toddler, and he began learning chess at the age of 6 after his older sister Joan bought him a chess set. He continued to hone his skills as a youngster at the Brooklyn Chess Club and Manhattan Chess Club. Fischer had a strained relationship with his mother, who supported his chess endeavors, but preferred that he pursue other areas of interest.

A brilliant, highly competitive player who lost himself in the game, Fischer earned a place in the record books at age 14 when he became the youngest player to win the U.S. Chess Championship. Then in 1958, at 15, he became the youngest international grand master in history by winning the related tournament in Portoroz, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia). Match of the Century During the early 1960s, Fischer continued to be involved in U.S. and world championship matches, but was also making a name for himself with his erratic, paranoid commentary. After having a 20-game winning streak in the early 1970s, Fischer once again made chess history in 1972 with his defeat of the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky at the Reykjavik, Iceland world championships, thus marking the first time an American chess player had won the title. Fischer's defeat of a Soviet opponent, which became known as the "Match of the Century," took on iconic proportions in the midst of the Cold War and was seen as a symbolic victory of democracy over Communism. Fischer's historic win also made chess a popular game in the United States.

Controversial Figure Despite his global popularity, Fischer's controversial behavior continued to make headlines. In the mid-1970s he refused to play Anatoly Karpov, the challenger to his title, and was thus stripped of his championship by the International Chess Federation. Fischer was reportedly homeless for a time in the Los Angeles area, becoming involved with a fringe church. He also became known for making anti-Semitic remarks despite the fact that his mother was Jewish. On the 20th anniversary of the famed Fischer/Spassky game, the two met again in 1992 to play a $5 million rematch in Yugoslavia, although travel to the country by American citizens was illegal at the time. Fischer continued to live abroad for several years to avoid facing criminal charges in the U.S., during which time he continued his anti-Semitic diatribes, and on a radio broadcast he celebrated the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In July 2004, Fischer was detained at a Japanese airport for trying to leave the country with an invalid passport and he was jailed for several months. He was eventually granted citizenship by Iceland and moved there in 2005.

Bobby Fischer died of kidney failure on January 17, 2008, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Miyoko Watai, a Japanese women's chess champion and general secretary of the Japanese Chess Federation, claimed that she had married Fischer in 2004, although the validity of their marriage was questioned. Another woman claimed that she had a daughter with Fischer. His body was exhumed to be DNA tested, and the claim of paternity was found to be false. In 2011, an Icelandic court ruled that Watai was Fischer's widow and the sole heir to his estate. Books and Films on Fischer's Life Several books and films have been made about Fischer's life and career. Fischer himself published works like Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (1966) and My 60 Memorable Games (1969), while biographies on the icon include Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall... by Frank Brady (2011), Fischer's childhood friend. The documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World, directed by Liz Garbus, was released in 2011.

Pawn Sacrifice, a film that focuses on Fischer's chess matches and the psychology of his troubled genius, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014 and was released in U.S. theaters a year later. Directed by Edward Zwick, actor Tobey Maguire played the role of Fischer, with Liev Schreiber portraying Spassky. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information The Fields | HOME OF U.S. CHAMPIONSHIP CHESS & THE COUNTRY’S TOP PLAYERS The Fields Accepted Bio: The 2015 U.S. Chess Championship is Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura’s first return to the U.S. Championship since winning the title in 2012. Ranked in the world's top-10 players for nearly five years, Nakamura has been the longtime U.S. No. 1 Grandmaster and the leading hopeful to bring America its first World Champion since Bobby Fischer.

The chance for that world title creeps ever closer this year, as Nakamura currently sits second place at the halfway point of FIDE's 2014-15 Grand Prix and may earn his first seat in a Candidate's Tournament. A child prodigy in every sense of the word, Nakamura made a fast impact on U.S. chess by knocking down nearly every age record on his way to the top. He was at one time the youngest-ever American master in history (10 years, 79 days), the youngest American international master (13 years, 2 months) and eventually the youngest American Grandmaster (15 years, 79 days) – breaking Fischer’s record by three months. Nakamura has collected numerous titles and championships since the age of 13, when he first arrived onto the national scene by becoming the 2001 U.S. Junior Champion. He quickly confirmed his place as one of chess’ great elites, shocking the world with a sweet sixteen appearance in the 2004 FIDE World Cup, and then grabbing his first of three U.S. Championships the following year.

