By Kristin Arna Bragadottir
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Bobby Fischer, the eccentric genius who became America's only world chess champion by humbling the Soviet Union's best but who spent his last years as a fugitive from U.S. authorities, has died at 64.
A spokesman for Fischer said he died after an unspecified illness at midday on Thursday in Reykjavik, the site of his 1972 victory over Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War.
Once feted as a national hero and seen by some as the greatest chess talent ever, the Chicago-born former child prodigy seemed unable to resist perplexing his public with angry gestures, decade-long sulks and outrageous opinions.
Having won the world title, he gave it away again to the Soviet champion Anatoly Karpov three years later by refusing to defend it.
After years of obscurity, he defied U.S. sanctions to play and beat Spassky again in former Yugoslavia during the Balkan wars. This was the match that got him into trouble and forced him to become a fugitive wanted by U.S. authorities.
Of Jewish ancestry himself, Fischer claimed to be the victim of a Jewish conspiracy.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks he said he wanted to see the United States wiped out. He spent months in a Japanese jail cell, and his last years as a wild-haired, shambling recluse after Iceland gave him refuge.
Fischer's triumph over Spassky ended the dominance of the seemingly invincible Soviet chess system. From the late 1920s to 1972, Soviets had held the world title for all but two years. Continued...
Dubbed as one of the world's greatest chess players of all-time, Bobby Fischer has died at the age of 64 from , according to his spokesman Gardar Sverrisson. He died in Iceland at a hospital in .

Fischer is most known for beating his opponent  from the then  in 1972, to become the first and so far only American world champion chess player. He became a  in August of 1958 at the young age of 15.

Fischer was also a fugitive of the U.S. after violating the terms of  sanctions by going to an island of the former country of  in 1992 to play Spassky in a rematch, and won. He was detained in Japan for nine months through 2004 and 2005, accused of trying to leave the country on a revoked U.S. passport. After his detainment he was granted Icelandic citizenship and moved to the country in 2005, instead of being deported to the U.S. by the Japanese government.

"Fischer was the pioneer, some would say the founder, of professional chess. His death is very sad news," said Garry Kasparov, a former world champion of chess.

Fisher was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois.