Text/Fast Wind
Do you play chess? Do you know which country in the world has the highest level of chess?
Pictured: Chess is 2,000 years old
That's right, Russia – the country of chess. The Russians' enthusiasm for chess is unparalleled in the world, especially in the former Soviet Union, when the level of Soviet chess players reached its peak, overlooking the mountains, monopolizing almost all world championships, and chess was also regarded as a national pride by Russians.
But a skinny foreign youth did a miracle: single-handedly snatched the world championship from the former Soviets.
Pictured: Fisher, America's greatest talented chess player
What surprised the world even more was that this young man was an American, a country without any chess cultural traditions. For example, an Eskimo swept a tennis court in the snow and won the world championship.
The young American boy was bobby fischer, a genius who was revered by later generations as "without any weaknesses."
One
Fisher was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, United States, to a Jewish physician, fluent in six languages and with a Doctorate, and to a Hungarian Jewish scientist who was the illegitimate son of an affair between the two.
Pictured: Fisher's parents
With such excellent genes, Fisher learned chess at the age of 6, disdained other things, joined the Manhattan Chess Club at the age of 12, won the American Junior Championship at the age of 13, won the National Championship at the age of 14, and won the championship for 8 consecutive times, and became the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess at the age of 15.
Pictured: Junior Fisher
Pictured: Junior Fisher sweeps the American chess scene
The young Fisher turned out to be a man of great chess, his chess style was gorgeous and ethereal, his calculations were precise, his willpower was strong, he never spoke easily, like a precision machine, sweeping one international master after another, including several Soviet masters, and the chess community spoke of him frighteningly highly: he was a genius prodigy, but when he played chess, he was a mature warrior, amazing calm, precise calculation and demonic wit. At that time, the master who played against him had a kind of "Fischer fear": nervous fear, crumpled suit, constant sweating, and finally miscalculated and collapsed.
Pictured: Fisher beat former world champion Mikhail Tal at the age of 17
Fisher began to rush to the throne, he wanted to win the World Chess Championship and defeat the Soviets.
During the Cold War, the Soviets monopolized the world chess championship for 24 years, and players from other countries had no chance to resist. In that era, the United States and the Soviet Union competed for hegemony in various fields, but in the field of chess, the Soviets were beyond the reach of the Americans, and the Soviets claimed to have a higher IQ than the Americans.
Finally, in July 1972, Fisher rushed to the top of the international points and got the chance to challenge world champion Boris Spaski.
Two
Spascher is 6 years older than Fisher, a talented chess player, the tenth world champion in chess history, one of the greatest players in the Soviet Union, very powerful, before 1972, Späsky and Fischer played a total of 6 sets, Späsky won 3 and remained unbeaten.
The final was scheduled for July 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland, with an unprecedented prize fund of $250,000 (at least $1.5 million today).
Can The American young Fisher defeat the Big Macs?
Pictured: Fisher singles out the Soviet Empire
Because of the characteristics of the times, the final was integrated into the background of the Cold War era: a lonely American genius challenged the Soviet chess empire, dubbed the "Battle of the Century" by world opinion, and countless media gathered in Iceland to watch the game.
In the first two sets of the final, Fisher fell behind 0:2. In the first set he was caught and defeated by Spaski in a dangerous move, and in the second set he was awarded a defeat for refusing to go out, on the grounds that Fisher claimed that the media photos disturbed him. In the third session, the organizers succumbed to Fisher's request: to change from the hall to a small undisturbed venue. Fisher won seven of his next 19 games, losing only one, the rest tied.
Pictured: Footage of the Battle of the Century in 1972
In the end, Fisher won the Battle of the Century, breaking the Monopoly of the Soviets for the first time and becoming the 11th world champion.
At the same time, Fisher also helped Americans win the "IQ" war, and many people later believed that Fisher was the most intelligent person in history, even surpassing Einstein. When asked by the media who was the greatest chess player of all time, Fisher replied: "Although some people say that modesty is a virtue, I still have to say, it is me." ”
Pictured: Fisher was featured on the cover of Life magazine in 1972
However, no one could have imagined that after Fisher won the world championship, he never participated in a major competition and died. In 1975, when Soviet chess player Karpov won the right to challenge for the world championship, Fisher refused to participate in the defending championship, and Karpov became the first world champion to "win without a fight".
So why did Fisher make such an unexpected move?
Three
Fisher was a chess genius, but in other ways he was a freak.
Fisher did not finish high school, he claimed that "the teachers are stupid, there is nothing to learn in school"; Fisher worshipped Hitler, opposed the Jews, refused to recognize his Jewish ancestry; Fisher was once intoxicated with extreme religions and did not believe in Western medicine; Fisher liked huge bonuses and repeatedly refused advertising invitations from merchants, and even refused to meet with US President Richard Nixon because he did not have an appearance fee.
Pictured: The Lonely Fisher
Fisher, who has a quirky personality, is most criticized for his chess likes to mention conditions. Every time he played a chess tournament, he would propose a series of harsh conditions: cost, venue, format, and so on. The reason why he refused to defend his title was also because he put forward three conditions that the organizers could not meet, one of which was that if the fight was drawn, the defending party would win.
Pictured: Fisher's unique swimming workout
Fisher is like a wayward child, dismissive of any rules of the world, living in his own world.
From 1972, when he did not participate in the competition openly for nearly 20 years, until 1992, fisher insisted on going to Yugoslavia (then sanctioned by the United States), where he was warned and wanted by the U.S. government, and for more than a decade he "fled" in a foreign country.
Pictured: Fisher in his later years
In 2001, when the United States was attacked by "9/11", Fisher declared in an interview: "This is excellent news, and I want to applaud this kind of behavior... I want to see America erased. Angered, American public opinion denounced the former "national hero" as a "public enemy of the country" the next day.
Fisher died of kidney failure in 2008 at the age of 64. Miyoko Wakai, a Japanese wife who married him in her later years, inherited his inheritance.
Pictured: Fisher and Miyoko Wakai (Master of Japanese National Elephants)
Pictured: Fisher's Tomb
Fisher is the most talked about historical figure in chess. On the one hand, he almost single-handedly seized the crown from the almost invincible Soviet chess empire, shaking the whole world. On the other hand, his personality is so strange that he has done countless strange things.
Pictured: The most peculiar chess player in history
To this day, many world-class masters consider Fisher to be the strongest chess player in history, and Kasparov, Russia's greatest chess player, calls Fischer "the most mythical figure in chess."