Chess genius dies

In 1972, Sports Illustrated published my letter nominating Fischer as Man of the Year for defeating Spassky after losing game one and having a temper tantrum and forfeiting game two. He was behind 2-0! This would be like a miler giving an opponent a 440 yd head start -- and winning! A mind-boggling feat in tournament chess. See the book Bobby Fischer goes to war : how the Soviets lost the most extraordinary chess match of all time by David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

But, yes, the man was eccentric to say the least.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Chess master Bobby Fischer dies at 64 REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64. Fisher died in a Reykjavik hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday. "Chess is war on a board," he once said. "The object is to crush the other man's mind." An American chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15, Fischer dethroned Spassky in 1972 in a series of games in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, to become the first officially recognized world champion born in the United States. The match, at the height of the Cold War, took on mythic dimensions as a clash between the world's two superpowers.