who was

[Jenni]

World Chess Champion in 1988

[andy hughes]

The World Chess Champion in 1988 was American Bobby Fischer.
Fischer was born in 1943 in Chicago, and developed an interest in chess as a child, that rapidly became a consuming passion. By the time he was seven, Fischer's mother was worried because he only wanted to play with other children who could play chess.
By the time Fischer became World Champion, beating Russian Grand Master Boris Spassky, he had elevated interest in the game almost single handedly, from a stuffy parlour game played by academics, to a passion absorbed by all ages and cultures world-wide.
Acknowledged as an eccentric, Fischer brightened the otherwise tedious spectacle of the live televised Championship by frequently leaving his seat, talking loudly, and even accusing Spassky of having planted psychics in the audience to interfere with his brainwaves!
Today, Fischer's whereabouts are unknown, although he is rumoured to be living in Budapest, and no doubt still playing chess, although he refuses any contact with outsiders who try to tempt him back onto the world chess stage.

[Lord Panda]

This is a contentious area. Some say that Fischer is still champion because he never defended his title and was stripped of it by FIDE, the chess governing body. That is a bit like the 'who is the world heavyweight boxing champ' debate - is someone stripped of the title still the true champ? Most people think not, it is whoever the governing body say is champion. Champion, according to FIDE, in 1988 was Anatoly Karpov, but only because they annulled his contest with Garry Kasparov the previous year when Kasparov was winning.