Bobby, Bobby

Controversial chess master Bobby Fischer passed away on Thursday from kidney failure. He died in Reykjavik, Iceland, site of his Cold War era showdown with Russian champion Boris Spassky. He was 64, as in the 64 squares of a chess board as one chess expert said. He was born in Chicago (on my birthday), grew up in Brooklyn, and later spent time in the Philippines. He became a citizen of Iceland to avoid deportation to the U. S. after playing a 1992 match in Yugoslavia despite sanctions against Slobodan Milosevic. His IQ was supposedly higher than Albert Einstein's. But his genius and talent were later overshadowed by bizarre behavior, anti-Semitic statements, criticism of the chess establishment, and outrageous comments directed at the United States. The American champion's personality in the musical Chess was loosely based on Mr. Fischer.