He is a recipient of the prestigious Samford Chess Fellowship (2005), the 2007 National Open champion and a three-time North American Open champion. He was an individual bronze medalist in the 2006 and 2008 World Olympiad, as well as the gold medalist on the first board of the 2010 World Team Championship, where the United States placed second. This chess player only gets better as he gets faster, gracing the top of the world in Blitz chess when FIDE began publishing its list earlier this year and demonstrating his skill. Nakamura finished with bronze at the FIDE World Blitz Championship in June 2014, and currently sits second on FIDE’s Blitz rating. Tag: Accepted Bio: The 2015 U.S. Championship will see the first participation from Grandmaster Wesley So, who recently transferred to the U.S. Chess Federation from his home Philippines. His arrival to the USCF was synonymous with his arrival as one of the World’s top-10 players, and So has already begun pushing the envelope to become the nation’s highest-rated GM -- a title Hikaru Nakamura has owned for years.

So learned chess from his father at age 6 and was competing in junior tournaments by 9 years old. By earning his Grandmaster title at the age of 14 years, 1 month, and 28 days, So completed the trifecta as the Philippines’ youngest-ever National Champion, International Master and Grandmaster. Considered a chess prodigy, he is the eighth-youngest GM in the world. So came to the U.S. in August 2012, enrolling at Webster University in St. Louis to be guided by Susan Polgar and her SPICE Program. There, he made the jump from top-100 to top-10 in the world, entrenching Webster as a powerhouse collegiate program and leading the school to back-to-back national titles along the way. Last October, So won the inaugural Millionaire Open in Las Vegas along with its $100,000 prize, then returned to St. Louis to lead the Arch Bishops to their first-ever U.S. Chess League championship.

So participated in his first world-elite tournament with a fourth-place effort in 2014 at the 77th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, though returned this past January and tied for second place, just a half-point behind winner World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Tag: Accepted Bio: After Wesley’s So’s departure as a professional, the Webster University program has been left in the extremely capable hands of Grandmaster Ray Robson, who leads the school to its third-consecutive appearance in the President’s Cup in the weekend before the 2015 U.S. Championship begins. Born in Guam, Robson soon after moved with his family to Florida, where his father taught him chess when he was just three years old. From 2004 to 2007, Robson finished in the top 10 at the World Youth Championship and then won SuperNationals in 2005. He defeated his first grandmaster in 2006, the same year he earned the USCF National Master title. Other impressive performances include first place in the 2005 and 2006 Pan-American Youth Championships; the 2009 U.S.

Junior Championship; the 2009 World Team Championship; and the 2012 Dallas Invitational. In 2008, Robson won his first major tournament at the Miami Open, and later that year became the youngest American to win the Grandmaster title, at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 16 days. The mark bested the record held by Hikaru Nakamura and once by the great Bobby Fischer, making Robson one of America’s brightest hopes to another world-elite GM. Though the University of Texas offered him a chess scholarship, in 2012 Robson decided instead on the SPICE program at Webster University where, just a few months after enrolling, he won the 2012 Webster University SPICE Cup Open and eventually helped the program to back-to-back national titles. Robson also participated in the inaugural Millionaire Open in Las Vegas last October, where he took second place behind his good friend and former Webster roommate, Wesley So. Tag: Accepted Bio: Grandmaster Gata Kamsky is the two-time defending U.S. Champion, a title he has earned five times over an illustrious career - including four of the last five years.

