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Bobby Fischer Dead

As a child and a young man, Bobby appears to have been what we might now call a classic case of Asperger's Syndrome. These days, he seems to have become a paranoid schizophrenic. The form his mental illness has taken is amazing and appalling, especially given his mom. Regina was a lefty; Bobby became ferociously anti-Communist. Regina was Jewish; although Bobby himself may be entirely Jewish, he has become rabidly anti-Semitic.
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http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/001960.html
 
Checkmite said:
"Most assuredly", based on this anecdote? I see nothing to suggest it wasn't simply Fischer's dickish personality, even back then.
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Without mentioning names, people in the chess world who had medical backgrounds were convinced that Fischer was seriously ill. That was certainly the conclusion the Russians reached as early as 1967.
 
"Paranoid", yes - a side-effect of his overinflated sense of self-importance. But "schizophrenic"? That's a specific medical condition with precise indicators. I don't think anybody has come out with evidence that Bobby Fischer was hearing voices.

The notion that Fischer is "mentally ill" is based entirely on the virulent anti-semitic beliefs he has vocalized. In this modern day and age, we'd probably prefer that people who espouse those views had some sort of mental illness which makes them think that way, rather than try to understand how someone with a sound mind could throw off all reason and come to those conclusions.

But the fact is, they're just dicks.
 
shemp said:
Since you've semi-Godwined the thread, I'll take it the rest of the way: Was Alekhine a Nazi? by Edward Winter

You're right, Fischer would not have shined Alekhine's shoes. Instead, Fischer would have mopped the floor with him. Alekhine had his own problems, especially alcoholism. By the time of WWII, he was a washed-up drunkard who played along with the Nazis in order to survive. Fischer was a better and far more creative player at his peak than Alekhine ever was. Had they been contemporaries, a match between the two, with Fischer railing against his imagined enemies, and Alekhine staggering around and pissing on the floor, would certainly have been interesting.
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Oh, brother. Here comes that tired old crap about Alekhine and the Nazis.:rolleyes:

Long after his peak in his 30s, Alekhine had his issues. Put them both at their peak, and Bobby Fischer would still be wearing a tinfoil toupee, and Alekhine, blindfolded, would beat Fischer like a drum.
 
rtalman said:
Long after his peak in his 30s, Alekhine had his issues. Put them both at their peak, and Bobby Fischer would still be wearing a tinfoil toupee, and Alekhine, blindfolded, would beat Fischer like a drum.
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The stats don't back you up ..

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2354

It's mostly an opinion ( we all have one ) piece, but has Fischer and other players ahead of Alekhine..

Perhaps you have something more substantial to back up your opinion ?..
 
I see this as the tragedy of the two Fischer's, one an admirable, brilliant chess player who was among the alltime greats, and one a boorish, hateful person. Personally, I remember the Fischer - Spassky matches, and was fascinated with Fischer and his win at the time. However, what he turned into was pitiful.

Sort of like admiring OJ Simpson for his football exploits, but now...

I've read a lot on him since the Japan-move-to-Iceland events. By and large, the chess related info dealt with his chess exploits, but not so much with his recent problems. However, there was a wealth of info on his problems, along with audio files and such available. It's always a story of note when a formerly admirable person goes bad.
 
Diogenes said:
The stats don't back you up ..

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2354

It's mostly an opinion ( we all have one ) piece, but has Fischer and other players ahead of Alekhine..

Perhaps you have something more substantial to back up your opinion ?..
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Nope, it's just my opinion based on my study of the game.

Just like in my opinion John Elway was better than Bret Favre, and that Ali was better than Tyson. I don't think empirical data works in these scenarios.
 
Vic Vega said:
Good riddance. An anti-semite and Holocaust denier is dead. The world is just a little better than it was yesterday.
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Fischer was jewish and suffered mental illness. The world is not a better place than yesterday. I always hoped he would pack his chessboard up and become champion again.

Bobby Fischer was a hero to me. Anyone who mocks him proves they are simple minded. Life isn't simple.
 
I like this quote from the link I posted earlier ..


Thorarinson, President of the Icelandic Chess Federation [1]

"He stood looking out of the window in the Loftleider Hotel...In a rather weak moment, when Fischer was looking out of the window and said...

'The only thing I can do is to play chess'...and he seemed rather sad, but then there came a smile on his face, and he smiled and said 'But I do that rather well'
 
Senex said:
Fischer was jewish and suffered mental illness. The world is not a better place than yesterday. I always hoped he would pack his chessboard up and become champion again.

Bobby Fischer was a hero to me. Anyone who mocks him proves they are simple minded. Life isn't simple.
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That Life isn't simple does not excuse you becoming the crazed bigot that Fisher became in his last years.
 
rtalman said:
Nope, it's just my opinion based on my study of the game.

Just like in my opinion John Elway was better than Bret Favre, and that Ali was better than Tyson. I don't think empirical data works in these scenarios.
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To be fair, this site calculates Alekhine with a slight advantage..

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=10240

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=19233

72.9% vs 72.6% ( wins + draws/2 ) / total games

Alekhine has many more games in the database - 1,879 vs 938
 
Checkmite said:
Because he exhibited no signs of mental illness? Unless, of course, you want to classify Holocaust denial (for instance) as a symptom of mental illness.
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It depends on what you mean by mentally ill. He wasn't a schizophrenic, but his ability to live a "normal" life was pretty well non existent. He was clearly paranoid, and highly over sensitised to ordinary stimulus. Holocaust denial by itself is not a symptom of mental illness, but you take it with his other behaviours, and you have someone who was clearly not "normal". Someone has already mentioned a possibility of autism. I think if you take someone who is borderline autistic or aspergers, and hook them up with a game like chess that can be totally absorbing and obsessional, then you can make them completely dysfunctional. The USA vs USSR chess match between him and Spassky was a good case in point. He was used as a convenient foil in a game that was much bigger than he was. While he won, he was a hero, when he cracked up, he was discarded and forgotten.
 
shemp said:
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" ...
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I still have his chess colums from Boy's Life, and a well-thumbed "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess."

As for the Boy's Life column, Bobby was just one of the columnists. Bobby was set apart by the fact that he preferred algebraic notation over descriptive notation. Curiously, virtually all computers and instructors today use a version of algebraic notation (this was something Stanley Kubrick got wrong in "2001," as he had HAL play with descriptive notation). Bobby was also a bit more enigmatical than the other chess columnists.

As for "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess," I had hoped that this book would be the first in a series of books discussing key chess tactics. Perhaps Bobby would write a book describing pins and skewers, for example, or illustrating ways to set up knight forks and double attacks. Or maybe Bobby would illustrate common mating themes other than back-rank mates. Sadly, this book was the first and last of its kind. I wonder if the "true" authors of the book were game to make other books but couldn't convince Fischer to lend his name to them?
 
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