He had already renounced his Jewish heritage by joining a sect called the Worldwide Church of God, based in Pasadena, to which he donated a large chunk of his winnings. He refused to continue playing, and lost the world title by default in 1975 to yet another Soviet player, Anatoly Karpov.įischer then went into hiding, apart from one impulsive television appearance and the occasional game. Having reached the pinnacle of his ambition, at the age of 29, Fischer seemed to lose his faltering grip on reality. For the victor, the outcome was unmitigated disaster. For the loser, it was a humiliation that landed him in trouble with his government, which was already wondering if he was some sort of secret dissident, but he was able to live comfortably in Russia after the collapse of Communism. By game 11, Fischer was winning 6.5 to 3.5 in the best of 24 games final. From then on, Spassky never knew what Fischer would do next, but he hung on gamely as the American repeatedly beat him. In retrospect, it looks much more like a clever ploy in a psychological war against Spassky and the Soviet apparatus. He had repeatedly accused the Russians of cheating, and lying. It looked like a petulant blunder by the challenger, who had become more fussy and prone to complain about the conditions under which he was forced to play chess which each passing year. The arbitrator pronounced that Spassky was now ahead in the contest, by one game to nil. Spassky, playing white, moved his queen's pawn forward two squares. But opposite him, there was an empty chair. Spassky took his place at the chessboard. On 11 July 1972, in a sports hall in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, the final played to a packed auditorium. Spassky was apparently confident of victory. The KGB analysed Fischer's behaviour and concluded that he was a psychopath. Even in the semi-final, against the former world champion, Tigran Petrosian, he won by five games to one. Fischer charged through the opening rounds, winning six games out of six. As he approached the final round of the 1972 world chess championship, Boris Spassky, the reigning champion, should have seen what was coming. It was impossible to predict which opening he would use or what he would do next. In 1958, he became the first player in the history of the game to achieve grandmaster status as young as 15.īobby's unique style of play was likened to the behaviour of a wild predator. By the age of 14, he was the US national chamion. At about 1954, when he was 11, Fischer "just got good". Bobby survived 15 minutes on the board against Pavey, which so impressed the chairman of the Brooklyn Chess Club that he invited the boy to join and learn the game from adults. So instead she took him to play chess against a master, Max Pavey, who was giving a simultaneous exhibition.
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