Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (born March 9, 1943) is a United States-born chess Grandmaster who in 1972 became the only US-born chess player to become the official World Chess Champion.
Fischer’s win in the 1972 World Championship Match was a momentous victory for the United States during the time of the Cold War. Fischer almost single-handedly defeated the mighty Soviet chess establishment that had dominated world chess for the previous quarter-century.
Although Fischer is America’s greatest chess hero, the American government once denied him chess income, via President George H. W. Bush’s Executive Order 12810, and has even revoked his passport. Fischer is now living in political asylum in Iceland. The United States has refused to let Fischer renounce his citizenship.
Twenty years after Fischer’s win in the 1972 World Championship Match, Fischer emerged from isolation to challenge Spassky (then placed 96-102 on the rating list) to a “Revenge Match of the 20th Century” in 1992. This match took place in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, in spite of a severe United Nations embargo that included sanctions on sporting events. Fischer demanded that the organizers bill the match as “The World Chess Championship”, although Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE World Champion.
The purse for this match was reported to be $US 5,000,000 with two-thirds to go to the winner. The U.S. Department of the Treasury had warned Fischer beforehand that his participation was illegal. In front of the international press, Fischer was filmed spitting on the U.S. order forbidding him to play. Following the match, the department obtained an arrest warrant for him although some dispute the legality of the Department’s claim and question why others who broke the embargo have not been prosecuted. Fischer won the match, 10 wins to 5, with 15 draws.
On July 13, 2004, Bobby Fischer was detained at Narita Airport for allegedly using an invalid U.S. passport while trying to board a Japan Airlines flight to Manila. He left Japan a year later after obtaining asylum in Iceland where he still resides and is presumedly happy.