Bobby Fischer, the eccentric genius and high school drop out who became the only US world chess champion, has died in self imposed isolation in Iceland of an unspecified illness, aged 64.

A distressed Gardar Sverisson, his closest friend in Iceland and part of the group that secured his release from jail in Japan in 2005, told the Financial Times: “Bobby passed away yesterday. He was a good and close family friend that we will all miss.”