Play Chess Against Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer (1943-2008), the eleventh world champion and the most famous player the game has ever known, sits across the board. Set the strength, clock, color and starting position, then press Start game.

Play Fischer now

Portrait of Bobby Fischer — Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008.

Black · Bobby Fischer10:00

Choose the settings, then press Start game.

White · You10:00

Bobby Fischerhistorical player

Preparing the board.

Set the game on the right. Start unlocks the board and starts the side-to-move clock.

Set up your game against Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer stays selected. Choose the playing strength, clock, color and starting position.

OpponentBobby FischerStrength1500Clock10+5You playWhite

Opponent

Bobby Fischer remains selected while you choose the settings for this game.

Bobby Fischer1943-2008

Playing strength

Legend playing strength100-point steps

1500

1500Fischer, 1500 Elo target2600

Time control

The first number is the starting time in minutes. The second is the increment after each completed legal move.

Your color

Starting position optional

All chess legends

Start game locks these settings and begins the selected clock. Change setup unlocks them for a new game.

About Bobby Fischer

Thirteen-year-old Bobby Fischer studying the board

Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) was a Brooklyn prodigy who became US champion at fourteen and never stopped winning until he took the world crown. His 1971 Candidates run, 6-0, 6-0 and 6.5-2.5 against three of the best players alive, remains the most dominant qualifying campaign in chess history. The 1972 match with Spassky in Reykjavik made him a Cold War icon and the only Western world champion of the postwar era. He never defended the title, and the legend of the vanished champion followed him to his grave in Iceland.

11th world championBeat Spassky 12.5-8.5 in Reykjavik 1972, the Match of the Century

Perfect 11-0Won the 1963/64 US Championship with a clean sweep, the only one in its history

Twenty straight winsWon twenty consecutive games against elite grandmasters across 1970 and 1971

8 for 8 in the USWon every US championship he entered, eight titles between 1957 and 1967

1943
Born in Chicago
Born on 9 March 1943 and raised in Brooklyn by his mother, Regina. He learned chess at six and was soon spending his days at the Manhattan Chess Club.
1956
Game of the Century
At thirteen he sacrificed his queen to beat master Donald Byrne in New York, a game instantly named the Game of the Century.
1958
Youngest US champion
Won the 1957/58 US Championship at fourteen, still the youngest American champion ever.
1958
Youngest grandmaster
Qualified from the Portoroz Interzonal at fifteen, the youngest grandmaster in history, a record that stood until 1991.
1964
The perfect sweep
Scored 11-0 at the 1963/64 US Championship, a feat never repeated in a major national championship.
1970
Interzonal rout
Won the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal by three and a half points, losing only to Larsen.
1971
The 6-0 matches
Beat Mark Taimanov 6-0 and Bent Larsen 6-0, then Tigran Petrosian 6.5-2.5, the most crushing Candidates run ever.
1972
Champion in Reykjavik
Beat Spassky 12.5-8.5 despite losing game one and forfeiting game two, ending twenty-four years of Soviet champions.
1975
The crown forfeited
FIDE rejected his match conditions, so he gave up the title without a game and vanished from public chess.
1992
The comeback
Beat Spassky again in an unsanctioned rematch in Yugoslavia, defying US sanctions, and never returned home.
2008
Death in Iceland
Died in Reykjavik on 17 January 2008, aged sixty-four. Iceland had granted him citizenship three years earlier.