70 Fun Facts About Bobby Fischer

Whom did Bobby Fischer beat in 1972 to become World Chess Champion?

He had never beaten the Soviet champion before the match, with three losses and two draws between them.

In which city was the 1972 world title match, dubbed the Match of the Century, played?

Fischer had wanted Belgrade and only turned up after a London financier doubled the prize fund and Henry Kissinger phoned him.

Fischer was the how-many-th World Chess Champion?

He held the title for three years without playing a single competitive game, then forfeited it.

Which country granted Fischer citizenship in 2005 by a special act of its parliament, letting him live there until his death?

The Althing voted unanimously, partly in gratitude for the 1972 match that had "put the country on the map".

In which US city was Fischer born in 1943?

His mother was homeless at the time; the family settled in Brooklyn when he was seven.

How old was Fischer when he won the first of his record eight US Championships?

He was still two months shy of his 15th birthday, and the win qualified him for the Interzonal and earned him the International Master title.

Which variant, randomising the starting position of the back-rank pieces, was Fischer's invention?

He introduced it in 1996 to kill off memorised opening preparation; unlike older shuffle chess, it keeps opposite-coloured bishops and the right to castle.

Who was named World Champion by default in 1975 when Fischer refused to defend his title?

FIDE accepted Fischer's demand for a first-to-ten-wins match but rejected his 9-9 clause by 35 votes to 32.

What was Fischer's score in the 1963/64 US Championship, the only perfect result in the tournament's history?

Hans Kmoch congratulated runner-up Larry Evans on "winning" the tournament and Fischer on "winning the exhibition".

Which 1969 Fischer book is regarded as essential reading in chess literature?

He wrote it with Larry Evans and, unusually, included some of his own draws and losses among the annotated games.

Which actor played Fischer in the 2014 film "Pawn Sacrifice"?

Liev Schreiber played Spassky and Peter Sarsgaard played Fischer's second, a Catholic priest.

The 1993 film "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is actually about which young chess prodigy?

His father Fred wrote the book; the film was retitled Innocent Moves in Britain and earned an Oscar nomination for cinematography.

Where was Fischer arrested in July 2004 for travelling on a revoked US passport?

He spent about eight months in Japanese detention and married Miyoko Watai, president of the Japanese Chess Association, while inside.

Fischer's 1992 rematch with Spassky, which led to a US arrest warrant, was played in which sanctioned country?

He spat on the Treasury Department's warning letter at the opening press conference; the $5 million purse remains the largest for any chess match.

How old was Fischer when he died in January 2008?

There are 64 squares on a chessboard; the cause was kidney failure after he refused surgery for a urinary blockage.

Which brilliant queen sacrifice game did the 13-year-old Fischer win against Donald Byrne in 1956, later dubbed "The Game of the Century"?

Byrne took the queen on move 17 and got a rook, two bishops and a pawn thrown back at him before being mated.

What was Fischer's score in his 1971 Candidates matches against both Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen?

Kasparov later wrote that no player had ever shown a superiority over his rivals comparable to that 12-0 sweep.

Losing to Fischer 6-0 cost Mark Taimanov his stipend, his travel rights and his place on the Soviet team. What was his other profession?

After the final game he told Fischer, "Well, I still have my music." The authorities then banned him from the concert stage too.

How did Fischer lose the second game of the 1972 world championship match?

Spassky, not wanting to win by default, agreed to move game three to a back room away from the cameras, and Fischer took over from there.

Which British financier put up an extra $125,000 to lure Fischer to the 1972 match?

Fischer had refused to fly out until the money was raised; the fund was unprecedented for chess.

On the July 1972 rating list Fischer's Elo of 2785 was how far above the world number two?

Spassky was second on 2660; no player had ever been rated so high before.

Fischer's 1972 win started a boom in American chess. What happened to US Chess Federation membership that year?

Membership peaked in 1974; the period is still called the "Fischer Boom".

Fischer refused to play the 1975 title defence unless the match ran until one player won how many games, draws not counting?

He also wanted the champion to keep the title at 9-9, a clause many considered unfair to the challenger.

Fischer accused the Soviets of collusion after which 1962 Candidates tournament, prompting FIDE to switch to knockout matches?

He said Petrosian, Keres and Geller had agreed short draws with each other to save energy for playing him, and most historians think he was right.

Which game show got Fischer to Moscow in 1958, when its producers arranged plane tickets for him and his sister?

