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![](3D"bobbyfischer_files/image003.jpg")
Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who
became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 has
died at the age of 64. Fischer died of k=
idney
failure Thursday in a Reykja=
vik
hospital after a long illness.
Former world chess champion Garry
Kasparov hailed Fischer as a pioneer and the founder of
professional chess. "This is very sad news. We have lost a great
warrior, we have lost a great mind,"
Fischer was born on 9th
March1943 in Chicago
and raised in Brooklyn. At the =
age of
13, he became the youngest player to win US Junior championship. The
following year, he became the US Champion. At 14, he became the youngest
Grandmaster.
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. He was convinced of his own superiority and called the Soviets
“Commie cheats.”
=
Fischer
was the first American world chess champion when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union<=
/st1:place>
in a legendary encounter during the Cold War in 1972. He won the match on=
the
Yugoslav resort island<=
/st1:PlaceType>
of Sveti Stefan, and the prize money of $3.5 million, but spent the next decade as a
reclusive and somewhat mysterious figure that was regarded as a fugitive =
by
American authorities.
In 1975, he refused to play =
the
match against Anatoly Karpov, another Soviet,=
in Manila<=
/st1:City>.
The
World chess Federation awarded the title to Karpov
and Fischer dropped from sight for nearly two decades.
In J=
uly
2004, after the 1992 Belgrade match, Fis=
cher
was arrested at Japan’s
Narita airport for traveling on a <=
st1:place
w:st=3D"on">U.S. passport that w=
as
revoked. He was threatened =
with
extradition to the United
States to face charges of violating
sanctions. He spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved
when Iceland
granted him citizenship and he moved there with his longtime companion, t=
he
Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai.
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