Robert James Fischer, also known as Bobby Fischer, was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois to a Swiss mother, Regina Fischer, and to a German father, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer.  Bobby, however, have not found the joy of living with his father, as the latter left him together with his sister, Joan Fischer Targ, in custody of their mother.

At the age of 6, on May 1949, Robert Fischer first learned how to play chess together with his sister Joan.  A few months later, Fischer had his first chess book.  He played and practiced chess with his sister for a while, but his skills advanced too quickly for his sister to catch up.  For a year, Robert Fischer played and practiced chess by himself, until he found a mentor in Carmine Nigro.

Robert Fischer met Carmine Nigro in January 1951, when the 7 years old Fischer was among the competitors in a chess exhibition held at the Grand Army Plaza Library in Brooklyn.  Carmine Nigro, then president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, asked Fischer to join the club.  Carmine Nigro became Fischer’s chess instructor and entered him into various local chess tournaments as well as exposed him to the international chess scene.

At the age of 13, Robert Fischer bade farewell to the mentorship of Nigro and studied chess under John W. Collins.  John Collins was a very popular chess instructor during that time, having taught other chess greats like Robert Byrne and William Lombardy.

Robert Fischer achieved his first major success as chess player in July 1956, when he won the US Junior Championship at the age of 13 and became the youngest chess player to be the champion in the said tournament.  More importantly, his win on the tournament qualified him as a competitor in the invitational US Championship.

In the US Championship, Robert Fischer played dominantly and on January 1956, he eventually won the top prize for the said tournament.  This championship also qualified him to the Interzonals, which brought him a step closer to facing the World Champion.  In the succeeding years, Robert Fischer continued to join the US Championship with the same feat.  He actually had the championship title for the said tournament for eight times.

In the Interzonals, the young Robert Fischer was poorly rated, for he was just another unranked competitor in a group of competing chess masters.  To the surprise of many, however, Robert Fischer played well all throughout and actually finished fifth overall at the end of the tournament.  This fifth overall finish gave him the title of International Grandmaster in August 1958.  At the age of 15, Robert Fischer became the youngest chess player to achieve the title of International Grandmaster at that time.

In 1959, Robert Fischer first came face to face with the Russian chess giants in the Candidates’ Tournament in Yugoslavia.  Fischer finished the tournament in the middle of the ranking, but the said tournament set the tone for the rest of his playing career.  The tournament was eventually won by Mikhail Tal, who defeated Fischer in all of their four games.

From 1959 to 1967, Robert Fischer played outstanding games in a variety of International chess tournaments and was considered as the best non-Soviet chess player during those times.  For a variety of reasons, however, Fischer never made it to the top.  One of the most controversial chess tournament that he have joined in the said period was the Interzonal tournament at Sousse, Tunisia in 1967, where Fischer was expelled in the tournament for forfeiting a lot of games.

Robert Fischer earned his first chance to challenge the World Champion in the 1969 to 1972 World Championship.  Robert Fischer wasn’t actually a qualifier for the said event, for he refused to join the first stage of the tournament, which is the US Championship.   With the help of Ed Edmondson, the Executive Director of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), Fischer was still able to join the next stage, although at the expense of Grandmaster Pal Benko who finished third in the said tournament.

And so Robert Fischer proceeded to the World Championship, winning the Interzonal with remarkable consecutive wins against other chess greats like Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen.  After defeating former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, Robert Fischer earned the right to challenge Boris Spassky, who was then the World Champion.

Already eccentric since he started competing as an International Grandmaster, his match with Boris Spassky in 1972 was again met with a lot of controversies.  Fischer again complained too much about the rules of the tournament, the location of the games, the prize for the tournament and a lot of other stuffs.  But amidst the controversies, the much-awaited match, touted as the “Match of the Century”, was still held.  At the end of the tournament, in September 1972, Robert Fischer emerged as the winner and gained the title of World Champion.

Robert Fischer held the title of World Champion until 1975, when it was time for him to defend his title against Anatoly Karpov.  Because of disagreements with FIDE, however, Robert Fischer never defended his title.  As a result of his refusal, the title of World Champion was given to Anatoly Karpov.  Robert Fischer disappeared from the chess tournament after then, and actually never played in public for about twenty years since his win over Spassky.

In 1992, Robert Fischer again re-appeared to have a rematch with Spassky, which Fischer eventually won.  But after the said match, Robert Fischer was again nowhere to be found.  Today, Fischer is said to be residing in Iceland with an Icelandic citizenship.