Bobby Fischer dies in Iceland.

[Darth Fanboy]

By Kristin Arna Bragadottir

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Bobby Fischer, who became America's first and only world chess champion after defeating the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War, has died at the age of 64.

Gardar Sverrisson, a spokesman for the reclusive Fischer, said the chess genius died at midday on Thursday in Reykjavik, the site of his famous victory over Spassky. Sverrisson said Fischer had died after a serious, but unspecified, illness.

Feted as a national hero for beating Spassky, the eccentric Fischer fell foul of U.S. authorities in his later years. Fischer also stirred controversy for numerous anti-Semitic remarks and tirades against his former homeland.

Rumors that Fischer, once dubbed the "Mozart of Chess", was ill had circulated in recent weeks on chess-related Web sites.

A friend of the chess master told Reuters Fischer was taken to a hospital in October of last year. But, not trusting doctors, he later went home and received treatment there, where he was looked after by friends.

A child prodigy who once said he liked to watch his opponents squirm, Fischer became an Icelandic citizen, coming to Iceland in March 2005. He could have faced jail in the United States for violating sanctions on former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there against Spassky.

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov hailed Fischer as a pioneer of professional chess. "We have lost a great individual," Kasparov told reporters in Moscow.

"He was always alone .. . but while alone he demonstrated that a human being is capable of reaching new heights. We have lost a great warrior, we have lost a great mind."

Spassky, who now lives in Paris, was less eloquent on the subject of Fischer. Asked by Reuters for his reaction, he said: "It's bad luck for you. Bobby Fischer is dead," then hung up.

NO DEFENCE

The brilliant and unpredictable American abandoned his world title without moving a pawn by failing to defend his crown in Manila in 1975. World chess authorities reluctantly awarded it to challenger Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union, who was to hold it for the next decade.

Fischer then all but disappeared from the public view for much of the next two decades.

He made headlines when he came out of seclusion to play Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, at a time when the country was under sanctions during Belgrade's war with breakaway republics.

He vanished after the match, for which he won $3 million, and resurfaced after the September 11, 2001, attacks on America. In an interview with a Philippine radio station, Fischer praised the strikes and said he wanted to see America "wiped out".

Fischer, who also stirred controversy with anti-Semitic remarks, was allowed into Iceland in March 2005 after eight months in detention in Japan fighting a U.S. deportation order.

Einar Einarsson, president of a campaign group that fought to bring Fischer to Iceland from Japan, said Fischer liked living in Iceland but at times felt frustrated and trapped because he could not travel.

While debate has always raged in chess circles about who is the greatest, Fischer himself was in no doubt. He once said: "It's nice to be modest, but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer."

He was called the "Mozart of Chess" when he began winning at the age of six.

"SEE 'EM SQUIRM"

Fischer gained a reputation for being cocky. He told interviewers his favorite moment was when opponents began to feel they would lose. "I like to see 'em squirm," he said.

He was U.S. junior champion at 13 and U.S. Open champion at 14, retaining the title whenever he chose to defend it.

He became an international grandmaster at 15, gaining the rating at his first international tournament in Yugoslavia. He once defeated 21 grandmasters in succession -- no U.S. player had beaten more than seven in a row.

As Fischer's fame grew, his temperament became more unpredictable. He walked out of tournaments because of what he considered to be bad lighting or bad air conditioning.

In the mid-1960s, he opted out of two world championship qualifying series because he thought the tournament system favored the Russians. In 1967, when officials would not meet his demands for better conditions, Fischer angrily withdrew from international competition "for a period of introspection".

He took his collection of chess books to California, where he later said he had "plotted my revenge if I ever came back".

When the rules were changed in 1972 to include an eight-player eliminator to find the challenger to world champion Spassky, Fischer had the chance to prove he was as good as he always said he was. He became a national hero.

But by the 1990s, he was said to be living under assumed names in cheap hotels in Pasadena on the outskirts of Los Angeles, surviving on occasional royalties from his books.

One commentator said there was one constant through his life -- his "running battle with the rest of the human race".

linky

[Dartzap]

Iceland

[Admiral Valdemar]

Iceland

Says Iceland to me.

[Darth Fanboy]

What an awful horrible typo, could a mod please change "Ireland" to "Iceland" in the title? Sweet Jeebus.

[Darth Fanboy]

ghetto edit:

Thanks, I saw it after I hit "submit". Shoulda checked the subject title while I was previewing. Doh!

[Rogue 9]

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=117880

[Dartzap]

Yes, but that's in a thread about jizzing over Sov..err...Russian stuff as well. It does deserve its own thread, really.

