Bobby Fisher, one of the most well-known chess players of all time, made his international debut in the Slovenian seaside resort town of Portorož, where he became a grand master at the age of just 15.

The year was 1958 and Portorož was the site of the Interzonal Tournament, a prestigious event where the best chess players from around the world went head to head with each other. Among the world’s grandmasters, formally attired in suits and ties, was a lanky, Chicago-born Bobby Fisher, wearing only a mostly sweater. (His biographer later remarked that Fisicher “dressed atrociously” at major chess events.) Fischer was invited to Portorož because he had become U.S. champion, the youngest in history, just a few weeks earlier. Still, few observers expected the unassuming kid to make major waves at Slovenia's most famous seaside resort.

Because Fischer was so young, Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić decided to take care of the 15-year-old during his stay in Slovenia. They swam together (Fischer exhibited his famous competitive streak by challenging Gligorić for a race) and discussed chess strategy. Gligorić was impressed by Fischer's knowledge of complex chess moves, including a variation of the well-known Sicilian defense recently played at an obscure tournament in Siberia. Unbeknownst to Gligorić, Fischer was spending hours at his hotel room analyzing the move and considering when to employ it against his opponents.

When Gligorić and Fisher finally faced each other at the tournament, the Yugoslav champion was in for a surprise. Fischer was unusually relaxed as the match got underway, even taking walks around the room while Gligorić was busy studying the chess board. It turned out that Fischer had a trick up his sleeve: When the right moment came, he employed the very same obscure chess move that they had talked about a few days previously while spending time together. Worse, Gligorić was caught totally unprepared for the 15-year-old's gambit. He had never considered that Fischer would attempt such a novel and risky move. The audience was stunned.

But the strategy worked, and it prevented Gligorić from winning the match. The game ended in a draw; Gligorić later conceded that Fischer played a better game. In another match, Fischer also drew against the Soviet master Yuri Averbakh, and later famously remarked: "I was afraid of losing to a Russian grandmaster and he was afraid of losing to a kid."

In the end, Fischer finished fifth at the Portorož Interzonal Tournament, became the youngest grandmaster in the history of the game, and qualified for the prestigious Candidates' Tournament. In 1962, Fischer again played in Slovenia, this time at the Alpine resort of Bled, where he caused a sensation by beating the top three Soviet chess players – Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, and Efim Geller.

In the years ahead, Fischer established himself as a chess superstar. By defeating the biggest names in Soviet chess at the height of the Cold war, he made the game glamorous - and a big business - in the West.

His personal life, however, proved to be his undoing. A genius with an IQ of about 180, Fischer was haunted by psychological demons. As he grew older, his paranoia increased, and was widely criticized for his increasingly strident anti-American and anti-Semitic statements. (Fischer was partly of Jewish descent himself.) He even publicly praised the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Sought by U.S. authorities for tax evasion, he was detained in Japan, his U.S. passport was revoked, and he ultimately moved to Iceland, where he was granted citizenship. He died in Reykjavik in 2008 – half century after he had introduced himself to the world as a 15-year-old genius in the Slovenian town of Portorož.