After the Western Open in July of 1963 Fischer also played in the NY State Open in late August to early September and the U.S. Championship from December later that same year stretching into January of 1964. Between January of 1964 and August of 1965 Fischer didn't play in any big tournaments. He crisscrossed the U.S. playing several simultaneous exhibitions and also played some simultaneous games overseas. Two of those exhibitions were held in Michigan. One was in Detroit and the other was in Flint, both were in 1964.
It wasn't a good time for Bobby. Discouraged by the treatment he was getting internationally, he retreated into a cocoon. He got closer to Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and his income plummeted. He went from living in his New York City apartment to living at the YMCA to living with one friend after another, reportedly leaving a string of unpaid phone bills behind him.
In August of 1965 he would return to the International chess scene with a vengeance. In his first three tournaments he would win one of them and finish second by 1/2 point in the other two! That would be the last time in his life he would ever finish second in a tournament or a match -- unless you include the Sousse Interzonal in 1967 in which he withdrew after 10 rounds while in first place, or the time in Belgrade in 1970 when he played 2nd board in the USSR vs. the rest of the world match when he beat Tigran Petrosian 3-1 (2 draws).
In 1970 he qualified to play as a candidate to be a challenger for the world championship. Late that year he breezed through the Interzonal in Palma de Mallorca with 18.5 out of 24 points. His closest rival was Bent Larsen of Denmark, who won the only game they played at this tourney. Larsen was the only one to walk away with a full point against Fischer, in serious competition, until Petrosian would do it some 28 games and almost one-year later. In one of the most remarkable streaks of domination in individual sport in the history of the world Fischer would run off an unbeaten streak that included 23 wins and 4 draws! He did this not just against the top 100 players in the world but against those who were vying for the right to be the challenger for the World Chess Championship! It's a feat that will probably never be challenged.
Well, we're all the way up to the 1972 World Chess Championship. The biggest circus in the history of chess! Fischer was blamed for being a temperamental psyche-out artist. That's a label he worked hard to earn, I'm sure. But many chessplayers will tell you, and Boris Spassky would be at the top of that list, that Fischer did more to improve the playing and paying conditions of chessplayers than anyone else in the history of the world. When Spassky defeated Petrosian for the world championship in 1969 his share of the prize was $1400. In 1972 Fischer through his antics and negotiating tactics managed to drive the combined purse up to $250,000 plus a cut of the film and TV revenues!
This still wasn't quite good enough for the insecure and neurotic Fischer. He worried that the Russians would shoot down his plane on the way to the match in Iceland. He worried that he had left some money on the table that he could have hijacked the organizers for. He probably worried that something even worse could happen -- like losing the match! Whatever it was that worried him, he had a serious case of cold feet. President Nixon worried that the match would never be played, so he dispatched Henry Kissinger to expedite matters. Kissinger reportedly said "I told him to get his butt to Iceland". But those in the know claim that Fischer refused to even listen to Kissinger. Most people close to the situation say that it was his 'chess mother' Lina Grumette who was most instrumental in getting Fischer to Reykjavik to play for the championship. In an interview with Fred Waitzkin Grumette said that she had a private dinner with Bobby in Reykjavik. On a night when most officials were convinced that he would pull out of the match & go back to New York the next day, she relates what was said, "What I said to him wasn't anything startling, but it interested him very much. It was about the [Worldwide] Church of God, and after I'd spoken to him, he decided to play."
For whatever reason, he did show up to play the match. He didn't play well, snatching a pawn on move 29 that any class C player would know not to take, and on July 11, 1972 he lost game one. He immediately went back into his temperamental negotiation mode, he wanted the TV cameras removed, he wanted the audience moved back and the ambient noise reduced. When he couldn't come to terms with the organizers within the next 2 days he forfeited game two. They wouldn't play game three for 3 more days, and when they did it was played in a separate room with no audience or cameras. The psyche-out artist had gotten his way! Game three ended on move 41 with Fischer drawing a dangerous mating net around Spassky's White King that was sure to win material in a Queen & Bishop's of opposite color endgame. Fischer now had the psychological momentum back in his favor!
The match would last 21 games ending on August 31, 1972. But before it ended practically everyone in the free world wanted in on the act. Shelby Lyman, a little known U.S. master, became an overnight celebrity as his show analyzing the games from the match became the highest rated show ever on PBS. Ayn Rand, a philosopher/writer with a dedicated following, whose book "Atlas Shrugged" shows up in second place on a prominent list by the Library of Congress. In the list "Books That Made a Difference in Readers' Lives" it was second only to The Bible. That list may be accessed at: www.loc.gov Ms. Rand immigrated from Russia to the U.S. and was a staunch anti-Communist. She was so touched by the theater of the situation that, even though she barely knew how to play chess, she felt moved to publish "An Open Letter to Boris Spassky" with an ironic publication date of September 11, 1972. Ms. Rand's letter
First American World Champion
Paul Morphy, of New Orleans, in the late 1850's was generally conceded to be the best chessplayer in the world. This was before the time when chess was organized enough to list an official world champion. So, when Spassky resigned after making his 41st move in game 21 of the 1972 World Chess Championship, thus losing the match 12.5-8.5 Bobby Fischer became the first official World Chess Champion in American history. He came home a conquering hero.
There was an odd synchronicity at work in 1972. An American beat a Russian in chess, which was unheard of, and at roughly the same time, the Russians beat the Americans at basketball. This was at least equally unheard of. Since that time both countries have made inroads into each other's sport. What does this mean for the world? Who knows -- but maybe the world is indeed becoming a smaller place and we're all coming closer together.