File picture of Bobby Fischer departing for Iceland from Narita airport, near Tokyo, following his release on March 24, 2005. (Reuters)

Reykjavik: Bobby Fischer, America’s first and only world chess champion who was once dubbed the “Mozart of chess”, has died in Iceland at the age of 64.

A spokesman for Fischer, who could have faced prison in America for violating sanctions against former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there, confirmed that he had died. The cause of death was not immediately made public.

Fischer, a former child prodigy who once said he liked to watch his opponents squirm and who had become an Icelandic citizen, became world champion by beating the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky under the glare of Cold War publicity in Reykjavik in 1972.

The brilliant but eccentric American abandoned his title without moving a pawn by failing to meet a deadline to defend his crown in Manila in 1975. World chess authorities reluctantly awarded it to challenger Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union, who was to hold it for the next decade.

Fischer withdrew into himself, not playing in public and living on little more than the magic of his name, although millions of enthusiasts regarded him as the king of chess.

He made headlines and fell foul of US authorities when he came out of seclusion to play his old rival Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, at a time when the country was the target of sanctions during Belgrade’s war with breakaway republics.

He vanished after the match, for which he won $3 million, and resurfaced only after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. In an interview with a Philippine radio station, Fischer praised the strikes and said he wanted to see America “wiped out”.

Fischer, who also stirred controversy with anti-Semitic remarks, was granted Icelandic citizenship in March 2005 after eight months in detention in Japan fighting a US deportation order.

Fischer always had a high opinion of himself. Asked who was the greatest player in the world, he once replied: “It’s nice to be modest, but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer.”

It was not an idle claim. Arguably the greatest natural chess genius the world has seen, he was called “the Mozart of chess” when he began winning at the age of six.

His success soon gained Fischer a reputation for being cocky. He told interviewers his favourite moment was when opponents began to feel they would lose. “I like to see ’em squirm,” he said.

He was the youngest international grandmaster ever at 15, gaining the rating at his first international tournament in Yugoslavia. He once defeated 21 Grandmasters in succession — no US player had beaten more than seven in a row.

As Fischer’s fame grew, his temperament became more unpredictable. He walked out of tournaments because of what he considered to be bad lighting or bad air conditioning. He refused to play matches on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

In the 1990s, he was said to be living under assumed names in cheap hotels in Pasadena on the outskirts of Los Angeles, surviving mainly on occasional royalties from his books. In London, one newspaper described him as “dressed like a derelict, waddling and fat and with a straggly beard”.

Fischer factbox

Bobby Fischer, born in Chicago on March 9, 1943, was the United States’ first
and only world chess champion, and is still seen by many as the greatest natural talent the game has ever known.

Fischer played in eight United States Chess Championships from 1957-58 to 1966-67, each held in New York City, winning every one.

His world title match with the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 became an emblem of the Cold War confrontation between the superpowers. Fischer won convincingly, by 12- 1/2 points to 8-1/2.

When the moody and eccentric Fischer failed to defend his crown in Manila in 1975,
world chess authorities awarded it to his challenger, the Russian Anatoly Kar
pov.

Fischer fell foul of US authorities by playing a rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, at a time when it was subject to economic sanctions over Belgrade’s war with breakaway republics.

Fischer vanished after the match, only resurfacing after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. In an interview with a Philippine radio station, he praised the strikes and said he wanted to see America “wiped out”.

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 after spending eight months in detention in Japan fighting a US extradition request.