Born in Siberia, Russia, Kamsky learned chess at the age of seven, won the country’s U15 Championship at the age of nine, then became back-to-back Junior Champion of the Soviet Union at 13. Kamsky began his dominance of American chess shortly after emigrating to the U.S. in 1989 and spent nearly 20 years as the highest-rated American - losing that title to Nakamura in 2009. In 1990 he earned his GM, and soon after became the youngest player ever rated in the World’s top-ten. Kamsky won his first U.S. Championships in 1991, and the following year helped the USCF secure its first-ever gold medal in the World Team Chess Olympiad. Kamsky also became the youngest-ever to challenge for the FIDE world title and the first American since Bobby Fischer, as the Candidate for the 1996 World Chess Championship. Afterwards, Kamsky began an eight-year hiatus away from chess to focus on studies, first graduating in pre-med chemistry and then returning to find his law degree.

His return to chess in 2004 began an extraordinary second chapter in his playing career. Within three years Kamsky had regained his elite form, qualifying for the 2007 Candidates Tournament and later winning the 2007 Chess World Cup, where he knocked off Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals. In 2010, Kamsky won his second U.S. Championship – 19 years removed from his first title. Since then he's earn three more. Tag: Accepted Bio: Grandmaster Alexander Onischuk began playing chess when he was six years old and has ranked as one of the top 100 players in the world for the past two decades. Onischuk earned his GM title as a Ukranian 18-year-old in 1994, then later won the 2000 Ukranian Championship before emigrating to the U.S. the following year. For five years, he played collegiate chess for the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country (UMBC), leading the program to multiple national titles before graduating in 2006 with a degree in linguistics.

He has been invited to every FIDE World Cup since 2005, winning more than 20 major tournaments along the way, including the 2006 U.S. Championship -- which he called the happiest moment of his career, having his name on a trophy alongside players such as Bobby Fischer and Paul Morphy. Onischuk was key to America’s bronze medal finishes at the 2006 and 2008 Olympiads, and delivered a gold-medal performance on board two at the 2009 World Team Championship in Bursa, Turkey. In 2012, Alexander Onischuk was named the head coach of Texas Tech University’s chess program, helping the squad return to the President’s Cup in 2014, finishing in a close second behind Webster University. He leads the TTU program back to the Final Four of Collegiate Chess in 2015, just before the start of the U.S. Championship. Last year’s season led to national recognition, with Texas Tech named “Chess College of the Year” and Onischuk awarded “2014 Grandmaster of the Year” by the U.S. Chess Federation.

He has finished among the top three in the U.S. Championship seven times. Tag: Accepted Bio: Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky first learned the rules of chess at six years old, and it was not long before he was paving his professional future -- eventually becoming a three-time U.S. Scholastic champion, earning a gold medal at the World U12 championship in 2007 and winning the U.S. Junior championship in 2013. Naroditsky has remained the U.S. No. 1 in his age category for the past eight years and is also the youngest published chess author in history -- now with two titles to his name. Naroditsky is an active ambassador for scholastic chess in the United States; giving simuls in schools, activity centers and chess clubs around the country. Aside from chess, Naroditsky maintains many other interests, including history, music, foreign languages, art and mathematics. He graduated from Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsboro, CA in 2014 and plans to attend Stanford University for fall 2015. In the year between, however, Naroditsky received the prestigious Frank P. Samford Jr.

Chess Fellowship, which provides access to top level coaching, study material and competition. Through 2014, Naroditsky traveled and competed in several elite tournaments around the world, including the London Chess Classic and the Qatar Masters, and last February turned in an impressive performance at the 2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. Tag: Accepted Bio: When Sam Shankland was just 18, he announced he would be retiring from the game of chess. Before leaving, however, he agreed to honor his previous commitments and compete in the 2010 U.S. Junior Closed Championship - the rest is history. He won the Junior championship after back-to-back playoff matches against Parker Zhano and tournament favorite Ray Robson, earning Shankland a spot in the 2011 U.S. Championship and another commitment that became too good to refuse. The youngster performed admirably in the 2011 national title fight, edging veteran GM Alexander Onischuk in a playoff to reach the four-player quad finals. There, Shankland ran into eventual champion GM Gata Kamsky, who topped him 1.5-.5 - though after his defeat, Shankland remained upbeat.

