Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer was an American chess Grand Master, and became famous for not only his victories in chess but also his somewhat stubborn approach to living life his own way.

He was born in Chicago on March 9, 1943; his parents were Polish Jews, but they had separated in Moscow before his mother moved to the United States. She was homeless for a while, but she moved Bobby and his sister to Manhattan in 1949. He won his first of eight World Championships at the age of 14, with a perfect 11-0 score, and this caught the world's attention. In those days premier chess matches were part of the Cold War, with Americans and Russians feeling intense competition over who would be better. But Fischer sometimes forfeited matches if the conditions didn't meet his approval, and once disappeared from the public eye for quite a while. Finally the U.S. government warned him that he should follow the rules of citizenship with regard to playing in certain countries, and he became an emigre. Finally he was granted Icelandic citizenship and moved to Iceland.

There was a controversy over whether Hans-Gerhardt Fischer was really his father, as his mother claimed; another man, Paul Nemenyi, had had an affair with his mother just before his birth, while his supposed father had never even come to the U.S. in that time. Nemenyi was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist, while Hans-Gerhardt Fisher had been a biophysicist. The controversy was never really resolved. The FBI watched Bobby Fischer carefully, since he traveled a lot and his mother had so many connections among important Russians and Eastern Europeans. But in the end, he was probably not a spy, just a very eccentric, and genius, chess player.


___ 1. Where did Bobby Fisher live as a teenager?
a. Chicago
b. New York
c. Moscow
d. Hungary

___ 2. Why was the U.S. government mad at him?
a. He was a spy.
b. He was born in Russia.
c. He played in countries that were prohibited.
d. He let the Russians win.

___ 3. Who was Paul Nemenyi?
a. a friend of his mother's
b. a great chess player
c. a biophysicist
d. a spy

___ 4. Where did he move after his chess career was over?
a. Poland
b. Chicago
c. Iceland
d. the United States