Can't say I know much of the man myself......*whistles innocently*

[Broomstick]

Question: How is "grandmaster" defined in chess? Is it just winning a tournament? Some other standard?

[The Spartan]

Question: How is "grandmaster" defined in chess? Is it just winning a tournament? Some other standard?

You have to achieve a particular ranking. 2600, iirc.

[Broomstick]

Well, how do you achieve that ranking? I may know how to play chess (I learned before I entered primary school) but when it comes to competitive play and ranking I'm pretty ignorant.

[brianeyci]

Mathematical formula designed to simulate a statistical distribution of skill. Rather than rewarding a player for winning a lot, it adjusts your rating based on who you play and how often. This is supposed to be intrinsically more satisfying because it simulates some kind of "innateness" about a player.

That is, you start with a certain rating say 1200, and the more you play the more rating you get. But you get very little to no rating for beating people far below you, get a bit of rating for someone close to you, and tons (up to a certain limit) for beating someone far above you. Eventually your rating stabilizes, and you got your skill in a number.

That's as close to an explanation you can get without getting into the math (which is actually easy but I don't think you want that.) You get the rating playing at sanctioned tournaments.

[Havok]

Mathematical formula designed to simulate a statistical distribution of skill. Rather than rewarding a player for winning a lot, it adjusts your rating based on who you play and how often. This is supposed to be intrinsically more satisfying because it simulates some kind of "innateness" about a player.

That is, you start with a certain rating say 1200, and the more you play the more rating you get. But you get very little to no rating for beating people far below you, get a bit of rating for someone close to you, and tons (up to a certain limit) for beating someone far above you. Eventually your rating stabilizes, and you got your skill in a number.

That's as close to an explanation you can get without getting into the math (which is actually easy but I don't think you want that.) You get the rating playing at sanctioned tournaments.

You mean it is like Yahoo Pool?
He was quite an interesting person. Too bad he died so young.

[Surlethe]

You mean it is like Yahoo Pool?

In all seriousness, I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo Pool uses Elo ratings to rank players. I know Yahoo Chess does.

He was quite an interesting person. Too bad he died so young.

To be frank, at this point he's no great loss to society. His chessplaying days are fifteen years gone and he's a lunatic recluse.

[brianeyci]

You mean it is like Yahoo Pool?

As far as I know almost everything uses Elo.

I think even World of Warcraft uses Elo in one way or another. Almost all ladders love the simplistic formula, the only difference being the "k-factor" which is a constant arbitrarily chosen for new players to let their rating quickly stabilize. For some venues this will take 30 games minimum like with chess, but others might choose a higher or lower k-value.

[Flagg]

And now he's playing chess in Jew-Hating heaven with Mel Gibson's career.

[Havok]

You mean it is like Yahoo Pool?

In all seriousness, I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo Pool uses Elo ratings to rank players. I know Yahoo Chess does.

He was quite an interesting person. Too bad he died so young.

To be frank, at this point he's no great loss to society. His chessplaying days are fifteen years gone and he's a lunatic recluse.

No, and he wasn't really a great contributor to society when he was alive, but he was definitely interesting to read about when his crazy got out of control.

[Big Orange]

And now he's playing chess in Jew-Hating heaven with Mel Gibson's career.

He was actually half Jewish on his mother's side.

Obviously mad as a bicycle when alive, ending up a lonely and cranky misanthrope, but like Gibson, he wound up being a pariah celebrity for many reasons other than being a verbal anti-Semite.

[fgalkin]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[The Jester]

Well, how do you achieve that ranking?

It's rather complex.

[tim31]

Conincidentally, Bobby Fischer was a female character on Australian soap-drama Home and Away in the 80's/90's. She died in a jetskiing accident.

[Androsphinx]

Just didn't want to let this pass without reminding people that Fischer beat a past US champion aged thirteen in the justifiably famous Game of the Century. When I used to play in youth tournaments, you could bet there would be someone with a "Be6!!" home-made t-shirt

[brianeyci]

Well, how do you achieve that ranking?

It's rather complex.

No offense, but that's like quoting the manual of rules for DCI tournaments when someone asks how to get more rating in Magic the Gathering, then saying it's complex when all it involves is going in Friday nights.

I think her question was, how are the ratings calculated, and the actual Elo formula is really simple. Chess players carry pocket calculators to do it on the fly.

[OmegaGuy]

Just didn't want to let this pass without reminding people that Fischer beat a past US champion aged thirteen in the justifiably famous Game of the Century. When I used to play in youth tournaments, you could bet there would be someone with a "Be6!!" home-made t-shirt

I have a "Rxf4!!!" homemade t-shirt

[Androsphinx]

You invented a third exclaimation mark?