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Topic: Bobby Fischer

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Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess player and the eleventh World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess writer. After ending his competitive career, he proposed a new variant of chess, and a modified chess timing system; both of these ideas have received some support in recent years.

Widely considered a "chess legend", at age 13 Fischer won a “brilliancy” that became known as the Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a point. At 15½, he became both the youngest Grandmaster and the youngest Candidate for the World Championship up until that time. He won the 1963–64 US championship 11–0, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. In the early 1970s he became the most dominant player in modern history - winning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. According to research by Jeff Sonas, in 1971 Fischer had separated himself from the rest of the world by a larger margin of playing skill than any player since the 1870s. He became the first official World Chess Federation (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) (FIDE) number one rated chessplayer in July 1971, and his 54 total months at number one is the third longest of all-time.

In 1972, he captured the World Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland that was widely publicized as a Cold War battle. The match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess match, before or since. In 1975, Fischer did not defend his title when he could not come to agreement with FIDE over the conditions for the match. He became more reclusive and played no more competitive chess until 1992, when he won an unofficial rematch against Spassky. This competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a United Nations embargo. This led to a conflict with the US government, and Fischer never returned to his native country; he also owed significant income tax to the US Internal Revenue Service on his prize winnings from the match, which he never paid.

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It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bobby Fischer."