9:43 PM World Chess Championship 1970 Palma de Mallorca - Interzonal Tournament - | ||||||||||||||||||
World Chess Championship 1970 Palma de Mallorca - Interzonal Tournament - Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess prodigy, grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion. He is considered by many to be the greatest chess player who ever lived. At age 13,Fischer won a "brilliancy" that became known as The Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a point. At the age of 15 years, 6 months and 1 day, he became both the youngest grandmaster and the youngest candidate for the World Championship up to that time. He won the 1963–64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. He was then 20 years old. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, remains a revered work in all chess literature. In the early 1970s he became one of the most dominant players in history—winning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches.[5] He became the first official World Chess Federation (FIDE) number one ranked player in July 1971, and spent 54 total months at number one. In 1972, he captured the World Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation. The match, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, attracted more worldwide interest and publicity than any chess match before or since. In 1975, Fischer declined to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE over one of the conditions for the match. Afterward, Fischer became a recluse, disappearing from the public eye until 1992, when he won an unofficial rematch against Spassky. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time.[7][8][9] This led to a conflict with the U.S. government, which also sought income tax on his match winnings. Fischer never returned to his homeland, thus becoming a fugitive. In the 1990s, Fischer proposed a new variant of chess as well as a modified chess timing system. His idea of adding a time increment after each move is now standard practice in top tournament and match play, and his variant Chess960 is gaining in popularity.[10] Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, Japan, and Iceland. During this time he made increasingly anti-American and anti-semitic statements on various radio stations. His U.S. passport was revoked, and he was subsequently detained by Japanese authorities for nine months in 2004 and 2005 under threat of deportation. In March 2005, Iceland granted Fischer full citizenship,and Japanese authorities released him to Iceland, where he lived until his death in 2008.
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess prodigy, grandmaster, Early years[edit]Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943.[13] His birth certificate listed his father as Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, also known as Gerardo Liebscher,[14] a German biophysicist. His mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was an American citizen of Polish-Russian Jewish descent,[15][16] born in Switzerland and raised in St. Louis, Missouri.[13] She later became a teacher, a registered nurse, and then a physician.[17] After graduating college in her teens, Regina traveled to Germany to visit her brother. It was there that she was hired by Hermann Joseph Muller, a geneticist and future Nobel Prize winner, who persuaded Regina to move to Moscow and enroll at I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University to study medicine. It was there that Regina met and married Hans-Gerhardt in November 1933.[18] They had a daughter, Joan Fischer, and lived in Moscow until 1938, when the anti-semitism that was spreading under Joseph Stalin forced Regina to leave school and move to Paris, France, with Joan in tow. While in Paris, Regina became an English teacher for a short time, until the threat of a German invasion of France led her to flee with Joan to the United States in 1939. Hans-Gerhardt tried to follow Regina and Joan, but was prevented from entering the United States because he was a German citizen.[18] As it turned out, Hans-Gerhardt never did come to the United States. In fact, Regina and Hans-Gerhardt had separated in Moscow (although they did not officially divorce until 1945).[18] As a result, Regina was a single parent, raising Bobby along with his elder sister, Joan. Regina lived an itinerant life, shuttling between different jobs and schools all over the country, and engaging in political activism.[19] In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse. Paul Nemenyi as Fischer's father[edit]Sources implying that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist (an expert in fluid and applied mechanics) may have been Fischer's biological father, were first made public in a 2002 investigation by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia Inquirer.[19][20][21] During the 1950s, the FBI investigated Regina and her circle for her alleged communist sympathies and her previous life in Moscow.[22] The files from that FBI investigation into the family identify Nemenyi as Bobby's biological father. Government documents show that Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by U.S. immigration officials because of alleged Communist sympathies.[20][23][24] Regina and Nemenyi were reported to have had an affair in 1942. Additionally, Paul Nemenyi made monthly child support payments to her, and paid for Fischer's schooling until his own death in 1952.[25] Nemenyi also lodged complaints with social workers saying he was concerned about the way that Regina was raising the child, on one occasion breaking down in tears when making the complaints.[20] Separately, Bobby later told the Hungarian chess player Zita Rajcsanyi that Paul Nemenyi would sometimes show up at the family's Brooklyn apartment and take him on outings.[19] After Paul Nemenyi died, in 1952, Regina Fischer wrote a letter to Paul Nemenyi's first son (Peter), asking if Paul had left money for Bobby in his will: "Bobby was sick 2 days with fever and sore throat and of course a doctor or medicine was out of the question. I don't think Paul would have wanted to leave Bobby this way and would ask you most urgently to let me know if Paul left anything for Bobby."[20] Regina also told a social worker that the last time she had ever seen Hans-Gerhardt Fischer was in 1939, four years before Bobby was born. On another occasion, she told the same social worker she had traveled to Mexico to see Hans-Gerhardt in June 1942, and that Bobby was conceived during that meeting.[19] According to Bobby Fischer's brother-in-law, Russell Targ, who was married to Bobby's half-sister, Joan, for 40 years, Regina concealed the fact that Nemenyi was Bobby's father because she wanted to avoid the stigma of an out-of-wedlock birth.