Past exam of the introduction to schemes course of the University of Oxford / 2017 / 2 / b / i

Put $C=\overline{\{z\}}$, where the closure is taken in the underlying topological space of $X$. It is nonempty because it contains $z$.

Suppose $C=A\cup B$ for two closed subsets of $C$ in the subspace topology. Since $C$ is a closed subset of $X$, both $A$ and $B$ are also closed subsets of $X$. The point $z$ lies in one of them, say $A$. By the defining minimality of the closure, every closed subset of $X$ containing $z$ contains $C$. Hence $C\subseteq A$, so $A=C$.

Thus $C$ cannot be expressed as the union of two proper closed subsets, proving that $C$ is an irreducible closed subset. This proves closure of a point is irreducible in every topological space; the scheme assumption is unnecessary. Equivalently, $z$ is a generic point of its own closure.