Chess legend Bobby Fischer dead at 64

CHESS: ICELAND, Jan 19: Chess legend Bobby Fischer, whose tortured genius earned him both worldwide acclaim and disdain, has died at the age of 64 at his home in Iceland.

"I can confirm that he died yesterday in his home due to an illness," close friend Gardar Sverrisson told AFP. Fischer was reportedly hospitalised for a period last year.

Einar Einarsson, the chairman of a Fischer support group in Iceland, said the cause of death was kidney failure.

"He was not a man who wanted to seek medical attention. He didn't believe in Western medicine," Einarsson told AFP.

US-born Fischer, who made world headlines by defeating Soviet world champion Boris Spassky in a celebrated Cold War chess showdown in Reykjavik in 1972, took Icelandic citizenship in 2005 to avoid being deported to the United States.

He was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992.

Considered by some as the greatest chess player of all time, Fischer's particular genius was a troubled one that saw his life run steadily downhill since his moment of glory at age 29.

He was said to have an IQ higher than Albert Einstein's and once thought his gift would win him undying fortune. He would make extravagant demands over matches in a way more commonly seen in boxing.

But while the theatrics made him a celebrity - and are credited with helping him unnerve his opponents - he also succeeded in alienating himself from all but a small band of friends and chess enthusiasts.