In Moscow he demanded a game with world champion Botvinnik, was refused, and beat almost everyone at blitz instead.

At what age did Fischer become the youngest grandmaster in history up to that point, after the 1958 Portorož Interzonal?

He had told a journalist he could draw with the grandmasters and beat the half-dozen patzers, and that is roughly what happened.

Fischer dropped out of which Brooklyn high school at 16, a school also attended by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond?

Its student council had given him a gold medal for chess the same year; he said, "You don't learn anything in school."

Which former Scottish champion did the seven-year-old Fischer play in a simultaneous exhibition in January 1951, holding on for 15 minutes?

His mother had tried to place a newspaper ad seeking chess-playing children; the paper could not classify it and forwarded it to the "Dean of American Chess" instead.

Which religious group, with its Saturday Sabbath, did Fischer associate with in the 1960s and 70s before denouncing its founder as a false prophet?

Its Sabbath rules caused the scheduling row that led him to quit the 1967 Sousse Interzonal while leading it.

Fischer played the 1965 Capablanca Memorial in Havana without leaving New York. How?

The State Department refused to validate his passport for Cuba; sessions lasted up to twelve hours and he still tied for second.

How much of the record purse for the 1992 rematch went to the winner?

Fischer won 10 games to 5 with 15 draws; the sponsor was Yugoslav millionaire Jezdimir Vasiljević.

Fischer's 1988 patent covered which chess clock innovation, later standard in top play?

He filed for the US patent in 1988 and received it the following year.

The tiny 1966 primer "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" has sold over 1,000,000 copies. What teaching method does it use?

It was first published by a Xerox subsidiary and the cover shows Fischer with his favourite Dubrovnik chess set.

At the 1962 Varna Olympiad Fischer predicted he would beat Miguel Najdorf in 25 moves. In how many did he actually do it?

Najdorf lost while playing the Sicilian variation named after himself, and was beaten by nobody else in the event.

Which former world champion, in a 1957 two-game match in New York, beat the 14-year-old Fischer 1½-½?

By May of that year Fischer held the US Master title, the youngest player ever to do so.

Fischer taught himself several languages so he could read foreign chess magazines. Which one is specifically mentioned?

He found the key idea against Taimanov in a footnote of a Soviet monograph, to Taimanov's mortification.

Fischer's 20 consecutive wins against top opposition in 1970-71 was topped in history only by whose 25 straight wins?

Petrosian snapped the streak in the second game of their 1971 match, having said Fischer's wins "do not impress me".

Which member of the US team stepped aside from the 1970 Interzonal so that Fischer, who had skipped the qualifying US Championship, could play?

The next man in line did the same; Fischer then won the Interzonal by 3½ points with seven straight wins at the end.

Which Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist did a 2002 Philadelphia Inquirer investigation, and an FBI file, name as Fischer's biological father?

He paid monthly child support and Fischer's school fees until his death in 1952; Fischer's legal father never entered the United States.

Fischer's mother Regina staged a five-hour protest outside the White House in 1960 to demand what?

The FBI had investigated her through the 1950s over her years in Moscow and supposed communist views.

Fischer's 1961 match with Samuel Reshevsky ended prematurely after a scheduling dispute with which patron and sponsor?

Reshevsky was awarded the match by default at 7½-5½ after Fischer forfeited two games; Fischer boycotted her 1963 Piatigorsky Cup in return.

Who was the only player to beat Fischer at the 1970 Herceg Novi blitz tournament, which he won with 19 out of 22?

Tal marvelled that Fischer never left a single pawn en prise all tournament while the others blundered pieces galore.

In the 1970 USSR vs Rest of the World match, Fischer surprisingly agreed to play second board. What did he score against Petrosian?

The Dane on board one had demanded the spot despite Fischer's higher rating; a year later Fischer beat him 6-0.

What did Fischer publish in 1977, during his long absence from competition?

His only other public chess that decade was a 14-page pamphlet about his 1981 arrest in Pasadena.

Fischer was arrested in Pasadena in 1981 for what reason?

He said he was held two days and mistreated, and printed a pamphlet calling it a frame-up.

Fischer refused to play the 1958 Munich Olympiad because his demand to play in which position ahead of Samuel Reshevsky was refused?

He went on to play top board at four Olympiads, scoring 75 percent with two individual silvers and a bronze.

