Robert James "Bobby" Fischer died from an unspecified illness yesterday in his adopted country of Iceland; He was 64 years old. In later years he became a controversial character, making anti-semitic remarks and even calling for the death of U.S. President George W. Bush- Despite his sinking into notorious hermitude, the dude could rock a chessboard. His highest rating (measured in July of 1972) was 2785, and Gary Kasparov even acknowledged that in his day, Fischer maintained the largest gap in skill between himself and his contemporaries ever.

He was the greatest chess player to ever hail from the United States, and served as a temporary triumphant icon in the constant cold war one-upsmanship between the US and former USSR after winning a fateful world championship match against Boris Spassky in Iceland, making him the world's undeniable chess super-hero.

As it came to pass, Fischer grew disgruntled with the US to the point that he even renounced his citizenship, preferring instead to become a citizen of Iceland, that frigid and fateful island where his largest life-defining moment occurred.

Personally, I think no pure genius comes without an often equal or greater madness- when this madness manifests is different in every genius. Sometimes it is called eccentricity, and is present from the outset in the child prodigy or quirky artist, but sometimes, as appears in Fischer's case, it comes late in life, and trounces mere senility by transforming a lovable hero and poster boy of cold war era US dominance into a seemingly bitter and hateful expatriate who eventually gives up on his country due to a delusional conclusion as to its perceived ruination.

Whatever happened to Fischer after reaching the pinnacle of his game during the match of the century, one year before my own birth, and on the soil of land I spent two years living myself is not possible to know at this time, but what can be known, is that he was a rare genius with a genuine passion for the game, and for those things, he will remain always, one of my favorite troubled heroes.