He finished third place, and described his performance as his “dream tournament for the year." Sam enters the 2015 U.S. Championship at the ever-climbing peak of his career. A strong showing at the 2014 Qatar Masters Open was topped by an undefeated run at the 2014 Tromso Chess Olympiad, where he entered as the fifth-board reserve but went on to win an Olympic gold medal. He made his first break into the world’s top 100 players at the end of 2014, then opened up 2015 with another undefeated performance in the Tata Steel Challengers section for third place. He has now remained unbeaten in over 65 games. Due to his incredible recent performances, spectators should keep a close eye on this young player who may just ride his wave of confidence to a victory in the 2015 U.S. Chess Championship. Tag: Accepted Bio: The weather was so harsh in the years that youngster Varuzhan Akobian spent in Mongolia, his father forbade "Var" and his sister from playing outside. Instead, he taught them chess -- a perfect indoor distraction.

"From the very beginning, I was different from other chess kids,” Akobian recalls. “It was never just a game for me. I always wanted to be a Grandmaster, and I knew that I would do what it takes." Later as a teenager in Yerevan, Armenia, Akobian spent many of his days playing chess and soccer -- all with his teachers’ permission. "This is one way in which Armenia is very different from the United States. If I went to high school here, I never could have spent so much energy on chess." Akobian immigrated from Armenia to the U.S. in 2001, and it didn’t take him long to make an impact on the American chess community. Within his first three years, Akobian had been awarded the prestigious Samford Chess Fellowship, tied for first in the 2002 World Open, won the Irme Koenig GM Invitational, and dominated the 2003 U.S. Junior Closed Championship after winning his first seven games. He was officially awarded the GM title in June 2004, after which he won the World Open again, clinching it with a sparkling win against Alexander Shabalov.

Akobian is a popular rotation in the Resident Grandmaster position at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, and he continues to be a force in U.S. chess tournaments. This past year, Akobian narrowly lost an armageddon playoff in the 2014 U.S. Championship to Gata Kamsky, though he dusted himself off nicely by helping the Saint Louis Arch Bishops to their first-ever U.S. Chess League championship. Tag: Accepted Bio: Blindfold exhibitionist Grandmaster Timur Gareev, originally from Uzbekistan, is a formidable opponent with unlimited potential and the proven ability to make a serious run at the U.S. Championship title. A veteran of the game, Timur’s standard rating has remained active and comfortably above 2500 for more than a decade. "My grandfather taught me how to play chess at the age of four," Gareev said. "I practiced the game regularly challenging my father, friends and schoolmates. At the age of eight, I played my first rated competition.

I started succeeding in my improvement very fast, winning most of the national events." At 10, Gareev was playing expert level strength and dedicating 4-6 hours every day, working with his coach Georgi Borisenko and mastering the game on his own. By 2004, at 16, he earned the distinction as the youngest-ever Grandmaster from Asia, then traveled to the U.S. in 2005 to help the University of Texas at Brownsville win its first national championship. After receiving his B.A. degree in 2011, Gareev was awarded the Samford Fellowship in 2012, which awarded him a monetary stipend to assist his chess development. Timur has conducted 19-board, 27-board, and 33-board blindfold simultaneous exhibitions - the last of which he served up a score of 29-0-4 against members of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, days before the start of the 2013. U.S. Championship. His exceptional memory allows for top-tier preparation and study, and he has good chances of catching an unsuspecting opponent in deeply analyzed lines.

He believes that blindfold training has helped him improve his focus. Tag: Accepted Bio: Last year proved to be highlight in the career of young Kayden Troff, earning his Grandmaster title at the Saint Louis Invitational in May, and then returning to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis the following month to win the 2014 U.S. Junior Closed Championship with a convincing 7/9 score. The victory earned him a seat in this year’s U.S. Championship, his second appearance in the national title event. Troff first demonstrated chess ability at the age of three, learning to play by watching his father teach his older brothers. By the time he was six, his father had him tutored by Grandmaster Igor Ivanov, who was impressed with how well the youngster played. Troff was among the first selected into the Young Stars-Team USA program, a joint partnership between the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, which sought to train the country’s top emerging players to compete with those around the world. Through the program, Troff has participated in several training sessions with Garry Kasparov, as well as frequent sessions with GM Alex Chernin.

