Bobby Fischer Dead at 64

The man who was once considered the best chess player of all time, former American World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, has died in Reykjavik, Iceland at the age of 64. In the 1960s and early 1970s Fischer dominated high-level chess competition, which had been the exclusive domain of super grandmasters. In 1972, Fischer defeated the reigning World chess champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union despite losing two games by default early on. His win sparked a surge in the popularity of chess in the United States and increased worldwide attention to the game. In 1975 he forfeited his title defense to Soviet Anatoly Karpov by making unusual demands and eventually refusing to the playing conditions the World Chess Federation had negotiated for the title match.

Former World chess champion and widely considered the only player to have exceeded Fischer, Russian Garry Kasparov said "The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess."