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Bobby Fischer Dead

Walk The Line

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Walk The Line
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
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One of the greatest chess minds in history has passed away. Though he is famous for his 1972 match against World Champion Boris Spassky, he became known in recent years for his anti-semitism and rants against the U.S. government.
 
Fischer was a nut in so many ways, perhaps merely eccentric in others. But man, could he play.
 
Bye-Bye, Wackjob.

He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish.
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As a boy growing up in the 60's, I read his chess column in Boys' Life magazine, and my parents bought me his books "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" and "My 60 Memorable Games". He was responsible for my learning chess, and I went on to become a USCF Master, though my rating never got much above 2300.

DAMN YOU BOBBY FISCHER! I SHOULD HAVE BEEN OUT CHASING GIRLS INSTEAD OF STUDYING THE SICILIAN DEFENSE!

No, seriously, he was the greatest player ever until his insanity took command of him. His crazy, anti-semitic rants were the result of a sick mind, but he should be pitied, not hated. I for one will miss him.
 
shemp said:
No, seriously, he was the greatest player ever until his insanity took command of him. His crazy, anti-semitic rants were the result of a sick mind, but he should be pitied, not hated. I for one will miss him.
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Yes, Fischer is somewhat of a tragic figure. Had he not developed what appeared to be a form of mental illness, he could have been the most beloved chess ambassador in history, particularly in America. As it is, he will be remembered for his descent into madness from the pinnacle of his sport.
 
Fischer reminds me a bit of the great Canadian classical pianist, Glenn Gould. Gould was also brilliant in his field. People argue whether Gould's two recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations are the greatest classical recordings ever, or merely the greatest recordings of that particular work (I have a friend who would argue the former). Gould was also in many ways a very eccentric, even troubled man, and like Fischer, died young, at only 50, though his eccentricities never plumbed the depths that Fischer's did. I have an old LP of Gould in a wide-ranging conversation about music with a Columbia Records producer, and he sounds like a perfectly rational, very intelligent, thoughtful, and engaging young man, far removed from the neurotic who wrote hourly diary entries about the color and shape of his bowel movements in his last years.

There's a saying that there's a fine line between genius and insanity. That's really not true - it's more like a vast, yawning gulf - but I wonder if there isn't some relationship. Are the brains of people who have stunning abilities in one individual area prone to being deficient in some other, more mundane area that affacts their ability to function socially?

Just wondering out loud.
 
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I wonder if Fischer was an autistic savant? If he saw a championship through to its conclusion, he'd usually win it, but he was just as likely to walk out in a hissy fit about the colour of the curtains. He was always both mad and a genius - only the proportions changed.
 
I recall stories I've read from chess grandmasters who frequent the top rooms in online chess games. They can always tell when someone comes in and pretends to be awesome, but is secretly using a computer, since computers play somewhat differently. But every once in awhile they'd play some mysterious awesome guy who wasn't a computer who they thought was probably Fischer. There were only a handful of people who could play at that level, all known to each other, plus dopes channeling a computer.
 
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No. Stop making excuses for him. Fischer did not suffer from any kind of "mental illness"; he was a dick, plain and simple. He is completely responsible for his actions and words.
 
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A Great Chess Player, perhaps the best of all time,but his reputation will rightly suffer because of his often obnoxious behavior and ,in his last years,he went totally batcrap crazy.
He reminds me of Ty Cobb,perhaps the best at his sport ever,but often contemtable as a human being.
 
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