Bobby Fischer is dead

by Turkana

From the BBC:

The controversial former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, has died in Iceland at the age of 64.

The US-born player, who became famous for beating Cold War Soviet rival Boris Spassky in 1972, died of an unspecified illness, his spokesman said.

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported to the US.

Mr Fischer was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a match in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

He also had alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

I was a child and an avid chess player, when Fischer won the world championship. He galvanized the nation. The mystery surrounding his self-imposed exile from public life was part of the beauty of the underappreciated film Searching For Bobby Fischer. He should have remained in hiding. The more we found out about him, the worse it got. Many still consider him to have been the greatest chess player ever. If there's an afterlife, I hope his brilliant, deranged soul finds peace.