An icon of chess

Robert James Bobby Fischer, former world chess champion from the USA, died of kidney failure in Iceland at the age of 64. He was born in 1943, the son of two physicists (divorced when he was two).
Nobody taught him chess at Manhattan Chess Club; he learned and mastered the game himself. As Collins, a veteran chess organiser-cum-coach at Manhattan Chess Club observed: "Geniuses, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Fischer come out of the head of Zeus. They seem to be genetically programmed, know before instructed."
This chess legend earned the rare distinction of being the youngest grandmaster and the youngest American champion and was an unprecedented phenomenon in the chess arena across the world.
The separation of his parents forced him, as some tend to think, to be more detached from others, and he confined himself in a small room among the chess books that ultimately paved the way for him to rise up to a phenomenal peak of magical intensity with which he outplayed all his opponents on the 64 squared board. He was considered to have IQ higher than Einstein's!
World chess, since the Second World War, had been a continuous affair of success for the super-scientific Russian players; it was Bobby Fischer who made his appearance felt by all and brought about an end to the Russian era by defeating Boris Spassky in the historic Reykjavik world championship match in 1972, the match dubbed as the "Match of the Century" --- the Russian hegemony of chess had severely been hit and cut short, though till 1975 only. Fischer did not play the next title match with the challenger Anatoly Karpov as the FIDE (World Chess Federation) did not accept the demands on different issues made by him. Fischer, all of a sudden, quit chess. The eccentric genius pulled himself off the chess arena and started living in self exile. It was in 1992 that Fischer made yet another appearance in a match with Boris Spassky, again in a controversial match held in YugoslaviaAmerica put an embargo upon his playing there, but he continued and made himself the eyesore of the American administration.
Fischer's contribution to the chess world is multifarious: he was the sole fighter to stand for the interests of the chess players across the globe in terms of a prestigious field of professionalism.
Fischer, as many used to think, used to notch out the opponents' psychology, had several times made it clear that " I don't believe in psychology" rather " I believe in good moves" Indeed he used to make great moves that constantly took his opponents by the nerves. It was Fischer-Fever that had been a strange but strong phenomenon for the chess stalwarts of his time, rather on his way! Russian Grandmaster Mark Taimanov felt it most with his 0-6 loss to Fischer in the candidates before the 1972 final; the same thing happened to Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen same feverish 0-6 performance with Fischer sitting opposite as the opponent!
Furthermore, Fischer's knight move to h5 square against Spassky with the black pieces in a Benoni defence in the third game of the world championship match would ever remain a great innovation for the chess players. In the endgame part, Fischer brought about a revolutionary change. His overall contributions to the cause of the game will ever remain fresh to the players of our times and the ones to come in future.
Ironically, Fischer, the Cold War Hero, made out to be the reverse to the American administration after his anti-American and anti-Semitic outburst on many occasions. He was denied the American citizenship, and stripped of the glory, fame and the world acclaim that he brought for his own country in the bitter treatment that he received. This world icon of chess, with his millions of fans across the world, had to remain unfathomable even by his people --- the extra-sensitive soul had to wander around till his last breath in Iceland .
Bobby Fischer will be living through his unique games, through his equally unique sensitivity, and his overall majestic spell upon the chess lovers across the world that he once cast through his extraordinary moves on the 64 squares --- he died at 64 too! May God bless this great soul.