Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischerwas an American chess grandmaster, the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him the greatest chess player of all time. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland, publicized as a Cold War confrontation which 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, the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChess Player
Date of Birth9 March 1943
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I don't keep any close friends. I don't keep any secrets. I don't need friends. I just tell everybody everything, that's all.
Genius. It's a word. What does it really mean? If I win I'm a genius. If I don't, I'm not.
I don't care! I don't have to show anybody my games just because they're a big shot!
I really love the dark of the night. It helps me to concentrate.
The Russians have fixed world chess.
If you have seen one Alekhine game you've seen them all.
I'm not afraid of Spassky. The world knows I'm the best. You don't need a match to prove it.
Let's play. I'm willing to play anywhere.
People have been playing against me below their strength for fifteen years.
You are never too old to play chess!
There's no one alive I can't beat.
FIDE has decided against my participation in the 1975 World Chess Champion title.
When I won the world championship, in 1972, the United States had an image of, you know, a football country, a baseball country, but nobody thought of it as an intellectual country.
Well, I kind of split my life into two pieces. One was where my chess career lies. There, I kept my sanity, so to speak, and my logic. And the other was my religious life. I tried to apply what I learned in the church to my chess career too. But I still was studying chess. I wasn't just "trusting in God" to give me the moves.