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Chess legend Bobby Fischer is dead at the age of 64.

  1. Fischer was a schoolmate of singer Barbara Streisand when both attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.
  2. Fischer later dropped out of school in 1959 when he turned 16.
  3. The movie Searching For Bobby Fischer is not about Bobby Fischer, but actually about the life of another chess prodigy, Joshua Waitzkin. Fischer only appears in the movie in the form of archival news footage.
  4. Fischer learned how to play chess from instructions found in a chess set that his sister bought at a candy store.
  5. Fischer remains the youngest ever United States Junior Chess Champion.
  6. Fischer played in eight United States Chess Championships, each held in New York City, winning every one. This string includes his 11-0 win in the 1963-1964 championship, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament, and one of only a handful of perfect scores in high-level chess tournaments ever.
  7. Fischer was not only the United States’ first World Chess Champion, he remains the only American ever to hold that title to this day.
  8. Fischer first retired from chess in 1962 when he came under the sway of the Worldwide Church of God and began to believe in an imminent apocalypse.
  9. Fischer was once the highest-rated player in history according to the Elo rating system. He had a rating of 2780 after his famous defeat of Spassky.
  10. Fischer was arrested on May 26, 1981 after being allegedly mistaken for a wanted bank robber.
  11. In 1984, Fischer wrote to the editors of the Encyclopedia Judaica, stating that he was not, and had never been, Jewish, and asking that his name be removed from the publication. Encyclopedia Judaica complied with the request despite Fischer’s well-documented Jewish background.