Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) (9 mars 1943 – 17 janv. 2008)

Description:

Was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, at age 14 he won the 1958 U.S. Championship. In 1964, he won the same tournament with a perfect score (11 wins).

Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6-0 scores. After another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match 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, chess's international governing body, over the match conditions. As a result, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default.

Fischer subsequently disappeared from the public eye, though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged.

In 1992, he reemerged to win an unofficial rematch against Spassky.