After having read interesting contributions in the discussion Bobby Fischer Dead I have remembered my own dealing with Bobby Fischer several years ago in the context of reincarnation chains. Because many readers may consider such a hypothesis as abhorrent, I start here a new discussion thread on the same forum instead of infecting the existing one.
In my opinion, in order to understand Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) one must deal with his previous life as José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942). The crucial tragical event in Capablanca's life was the loss of the world championship to Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946). As the most talented and until then unbeaten champion, Capablanca had to experience that a younger and less talented chess player had gradually but surely surpassed him.
Especially in the light of Bobby Fischer's behaviour when avoiding to defend his title against Karpov, I don't think that
After defeating Capablanca, Alekhine dominated chess and died 1946 in exile as world champion. Alekhine was reborn 1963 as Garri Weinstein (now Garry Kasparov) in Baku, Azerbaijan to an Armenian mother and a Jewish father. Reincarnation makes it understandable that Kasparov considers himself a Russian and that he stayed in Russia even after the break-down of the Soviet Union, when many native Russian artists, scientists, specialists and so on left Russia in order to try a better life abroad.
In any case, the top chess players are an ideal field to test reincarnation, because nobody can become a chess prodigy without having been a top player in a previous live. So it shouldn't be very difficult to find the previous lives of e.g. Anatoli Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik or Viswanathan Anand.
Cheers, Wolfgang
In my opinion, in order to understand Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) one must deal with his previous life as José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942). The crucial tragical event in Capablanca's life was the loss of the world championship to Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946). As the most talented and until then unbeaten champion, Capablanca had to experience that a younger and less talented chess player had gradually but surely surpassed him.
Especially in the light of Bobby Fischer's behaviour when avoiding to defend his title against Karpov, I don't think that
"Although Capablanca was clearly the leading challenger, Alekhine carefully avoided granting a re-match, although a right to a re-match was part of the agreement. Alekhine also managed to arrange that he and Capablanca did not play in the same tournaments for the next several years." (Wikipedia)
is the whole truth. A world champion cannot avoid granting a re-match to his most serious challenger, if this challenger does not somehow cooperate in avoiding the rematch. Yet Capablanca was frightened at the thought that he could also lose the rematch and unconsciously avoided the possibility of such a further humiliation.After defeating Capablanca, Alekhine dominated chess and died 1946 in exile as world champion. Alekhine was reborn 1963 as Garri Weinstein (now Garry Kasparov) in Baku, Azerbaijan to an Armenian mother and a Jewish father. Reincarnation makes it understandable that Kasparov considers himself a Russian and that he stayed in Russia even after the break-down of the Soviet Union, when many native Russian artists, scientists, specialists and so on left Russia in order to try a better life abroad.
In any case, the top chess players are an ideal field to test reincarnation, because nobody can become a chess prodigy without having been a top player in a previous live. So it shouldn't be very difficult to find the previous lives of e.g. Anatoli Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik or Viswanathan Anand.
Cheers, Wolfgang
