Youngest Chess Master in U.S.

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Life Magazine, October 07, 1957

Caption: At the Manhattan Chess Club Robert Fischer, 14, takes on a group of senior members simultaneously. He beat them all in half an hour.

Youngest Chess Master in U.S.
At the age of 14 Robert Fischer of Brooklyn, N.Y. has already reached the top in one of the most arduous of all intellectual pastimes. He is the U.S. Open chess champion, having defeated most of the country's top adult players in the Open Championship Tournament in Cleveland this summer, and has been admitted into the exclusive company of full-fledged chess masters, the youngest American ever to achieve this.
Robert learned chess from his sister when he was 6. For seven years he quietly studied the game, playing with friends, poring over chess books in five languages which he learned just well enough to follow the moves of classic games. Last year he entered his first big tournament, the U.S. Junior Championship, and won in a walk. Today he spends every minute he can in the Manhattan Chess Club, where he takes on veterans several times his age, and with scarcely concealed relish beats them all.
Except for his chess, Robert is a normal boy who gets good grades in school. His mother, who used to worry when she saw him hunched over his chess board at home, is getting to like her new role as his manager. This winter, if the money can be raised, Robert may travel to England or Russia, where he has been invited to play in international matches.

Caption: FIDGETY CHAMPION concentrates on game with Philippine junior champion Rodolfo Cardoso in a match at the Manhattan Club. Fischer played a self-confident, daring and aggressive game, but Cardoso's defense held firm and after five hours the game was a draw. Fischer won the series and a $325 prize.

Caption: MATERNAL SUMMONS to dinner in their Brooklyn apartment interrupts a problem Fischer is working out on his chessboard. Mrs. Fischer is completely certain that he can someday become world champion. “The sooner the better,” she says. “Then he can get over all this and get down to some real work.”