Bobby Fischer died on square 64
REYKJAVIK, Iceland - “Chess,” Bobby Fischer once said, “is life.” It was the chess master’s tragedy that the messy, tawdry details of his life often overshadowed the sublime genius of his game. Fischer, who has died at the age of 64, was a child prodigy, a teenage grandmaster and — before age 30 — a world champion who triumphed in a Cold War showdown with Soviet champion Boris Spassky.
Noted French chess expert Olivier Tridon: “Bobby Fischer has died at age 64. Like the 64 squares of a chess board.”
He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying, “I want to see the U.S. wiped out,” and described Jews as “thieving, lying bastards.” Fischer’s mother was Jewish.
In 2004, Fischer was arrested at Japan’s Narita airport for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport. He was threatened with extradition to the United States to face charges of violating sanctions imposed to punish Slobodan Milosevic, then leader of Yugoslavia, by playing a 1992 rematch against Spassky in the country.
Fischer renounced his U.S. citizenship and spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland — a chess-mad nation of 300,000 — granted him citizenship.
“They talk about the ‘axis of evil,’” Fischer said when he arrived in Iceland. “What about the allies of evil … the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers.”
Funeral details were not immediately available. Fischer moved to Iceland with his longtime companion, Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai. She survives him.
