A chess prodigy , he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of In , he won with an 11β0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since.
In , Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE , chess's international governing body, over the match conditions. Fischer subsequently disappeared from the public eye, though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged. In , he reemerged to win an unofficial rematch against Spassky. It was held in Yugoslavia , which was under a United Nations embargo at the time.
His participation led to a conflict with the US government, which warned Fischer that his participation in the match would violate an executive order imposing US sanctions on Yugoslavia. In , he was arrested in Japan and held for several months for using a passport that the US government had revoked. Eventually, he was granted Icelandic citizenship by a special act of the Icelandic parliament , allowing him to live there until his death in Fischer made numerous lasting contributions to chess.
His book My 60 Memorable Games , published in , is regarded as essential reading in chess literature. In the s, he patented a modified chess timing system that added a time increment after each move, now a standard practice in top tournament and match play.
He also invented Fischer random chess , also known as Chess, a chess variant in which the initial position of the pieces is randomized to one of possible positions.
