- Fischer was wanted in the United States for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992. He fled to Japan and was arrested in July 2004 for trying to leave Japan on a revoked U.S. passport. Thus, he was detained in Japan awaiting deportation to the United States. He renounced his U.S. citizenship and tried to become a German citizen, but was denied. Finally, in March 2005, Iceland's parliament voted to grant him Icelandic citizenship. He remained a fugitive in the U.S. until his death.
- Due to his anti-American and anti-Semitic statements, he became a controversial figure in the final decades of his life. He, for example, asked the editors of Encyclopedia Judaica to remove his name from the publication because he was not, and had never been, Jewish (1984) and denied the Holocaust in several interviews. On a radio show shortly after the 9/11 attacks, he proclaimed them "a wonderful news" (2001).
- Attended Erasmus Hall High School together with Barbra Streisand.
- Only American to win the FIDE World Chess Championship (1 September 1972).
- Born to Regina Wender, a naturalized American citizen of German Jewish descent, he was considered the son of her first husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist. They were married from 1933 to 1945, but some sources claim that his biological father was Hungarian physicist Paul Nemenyi.
- Inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2001 (one of five charter inductees).
- Inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1985 (one of two charter inductees).
- Became a citizen of Iceland. (March 2005)
- Even though he had a very high IQ, it is reported that he was a very poor student in high school and dropped out at fifteen.
- He reportedly had an IQ of 181.
- He developed a fear of flying because he feared Russian authorities might try to hide booby traps on planes.
- Awarded the title of Chess Grandmaster in 1958.
- In 1953, he played his first chess tournament at the age of ten at the Brooklyn Chess Club Championship. He came in fifth place.
- The episode Gone (2005) was inspired by his biography (2004).
- Being deported to U.S. for violating U.N. sanctions. (July 2004)
- He was homeless for a period of time when he lived in Los Angeles and would spend his days riding the bus between there and Pasadena.
- Died at the age of 64, ironically the number of fields on a chessboard.
- Has an older sister, Joan.
- The last movie Fischer saw before his death was Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007).
- He had a daughter named Jinky Ong, born in 2000, with his partner Justine Ong in Manila, Philippines. His daughter is his only immediate surviving relative.
- Moved to Iceland on March 24, 2005.
- Came to Japan in 2000 to develop a new chess clock with Seiko Inc.
- The 1984 musical "Chess" features an American grandmaster called Freddie Trumper. Despite his abrasive personality, he has had a lonely childhood brought up by a single mother. Murray Head, who first played the character, understood it had been based on Fischer.
- He and his sister Joan learned how to play chess at age six using the instructions from a set bought at a candy store.
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