GOAT of the Week: Bobby Fischer

In 1972, American Robert J. Fischer challenged Soviet Boris Spassky for the World Championship which was held in Reykjavik, Iceland. The match was scheduled for twenty four games and was the most worldwide publicized Championship in Chess history since it took place during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR. As a consequence, both players were under considerable pressure to win. When Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky, he became the first American to win the World Championship and also ended thirty five years of Soviet domination of the world Chess title.

The match was played as the best of 24 games, with wins counting 1 point and draws counting ½ point, and would end when one of the players scores 12½ points. If the match ended in a 12–12 tie, the defending champion (Spassky) would retain the title. The first time control was 40 moves in 2½ hours. Three games per week were scheduled. Each player was entitled to three postponements for medical reasons during the match. Games were scheduled to start on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. If a game was adjourned, it was to be continued the next day.

Fischer outright won 7 games, while Spassky won 3.

Leading by 11 ½ - 8 ½, Fischer needed a win in the 21st game to clinch the match. In a level position, Spassky blundered twice in the endgame and was lost at adjournment. The next day Boris Spassky resigned the match by telephone. Fischer at first refused to accept the legality of this, preferring the customary signing of the scoresheet. Finally he acquiesced and on Sept. 1, 1972, the match was over, Bobby Fischer was now the World Champion.

After disappearing from public view for 20 years, Fischer returned to play a chess match with Boris Spassky in 1992 to the "Revenge Match of the 20th century.

During the 14th game on the 14th move, Fischer proposed a draw to Spassky, which Spassky accepted. Fischer reminded him that the match rules stipulated that if a game was agreed drawn less one hour after the start, the players must immediately begin another game, colors reversed. Spassky, who was playing White, withdrew the agreement to draw, saying "But you'll kill me with White"

Fischer won the rematch and then fled to solitude once more.

Fischer is considered one of the greatest players of all time. Some leading players and some of Fischer's biographers rank him as the greatest player who ever lived. Many other writers say that he is arguably the greatest player ever, without reaching a definitive conclusion.

Fischer's great rival Mikhail Tal praised him as "the greatest genius to have descended from the chess heavens." American rival Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier, who won his first tournament game against Fischer, drew his second, and then lost the remaining 13, wrote "Robert James Fischer is one of the few people in any sphere of endeavour who has been accorded the accolade of being called a legend in his own time."