OBITUARIES : Lina Grumette; ‘Chess Mother’ Who Nurtured Bobby Fischer

Lina Grumette, a chess expert who nurtured Bobby Fischer during the years that led to his capture of the world chess championship in 1972, died Thursday in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of the complications of lung cancer.

Her son, Steve, said she was 80.

For many years she hosted a Memorial Day chess tournament--the largest one on the West Coast--and in her own right was considered one of the best women players of the 1940s.

Known as Fischer’s “chess mother,” Mrs. Grumette, a widow, kept the enfant terrible of chess at her home for months at a time. She encouraged him to seek the world championship from the Russian, Boris Spassky. Then she journeyed to Iceland with him and was there when Fischer became the first (and only) American to ever win the world title.

(Afterward, Fischer dropped from view and refused to ever play in public again. He is believed living a reclusive existence in the Pasadena area. He also turned his back on Mrs. Grumette and most of his other friends, accusing them of collaborating with the media and the Soviet KGB in what he viewed as a threat to his life.)

Mrs. Grumette for years ran a club in her West Hollywood home called The Chess Set. It became a gathering place for tournament players and other chess celebrities.

In addition to her son, she is survived by a daughter and a grandson.

A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park.