Troff’s accomplishments include several Utah scholastic and adult championships, as well as a gold medal at the U14 World Youth Chess Championship title earned in Maribor, Slovenia in 2012 -- an upgrade from the silver medal earned in the U12 World Youth Chess Championship in Greece in 2010. Tag: Accepted Bio: Samuel Sevian is the 2015 U.S. Chess Championship Wildcard and an American chess prodigy. He set previous records as the youngest American Expert and the youngest American National Master in history, and currently stands as the youngest American International Master in history. Last November, he continued his record-setting climb by becoming the youngest American Grandmaster in history, earning the coveted title at 13 years, 10 months and 27 days -- and also the sixth-youngest GM in world history. Sevian has maintained his status as one of the most-promising Juniors in the country, fully realized since he became a U12 World Champion in Maribor Slovenia in November 2012.

He is a product of the Young Stars - Team USA program, a joint partnership between the Kasparov Chess Federation (KCF) and the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis to find and train the country's top emerging chess players. Sam received intensive training with legendary World Champion GM Garry Kasparov, which he said was a big contributing factor to his recent success. "The KCF helped me enormously," Sam said. "First, it was Garry's camps held in Saint Louis and New York where we got to train with the Champion himself, and of course long and frequent training sessions with GM Alexander Chernin, who helped me grow." Tag: Accepted Bio: It is no wonder how Grandmaster Conrad Holt came to be known as the “Thunder” Holt: His recent electrifying play—a first place finish at the 2014 U.S. Open, an appearance in the 2014 U.S. Chess League Finals as part of the Dallas Destiny, and another fine showing at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Championships—has established him as a player to watch in the upcoming 2015 U.S. Championship.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, Holt made an early name for himself by winning the 2008 U.S. Cadet Championship and appearing in the 2010 World Open, and then earning his GM title at only 19 years old in 2012. Now 21, Holt currently attends the University of Texas-Dallas and is finishing up his undergraduate degree in Physics, also a member of the prestigious UT-Dallas Chess Team. Holt has helped lead the UTD squad to several President’s Cups, including a trip to the 2015 Final Four of collegiate chess held just before this year’s U.S. Championships. Tag: Bobby Fischer - Biography - IMDb Bobby Fischer Biography Showing all 27 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (16) | Personal Quotes (2) Overview (5) The Bad Boy of Chess Height 6' 1" (1.85 m) Mini Bio (1) Bobby Fischer was the greatest American chess player in history and might have been the most talented chess player ever to play the game.

His career and legacy were marred by eccentricities that developed into what likely was full-blown mental illness that made him an exile from his country of birth that he represented in the greatest proxy battle of the Cold War and from the game he loved. The chess legend was born Robert James Fischer on March 9, 1943 in Chicago to Regina Wender Fischer. His mother was a Jew who had been born in Switzerland but raised in St. Louis who became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The actual identity of his father is unknown. Regina listed German biophysicist Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, her first husband, as the father on Bobby's birth certificate, but they had been separated since 1939. Bobby's actual father likely was Hungarian physicist Paul Newmenyi, who like his mother, was Jewish. As his mental stability broke down late in life, Bobby became a vicious anti-Semite, insisting he wasn't Jewish. The young Bobby grew up without a father with his mother and older sister. It was his sister who whet his appetite for chess when she bought a chess set when Bobby was six year old. Reportedly possessed of a super genius I.Q.

