Chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer was born Robert James Fischer in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943. He became the U. S. junior chess champion at the age of 13, the U. S. open chess champion at the age of 14, and a Chess Grandmaster at the age of 15. In 1972, he became the first American to win the World Championship title by defeating Boris Spassky. In 1975, the FIDE, the international chess federation, refused to meet his conditions for a World Championship match with Anatoly Karpov. He forfeited his title because he refused to play. In 1992, he played an exhibition rematch against Spassky in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. However, this match led to a conflict with the United States government… because Yugoslavia was under a strict United Nations embargo and Fischer never returned to the United States. He died of kidney failure on January 17, 2008.