Fischer's IQ is reported as about 187 from Stanford-Binet testing at Erasmus Hall High School in the late 1950s. Biographers cite it consistently, but the original record isn't publicly archived.
A chess set from his sister, a test at school
Robert James Fischer was born in Chicago in 1943 and raised by his mother Regina in Brooklyn. He learned chess at six from his sister Joan, and at 13 played the “Game of the Century” against Donald Byrne — a tactical sequence still taught worldwide.
School testing at Erasmus Hall reportedly produced his Stanford-Binet of about 187.
Education: the clubs, not the classrooms
His real schooling happened in New York's chess clubs and in books he taught himself to read in Russian. Each card is a membership.
Club president Carmine Nigro spotted him at seven and became his first real teacher.
Read every chess book it had, often several times.
Joined the country's strongest club at 12, playing blitz for hours with masters.
The home of John “Jack” Collins, whose library and coaching shaped his openings.
Brooklyn public high school; he left at 16 to play full time, without graduating.
Learned enough Russian to read Soviet chess magazines, then the best source of theory.
1971: the most lopsided run in championship history
To earn his shot at the title he played three Candidates matches against elite grandmasters. Margins like these had been considered impossible at that level, and have never been repeated.
In Reykjavík he beat Boris Spassky 12½–8½ in a match covered worldwide as a Cold War proxy — still the most-watched chess match in history.
Then he effectively disappeared. In 1975 he refused to defend under FIDE's match rules and forfeited the title to Anatoly Karpov. He never played another FIDE game.
Shuffle the back rank
Fischer proposed Chess960 to take opening memorisation out of elite play. Bishops stay on opposite colours and the king sits between the rooks, which leaves exactly 960 starting positions. Deal one.
His other lasting invention: a 1988 patent for a digital clock with increment, now standard in tournament play.
Rematch, warrant, exile
Through the late 1970s and 1980s he lived privately and increasingly erratically, giving large sums to the Worldwide Church of God and making provocative public statements.
In 1992 he beat Spassky again in Yugoslavia, 17½–12½, for a $3.35 million purse — breaking US sanctions. A federal warrant followed and he never returned to the United States.
He lived in Hungary, then Japan, where he was detained in 2004, before Iceland granted him citizenship in 2005. He died in Reykjavík in January 2008, aged 64.
Games still studied, books still in print
Beyond the Game of the Century, the Candidates run and the rematch: the rest of the record.
His first collection, published at 16.
A brilliancy so deep that grandmasters commentating thought Byrne was winning when he resigned.
The only perfect score in the championship's history.
A programmed-learning workbook for beginners; one of the best-selling chess books ever.
Annotated games, considered one of the finest chess books written.
Won by 3½ points, finishing with seven straight wins.
A rare Queen's Gambit from him; Spassky joined the audience in applauding.
“Chess is life.”
“I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.”
Timeline
Reading the 187
A real school-testing result of its era, cited by biographers. The record itself isn't public, and a 1950s school test isn't a clinical-grade measurement.
Sources
- Brady, F. (2011). Endgame. Crown
- Edmonds, D. & Eidinow, J. (2004). Bobby Fischer Goes to War. HarperCollins
- Fischer, R. (1966). Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
- Fischer, R. (1969). My 60 Memorable Games. Faber & Faber
- FIDE archives, 1958–1975
- US Patent and Trademark Office — chess clock patent (1988)