Chess champ Bobby Fischer has died in his adopted home country of Iceland. Here are the opening lines from selected obituaries:
“Bobby Fischer, the eccentric genius and high school dropout who became the only US world chess champion, has died in self-imposed isolation…” – The Financial Times
“Bobby Fischer, the iconoclastic genius who was one of the greatest chess players the world has ever seen…” – The San Francisco Chronicle
“Bobby Fischer, who died a melancholy exile’s death Friday at age 64, was that most perplexing of human characters — a protean genius and a repellent man.” – The Los Angeles Times
“‘They constantly use the words eccentric, eccentric, eccentric, weird. I am boring. I am boring.'” – The Ottawa Citizen
“There may be only three human activities in which miraculous accomplishment is possible before adulthood: mathematics, music and chess.” – The New York Times
“On the day after Bobby Fischer’s death it was clear that Icelanders felt they had lost a friend.” – The Iceland Review