of 180, Bobby had a remarkably retentive memory. A monomaniac when it came to chess, his memory combined with an uncanny knack for the game and a determination to win transformed him into the greatest chess player in the world. Bobby became a National Master at the age of 12 and won America's Junior Chess Championship at the age of 13, making him the youngest Junior Champ in history. The 13 year-old Bobby defeated 26-year-old Donald Byrne, winner of America's chess championship, in a 1956 game heralded as "The Game of the Century." By this age, Fischer was showing gifts for improvisation and innovation that marked him as a chess genius. As a 14 year-old on the cusp of his 15th birthday, he won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1958, giving him the title of International Master. Later that same year, he broke future opponent Boris Spassky 's record to become the youngest World Chess Federation Grand Master; Bobby was 15, and Boris was 18 when he set the distinction. The two names would become linked forever in chess history.

(When the two first played each other in 1960, Fischer lost during an Argentine tournament, though the two tied and were co-winners of the tourney. He would not beat Spassky until their famous world title match in Iceland in 1972.) Bobby quit high school at the age of 16 to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow as a chess player. In a 1961 match against American champ Samuel Reshevsky, Bobby dropped out of the match claiming a scheduling dispute with the match organizer after tying Reshevsky in 11 games. Such eccentric behavior heralded his future. By '62, Fischer was considered the best non-Soviet chess player in the world. Bobby came to hate the Soviet players, who he claimed colluded with each other to him at a disadvantage. In 1966, Bobby placed second behind Boris Spassky in a super-tournament held in California. A year later, he withdrew from the tournament cycle that culminated in the World Championship, again over a scheduling dispute. The cycle ended in 1969 with Spassky crowned as the World Chess Champion.

In 1968, Fischer began an 18-month-long sabbatical from the game, which included sitting out the '69 American Championship tournament as he was dissatisfied with the prize money and the tourney format. Failing to compete should have disqualified him from the 1969-72 Championship cycle, but he was able to compete for the world title when an American Grand Master surrendered his own spot for Fischer. Starting with the 1970 USSR v. Rest of the World tournament in which he beat former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, the master who had been defeated by Spassky in '69, Bobby began his march to the world championship. Through 1971, he had won 20 straight games in international tournament play, the second-longest win streak in the history of the game. Petrosian broke the streak but was in turn defeated by Fischer to win the right to challenge Spassky, a player he had never beaten, for the world title. Though he hated Soviet players for what he considered collusion (drawing matches between themselves so they could concentrate on beating non-Soviet players like Fischer), he liked and respected Boris Spassky.

Spassky returned the affection and esteem. By 1972, he was in the position to make good his boast that he was the greatest chess player in the world. His difficult nature when it came to setting match and tournament conditions flared up again, and though he wanted to play in Yugoslavia, he accepted Spassky's suggestion of Iceland for the world title match. Negotiations were so prickly, President Richard Nixon 's national security adviser, Henry Kissinger intervened, personally contacting Bobby to ensure that he did not drop out of the match, which was seen as a proxy battle in the ongoing Cold War between America and the Soviet Union. Though he later denounced the United States, at the time, Bobby embraced the Cold War rhetoric, declaring the match was "the free world against the lying, cheating hypocritical Russians." Held in Reykjavik, Iceland from July through September 1972, the drama of the world championship boosted the image and popularity of chess to new heights. Bobby lost the first two games, the first on a bad end move and the second by forfeit when he refused to participate.

Because of his eccentric demands, he came close to forfeiting the match, but Spassky agreed to his demand to play in a new room with no TV cameras, the presence of which had upset Fischer. Fischer won the third game of the match, the first time he had beaten Boris Spassky in 12 years. For the rest of their play in 1972 and their 1992 rematch, Fischer never fell behind Spassky in terms of play or points. Spassky was baffled by Fischer's innovative moves, as he played new lines and combinations that Boris had never encountered before. Fischer won the match and became World Chess Champion by a score of 12.5 points to 8.5 on seven wins, one loss and 11 draws in 19 games. His championship was heralded by the U.S. media as a victory for the individualistic America over the collectivist U.S.S.R., whose players had dominated chess since the end of the Second World War. It was front page news, and it made Bobby Fischer a celebrity. He reportedly turned down a $1-million offer to endorse a chess set brand as he faded from the public spotlight.

