Wednesday, February 20, 2008

America's famous chess player, Bobby Fischer is no more


Bobby Fischer, the US chess genius, who defeated Soviet Union's best player at the height of the Cold War to become the only United States world chess champion took his last breath at a hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland.

FISCHER DIED at the age of 64, of kidney failure at a hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland after a long surfing infirmity.

It was in Reykjavik around 1972 that Fischer overcame Boris Spassky in a two-month match that fascinated the global sports lovers. At one point, Fischer even requested that the match should be relocated to some other room, which is not much bigger, as he was disturbed by the sounds of the media people.

Fischer's defeat to Spassky was a world-shattering moment in the international sporting world, as Fischer described, “This little thing between me and Spassky, as no less than the free world against lying, cheating, hypocritical Russians and a microcosm of the whole world political situation.”

Fischer arrived in Iceland just hours before the match was to begin on July 11, 1972, and made unusual mistakes that led to Spassky’s success in the first game. But Fischer resumed his complaints, as the cameras in the competition hall bothered him. Match organisers rejected his trick when he refused to play, and Spassky was awarded the second game as Fischer surrendered.

Due to Fischer's insistence, the third game was moved to a smaller room and transmitted to the live audience via closed-circuit cameras. Astonishingly, Fischer won the game and never looked back.

Many ups and downs took place, but stopped Fischer form becoming the world chess champion. I remember years back, I watched the film on Bobby Fischer. He was a legendary chess player or probably the greatest chess player of the world. His death has created a void in the sports world.

He worked individually, studying and researching alone, practicing and playing against himself unlike the well-prepared Soviet players who were backed by teams of strategists.

Fischer often sported a long, disheveled beard and a baseball cap. In 1981, he was arrested mistaken for a bank robber in California. He was even assaulted by police, but released later.

Fischer was also arrested in 2004 at a Japanese airport, accused of trying to leave the country on a canceled passport. He was detained for eight months. After considering his banishment to the United States, the government sent him to Iceland in 2005, where he was offered citizenship.

Fischer went through a lot of trauma after his comment given in an interview with a Philippine radio station in the wake of 9/11. Fischer had praised the terror attacks and said he wanted to see America "wiped out".

Chess master Ray Keene told Sky News about Fischer, "I think the best way to remember him is as a genius of the chessboard.” Well, I guess this is what we should think and remember him as the world’s greatest chess player.

Fischer’s death will always keep the chess lovers in grief, as a loss of a great champion of chess.

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