Bobby Fischer

The Profile

American chess grandmaster and World Chess Champion (1972). Born March 9, 1943; died January 17, 2008.

Won the 1972 World Chess Championship against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik. Born 9 March 1943; died 17 January 2008 in Reykjavik. Granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005. Widely regarded as a chess prodigy and influential figure in Cold War-era chess.

A wistful, elegiac review of Bobby Fischer that treats his life as myth and spectacle. The review reflects on his prodigy status, the Cold War context of chess, his disappearance and return, and his death in Reykjavík in 2008.