Fischer did not play competitively for the next three years, and in 1975, he forfeited his title by refusing to defend it when the World Chess Federation did not meet one or two of his many demands (estimated at between 64 and a hundred). The world title went to Anatoli Karpov by default, though Fischer continued to insisted he was the world chess champion. Fischer did not play competitively until 1992 when he met Boris Spassky for a rematch on the resort island of Sveti Stefan in in Montenegro, which was part of all that remained of Yugoslavia along with Serbia. The match was held in defiance of United Nations sanctions against Slobodan Miloseviæ's Serbia for war crimes. Bobby beat Boris, winning $3.35 million in prize money (approximately $5.65 million in 2012 dollar, when factored for inflation), but because the United States intended to enforce the U.N. sanctions, he had violated American law and could have served up to 10 years in jail upon returning to America. A defiant Fischer went into exile instead, living in Hungary before moving to the Philippines and then Japan.

It was while living in the Philippines during the opening days of the new millennium that Bobby Fischer established himself as a world-class crank. After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, he praised the attacks and spewed forth anti-Semitic drivel on radio broadcasts. The Soviet hater of the Cold War era had become a rabid America hater and Jew-basher at the start of the global war on terror. His anti-Semitism became so extreme, he renamed himself "Robert James" and insisted he wasn't Jewish. During a stop-over in Japan, Fischer was arrested for traveling with an invalid U.S. passport. He promptly renounced his American citizenship. The arrest meant he could not leave Japan as he was a stateless person wanted by the United States. Facing a potential extradition to the country of his birth, Iceland came through and granted him citizenship, which allowed him to leave Japan. The country was still grateful for the publicity he had brought to its then-unknown capital of Reykjavik. Thus, Fischer moved to Iceland, the place where he had became part of not only chess lore, but of world history Bobby Fischer died on January 17, 2008 in Reykjavik after having been gravely ill.

He made it to his 64th year, which was symbolic, as a chessboard has 64 squares. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood Spouse (2) Only American to win the FIDE World Chess Championship (1 September 1972). Awarded the title of Chess Grandmaster in 1958. In 1953, he played his first chess tournament at the age of ten at the Brooklyn Chess Club Championship. He came in fifth place. Fischer was wanted in the United States for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992. He fled to Japan and was arrested in July 2004 for trying to leave Japan on a revoked U.S. passport. Thus, he was detained in Japan awaiting deportation to the United States. He renounced his U.S. citizenship and tried to become a German citizen, but was denied. Finally, in March 2005, Iceland's parliament voted to grant him Icelandic citizenship. He remained a fugitive in the U.S. until his death. Due to his anti-American and anti-Semitic statements, he became a controversial figure in the final decades of his life.

He, for example, asked the editors of Encyclopedia Judaica to remove his name from the publication because he was, and has never been, Jewish (1984) and denied the Holocaust in several interviews. On a radio show shortly after the 9/11 attacks, he proclaimed them "a wonderful news" (2001). The episode Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Gone (2005) was inspired by his biography (2004). Attended Erasmus Hall High School together with Barbra Streisand . Has an older sister, Joan. Born to Regina Wender, a naturalized American citizen of German Jewish descent, he was considered the son of her first husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist. They were married from 1933 to 1945, but some sources claim that his biological father was Hungarian physicist Paul Nemenyi. Died at the age of 64, ironically the number of fields on a chessboard. Inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2001 (one of five charter inductees). Inducted into the U.S.

Chess Hall of Fame in 1985 (one of two charter inductees). The last movie Fischer saw before his death was Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007). Became a citizen of Iceland. [March 2005] Being deported to U.S. for violating U.N. sanctions. [July 2004] Even though he had a very high IQ, it is reported that he was a very poor student in high school and dropped out at fifteen. Personal Quotes (2) All that matters on the chessboard is good moves. Chess is life.

Question: Who was America's first world chess champion?
Answer: Bobby Fischer