Bobby Fischer - Chess Prodigy

Quixotic Grand Champion bobby fischer Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Fischer was the only American to ever claim the mantle of world chess champion.
Bettmann / Corbis

Serial Challenge
In an event staged to help finance his trip to the U.S. National Open Chess Tournament, the 13-year-old Fischer (right) took on 21 opponents, 20 of them adults, in a YMCA in Jersey City, New Jersey. He won 19 of the games, lost one and tied one.

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