[19] Chess beginningsIn May 1949, the six-year-old Bobby, and his sister Joan, learned how to play chess using the instructions from a chess set bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment.When Joan lost interest in chess and Regina didn't have time to play, it left Fischer to play many of his first games against himself.When the family vacationed at Patchogue, Long Island that summer, Bobby found a book of old chess games, and studied it intensely.On November 14, 1950, his mother sent a postcard to the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, seeking to place an ad, inquiring whether other children of Bobby's age might be interested in playing chess with him. The paper rejected her ad because no one could figure out how to classify it, but forwarded her inquiry to Hermann Helms, the "Dean of American Chess", who told her that Master Max Pavey would be giving a simultaneous exhibition on January 17, 1951.Fischer played in the exhibition, losing in 15 minutes. One of the spectators was Carmine Nigro, president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, who introduced Fischer to the club and began teaching him. Fischer attended the club regularly, intensified his interest, and gained playing strength rapidly. In the summer of 1955, the then 12-year-old Fischer joined the Manhattan Chess Club, the strongest in the country.Fischer's relationship with Nigro lasted five years, from 1951 to 1956,when Nigro moved away to Florida. Carmine Nigro introduced Fischer to future grandmaster William Lombardy, and, starting in September 1954, Lombardy began coaching Fischer in private, training him to be totally immersed in the game: "We spent hours in our sessions, simply playing over quality games", and that he "tried to instill in Bobby the secret of [his] own speedy rise. Eidetic Imagery and Total Immersion." Based on a 1956 game Lombardy played against Pavilias Vaitonis (in which he agreed to a draw offer after only 13 moves), he advised Fischer to play for wins, rather than draws: "Do not accept draw offers. For an ambitious and talented player, accepting a draw is death to a top result. Opponents fear an uncompromising opponent and thus make more mistakes. Act as I advise and do not copy my timidity".Lombardy would play a key part in Fischer becoming World Champion. He was Fischer's aide at Portorož[ where they analyzed Fischer's games. He was Bobby's second in Reykjavik, where he analyzed with Fischer, and helped keep Fischer in the match. The Hawthorne Chess ClubIn June 1956, Fischer began attending the "Hawthorne Chess Club", which was actually master John "Jack" W. Collins' home. For many years it was believed that Collins was Fischer's teacher and coach,[60] even though Collins stated that he did not teach Fischer.It is now believed that Collins was Fischer's mentor, not his teacher or coach.[65] "A mentor and a friend, Fischer played thousands of blitz and offhand games with Collins and other strong players, began studying the books in Collins' large chess library, and ate almost as many dinners at Collins' home as his own."[66][67][68] Future grandmaster Arnold Denker was also a mentor to young Bobby, often taking him to watch the New York Rangers play hockey at Madison Square Garden. Denker wrote that Bobby enjoyed those treats and never forgot them; the two became lifelong friends.[69] Young championFischer experienced a "meteoric rise" in his playing strength during 1956. On the tenth national rating list of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), published on May 20, 1956, his rating was a modest 1726,over 900 points below top-rated Samuel Reshevsky (2663). ========================================================================== " Ένας μέντορας και ένας φίλος" , ο Φίσερ έπαιξε χιλιάδες blitz και αυτοσχέδιος παιχνίδια με Collins και άλλων ισχυρών παικτών , άρχισε να μελετά τα βιβλία Collins « μεγάλη βιβλιοθήκη σκάκι , και δεν έτρωγαν σχεδόν όπως πολλοί δείπνα στο Collins ' το σπίτι σαν το δικό του ». Fischer was involved with the Log Cabin Chess Club of Orange, New Jersey, which in March 1956 took him on a tour to Cuba, where he gave a 12-board simultaneous exhibition at Havana's Capablanca Chess Club, winning ten and drawing two.[73][74] On this tour the club played a series of matches against other clubs. Fischer played on second board, behind strong master Norman Whitaker. Whitaker and Fischer were the leading scorers for the club, each scoring 5½ points out of 7 games.[75] In July 1956, Fischer won the U.S. Junior Chess Championship, scoring 8½/10 at Philadelphia to become the youngest-ever Junior Champion at age 13,[76] a record that still stands. In the 1956 U.S. Open Chess Championship at Oklahoma City, Fischer scored 8½/12 to tie for 4th–8th places, with Arthur Bisguier winning.[77] In the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956, he scored 7/10 to tie for 8–12th places, with Larry Evans winning.[78] In November, Fischer played in the 1956 Eastern States Open Championship in Washington DC. He tied for second with William Lombardy, Nicholas Rossolimo, and Arthur Feuerstein, with Hans Berliner taking first by a half point.[79] Fischer accepted an invitation to play in the Third Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament at New York City 1956, a premier tournament limited to the 12 players considered the best in the country.[80] Fischer received entry by special consideration, since his rating was certainly not among the top 12 in the country at that stage. In that elite company, the 13-year-old Fischer could only score 4½/11, tying for 8th–9th place.[81] This was his first truly strong round-robin event, and he achieved a creditable result, certainly above what his rating predicted. He won the first brilliancy prize for his game against Donald Byrne.[80] Hans Kmoch christened it "The Game of the Century", writing, "The following game, a stunning masterpiece of combination play performed by a boy of 13 against a formidable opponent, matches the finest on record in the history of chess prodigies."[82] "'The Game of the Century' has been talked about, analyzed, and admired for more than fifty years, and it will probably be a part of the canon of chess for many years to come."[83] "In reflecting on his game a while after it occurred, Bobby was refreshingly modest: 'I just made the moves I thought were best. I was just lucky.'"[84] In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York, losing ½–1½.[85][86] On the USCF's eleventh national rating list, published on May 5, 1957, Fischer was rated 2231, a master—over 500 points higher than his rating a year before.[87] This made him at that time the country's youngest master ever.[88] In July, Fischer successfully defended his U.S. Junior title, scoring 8½/9 at San Francisco.[89] In August, he played in the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Cleveland, scoring 10/12 and winning on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier,[90][91] making Fischer the youngest U.S. Open Champion ever. He next won the New Jersey Open Championship, scoring 6½/7.Fischer then defeated the young Filipino master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6–2 in a New York match sponsored by Pepsi-Cola.[94][95] | ||||||||||||||||||
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