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In the 1960s, there wasn’t a more popular chess player in the world than Bobby Fischer. The youngest chess grandmaster in the world, Fischer easily won first the U.S. championships, then the world chess championship. His adult and titled opponents called him “the Corduroy Killer.” How come the chess genius Bobby Fischer turned into an antisemitic conspiracy theorist rejected by all at the end of his life?
In this episode of How It Was, we remember Bobby Fischer, the most famous and the most controversial chess player of the 20th century. You will learn how Fischer broke the monopoly of the USSR and defeated Boris Spassky in the “game of the century”, and how he lost his world chess championship title by not showing up for the match with Anatoly Karpov. We will tell you how Fischer almost went to jail for robbing a bank, why he had to hide from American justice at the end of his life, and why Fischer spent his last years in Iceland.

Watch this video in Russian language:

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Photos used:
Everett Collection / East News, RAYMOND BRAVO PRATS / CC BY-SA 4.0, ASSOCIATED PRESS/East News, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B0628-0015-035 / Heinz Junge / CC-BY-SA 3.0, F.N. Broers / Anefo, Joost Evers / Anefo, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Stevan Kragujević / CC BY-SA 3.0 rs, Rob Mieremet / Anefo, Harry Pot / CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, Eric Koch / Anefo / CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, Rob Croes / Anefo, J. WALTER GREEN / Associated Press, TheConduqtor / CC BY-SA 3.0, Rob Bogaerts / Anefo, Milos Vukadinovic / A.P./East News, AFP / East News, AFP, KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP, GUDMUNDUR VIGFUSSON / AFP

Videos used:
We the People (ca. 1972) / US National Archives / Creative Commons – Attribution

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