American-born chess master Bobby Fischer has died of undisclosed causes at the age of 64.
After years of Russian domination, Fischer became the first American chess champion in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a legendary match. After the victory, Fischer became reclusive. He emerged to defeat Spassky again in 1992, but he never regained his championship.
Fischer finished out his life as a citizen of Iceland. He died in a hospital in the capital city of Reykjavik.
Why no mention of the fact that he wrote a column in this magazine that was very important to many of it’s readers?
If he did write that column, I wouldn’t call him reclusive!
I clearly remember the column he wrote, feels like the mid-1960s. He was the first I had seen to use the “new” chess notation, which I put off learning, thinking it was just his affectation, his one-man fad.
The thing is…he wrote the column when he was still a teenager. And still there is no mention of it in the article above and no examples for the modern readers to see who he was. I would read his chess articles in every issue when I was a Cub Scout.
Bobby wrote his column from 1966-1969. It was the first thing I read each month when Boy’s Life arrived in my mailbox. Unfortunately, I still did not ever become very good at chess. 🙁
after he won the chess world tournament he just went crazy, my opinion is he would not of if he had lost.