From Wikipedia:Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess player and the eleventh World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time.
Fischer's achievements are legendary. At 13, he won a brilliancy that became known as the Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a point. At 15½, he became both the youngest Grandmaster and the youngest Candidate for the World Championship up until that time. He won the 1963-64 US championship 11-0, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. In the early 1970s he became the most dominant player in modern history—winning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6-0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. According to research by Jeff Sonas, in 1971 Fischer had separated himself from the rest of the world by a larger margin of playing skill than any player since the 1870s.[1] He became the first official World Chess Federation (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) (FIDE) number one rated chessplayer in July 1971, and his 54 total months at number one is the third longest of all-time.
Fischer was a very interesting character - reclusive genius, a Jew who was an anti-Semite, virulently anti-communist and yet, in his later years, anti-US as well. At times he dressed very well but he also had quite a taste for sartorial oddities such as suits in loud shades of green and burgundy, for example. You might have read it already, but "Bobby Fischer Goes to War" is a very interesting and entertaining look at Fischer's early life, his chess and of course the highlight of his career, the Fischer-Spassky World Chess Championship in Reykjavik in 1972.
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