Chess great and enigma Bobby Fischer dies

Nation & World News

Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64.

Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky of Russia, play their final match in the 1972 faceoff in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fisher died in a Reykjavik, Iceland, hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday. Fischer made history by dethroning Spassky.

Bobby Fischer on the eve of greatness in 1962.

Bobby Fischer surveys his domain in 1971. Fischer lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov.

Boris Spassky starts the 11th game against Bobby Fischer in Sveti Stefan, Yugoslavia, on Sept. 19, 1992.

Bobby Fischer, seated, ponders his next move as challenger Samuel Rechevsky paces during the 1963 U.S. Championship in New York. Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion from Russia, said Fischer's ascent in the chess world in the 1960s and his promotion of chess worldwide was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game.

Chess legend Bobby Fischer speaks to the press in his hew home of Reykjavik, Iceland, in March 2005. As a champion, he used his eccentricities to unsettle opponents, but Fischer's reputation as a genius of chess was soon eclipsed, in the eyes of many, by his idiosyncrasies.

Former U.S. chess world champion Bobby Fischer is escorted out of the Narita Immigration branch office as he is transferred to the East Japan Immigration Center in Narita, near Tokyo, in August 2004.

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Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky of Russia, play their final match in the 1972 faceoff in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fisher died in a Reykjavik, Iceland, hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday. Fischer made history by dethroning Spassky.

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