[Jim Hayes]

Bobby Fischer, arguably the greatest chess player ever and World Champion 1972-1975 has died in an Icelandic hospital.

Both in his life and at the chessboard Bobby Fischer rejected the obvious choices and defined himself in opposition to the norm. It was this characteristic, allied to his fierce intelligence and brutal logic, which made his behaviour reprehensible and his views unsavoury, but it may also have been that which raised him above his contempories.

Fisher like his American predecessor Paul Morphy, also the greatest of his time, was truly 'The Pride and Sorrow' of chess.