Posted on 01/18/2008 3:41:43 AM PST by Brytani
Brilliant chess player. Crazy person.
Fisher beat Spassky twice. The second time was during the War That Clinton Won and got under arrest in Japan and then bailed out by those guys who tax cow farts.
Good post.
...and good riddance. Burn in hell, you b!tch!
ML/NJ
His view of the world is completely incompatible with mine. He wants to talk about that all the time. What do you do with a person who insists the Holocaust didn't happen? – Jack Collins
You ask Bobby about chess, he answers about Jews. – Bobby Ang (on Fischer)
What makes you think you’re so pure? – Regina Fischer (to a young Bobby during one of his anti-Jewish rants)
No offense, but if you don't mind, I'd like to be paid in advance when working with Bobby. – Larry Evans
There was this growing dilemma in looking for Fischer. The more you knew about him, the less you actually wanted to find him. – Unknown journalist
Crazy is too broad. Bobby functions well until it comes to his pet peeves. He still denies that the Holocaust ever took place, and he blames a Jewish conspiracy for stopping him from playing chess for 20 years between 1972 and 1992. If that's not delusional, what is? Another sign of his mental state is that Bobby seldom has a good word to say about anyone and makes wild charges without a scintilla of proof. – Larry Evans
The reason Bobby has few old friends left is that he is a friend to no one. Instead, he surrounds himself with lackeys and bootlickers who stroke his ego. These people did him no good by egging him on in all those radio interviews. – Larry Evans
In my opinion Fischer had a dual or split personality. He had great chess talent and charisma but his personality was weak with too many flaws. If you like, it was like too much great wine in a small vessel. His personality was too shallow to carry the weight, the burden of being the chess messiah. – Garry Kasparov
He was too good. There was no use in playing him. It wasn't interesting. I was getting beaten, and it wasn't clear to me why. It wasn't like I made this mistake or that mistake. It was like I was being gradually outplayed, from the start. He wasn't taking any time to think. The most depressing thing about it is that I wasn't even getting out of the middle game to an endgame. I don't ever remember an endgame. He honestly believes there is no one for him to play, no one worthy of him. I played him, and I can attest to that. It's not interesting. – Peter Biyiasas (after losing 17 straight blitz games to Fischer in 1981)
Why do I want to give chess lessons? – Bobby Fischer (on why he didn’t have a chess trainer)
He has devoted his whole life to the goddess of chess. Because of that, he didn't develop in other fields. Perhaps the most difficult thing in life is how to accommodate other people, learning to live with others and respect their views without constant collisions. He didn't learn to compromise, because that wasn't his field. – Gudmundur Thorarinsson (on Fischer)
Those of us who were his contemporaries see it as one of the great sadnesses of our lives. Not even bitterness. Just profound sadness. – Allen Kaufman (on Fischer’s disappearance from chess)
Yes, this is wonderful news. It's time that the … U.S. got their heads kicked in … I applaud the act. … They will imprison Jews, they will execute several hundred thousand of them at least … blacks will go back to Africa, and the whites back to Europe … Death to the U.S. This is a wonderful day! – Bobby Fischer (on 9/11)
Fischer's comments about 9/11 undid a lot of great things he did for chess. Thousands and thousands of people know about his remarks. People generally think he's sick or crazy, that something is wrong with him. – Susan Polgar
If somebody took a filling out and put in an electronic device, he could influence your thinking. I don't want anything artificial in my head… I had all my fillings taken out some time ago. – Bobby Fischer
I'll gum it if I have to. I'll gum it. – Bobby Fischer (on how he’d chew food if all his teeth rotted out from having his fillings removed)
The guy needs help. That's what it boils down to. The guy needs serious, serious help. – Ilya Gurevich
me too....still love the game too.
Back in California, late 1960s, I think he placed extreme right wing flyers on car windows,
THen later on he got tied in with that World Church of God, the World Tomorrow, Garner Ted Armstrong, that bunch.
He was so developed at chess, he didn’t cultivate his social self,
But his defeating the Russians was a great victory for the USA and West in that time and age.
He had everything going for him to be a nice guy, but he wasn’t.
Some chess geniuses have been wacky and others have been mainstream, preparing to become world champion, he had a 3 bedroom apartment, spend the night in a different one every night.
He even has known and stayed at the home of the great chess family Pulgar with at least, despite Hungarian Jewish roots, so he was all mixed up.
The Pulgar sisters are the greatest in the world today but they learned a lot from their father primarily, Fischer happened to spend sometime in their household.
“Fischer and Paul Morphy. Two Americans. Two world champs. Two nuts.”
You are being a bit unfair to Morphy. He was a Southerner whose law career was ruined by his opposition to Louisiana leaving the Union in 1861. Morphy was wealthy, and the rest of his life was spent in uncongenial idleness. He was known for being a paranoid eccentric, but perhaps he actually had some enemies. Here’s a toast to Paul Morphy, World Chess Champion and American Patriot.
Whoa. What a freak.
Fischer was a super nova, a one-off genius. He won the U.S. chess championship in 1957 at age 14. He was clearly the most brilliant chess player who ever lived.
He was raised by his Jewish mother alone in Brooklyn after she divorced his British father. He was a brilliant, but lonely and isolated boy. He never went fishing or played ball or trains with his father or other boys, never developing the connections to the rest of the world that a boy needs to develop. Maybe girls rarely excel at chess because they are so much naturally better at life.
He hated school (good for him) and held his teachers in utter contempt (better). He said he could spot any teacher in his high school a rook.
He never mastered any field except chess. Many world chess champions hold Ph.D.'s or are successful in other fields. Bobby only knew chess. He was lost away from the chessboard. Early proclaimed a prodigy, devoid of family attachments, with age he became increasingly bitter and isolated.
He lashed out at America and Jews and embraced Islamic fanatics for the same reason that Norm Chomsky does: they failed to love him as unconditionally and fervently as he demanded.
I certainly didn't wish that he burnt in hell.
I suppose we should not wish anything bad on someone who wanted to kill US Jews and wished all US citizens ill-will.
Indeed. I'm just a sinner; how is it my place to pass judgment on those around me?
Bobby Fischer was a genius and a deeply troubled individual. Perhaps in death, he can find himself well again.
How was Morphy a nut? I don’t know much of his biography.
I learned chess because of Bobby Fischer.
Rest in Peace...next move will always remain yours.
This is a bit off topic, but this description reminded me of the great sports quotes of all time, by Vitas Gerulaitis after having finally beaten Jimmy Connors after losing 16 matches in a row:
"Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row."
I hope they are all jewish.....
Did Fisher write any books of note? I remember reading a couple
from Horowitz and a couple about Fisher.
This book by Reinfeld taught me more about chess than any other.
It could have been killdschaap or killjschaap.
Gerulaitas’ death was so sad.
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