Fischer lost only three games in eight US Championships. Which of these players was NOT one of the men who beat him?

His total was 61 wins, 26 draws and 3 losses from 90 games; Mednis's win in 1962 was his first loss ever in the event.

Fischer became the first non-Soviet player to win an Interzonal since 1948 by winning which 1962 event undefeated?

Kotov said only Smyslov had shown such faultless endgame technique at 19.

Fischer walked out of the 1967 Interzonal while leading it. Where was that tournament held?

A row over rest days around his Saturday Sabbath escalated; he forfeited two games, withdrew, and all his results were annulled.

Where did Fischer live between 2000 and 2002, sharing a compound with grandmaster Eugene Torre?

It was from a radio station there that he gave his notorious interview applauding the September 11 attacks.

Who was the chief arbiter of the 1972 title match?

The German grandmaster also arbitrated the 1992 rematch.

Which venue hosted the 1972 match?

Fischer arrived nine minutes late for game one; Spassky had already played 1.d4 and pressed the clock.

Fischer's Icelandic citizenship in 2005 came at the urging of which old friend, his second in 1972?

The Althing had first offered only an alien's passport, which the Japanese authorities would not accept.

Fischer is buried in the small churchyard of Laugardælir, outside which Icelandic town?

Only his widow Miyoko Watai and the family of his friend Garðar Sverrisson attended the Catholic funeral, at his request.

Why were Fischer's remains exhumed by court order in 2010?

Testing ruled him out as the father of a Filipino girl, and his Japanese widow inherited the estate.

In 1958 the 15-year-old Fischer's US rating had rocketed from a modest figure two years earlier. What was his rating on the May 1956 list?

Top-rated Samuel Reshevsky stood at 2663; within two years Fischer was a grandmaster.

In 1957 Fischer's mother wrote directly to whom, seeking an invitation for her son to a Moscow youth festival?

The affirmative reply came too late for that year's Youth Festival; the trip happened in 1958 instead.

Which soft-drink company sponsored the 1957 New York match in which the 14-year-old Fischer beat Filipino master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso 6-2?

That same year he won the US Open in Cleveland on tiebreak, the youngest champion ever.

On his 1964 North American simultaneous tour of more than 40 cities, roughly what winning percentage did Fischer post over 2,000-plus games?

He chose the tour over the Amsterdam Interzonal, taking himself out of the 1966 title cycle.

The 1992 rematch opened at Sveti Stefan, an island resort off the coast of which present-day country?

The second half moved to Belgrade; Fischer had warmed up with a training match against Svetozar Gligorić.

Fischer once told a journalist he owned how many hand-tailored suits, having previously turned up to tournaments in sweaters and corduroys?

A friend had nagged him to smarten up in 1959; his shirts and shoes were handmade too.

Which opening move did Fischer play almost exclusively as White, calling it 'best by test'?

He played 1.d4 only once in a serious game, during a blitz tournament, yet rivals still found him hard to prepare for.

How did the six-year-old Fischer and his sister Joan first learn the rules of chess?

When Joan lost interest and Regina had no time, Bobby played many of his first games against himself.

What was the cause of Fischer's death in Reykjavík in January 2008?

He was 64 and died at the Landspítali, Iceland's national university hospital, after a reclusive final few years.

Which Olympic swimming champion shared a Sports Illustrated cover with Fischer in 1972?

Fischer also played chess with an ushanka-clad Bob Hope in a TV sketch and turned down at least $5 million in endorsements.

Whom did Fischer marry in September 2004 while detained in Japan?

An Icelandic court later upheld the marriage, ruling against Fischer's nephews in the fight over his estate.

Which opening did Fischer declare 'busted' in a 1961 article after losing to Spassky with it?

His recommended defence became known as the Fischer Defense; he later played the gambit himself as White three times and won them all.

At whose home did the Hawthorne Chess Club meet when Fischer began attending in 1956?

Collins was called Fischer's teacher but himself preferred the word mentor; Bobby ate almost as many dinners at his house as at home.

For which magazine did Fischer write a 'Checkmate' column from 1966 to 1969?

Larry Evans took over the Scouting magazine's column when Fischer stopped.

Which future Nobel-winning geneticist persuaded Fischer's mother Regina to study medicine in Moscow?

She met him while visiting her brother in Germany; in Moscow she married the German biophysicist Hans-Gerhardt Fischer.