Bobby Fischer captured!

[pboily]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/07/16/545512.html
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Apparently, the chess master was on the run from the American authorities...

 

[shadowdude]

I read his book, I didn't know he was a criminal.

 

[Ben E Gas]

good. I'm glad. Why is he so bitter towards the Americans and the Jewish?

 

[cgannon64]

He's being arrested for playing a match in Yugoslavia, 12 years after it happened?

I know the guy is crazy (I heard him talking once about how September 11th was arranged by the government), but didn't know he was an outlaw...

 

[sabo]

He is a nut case

 

[Perfection]

He seems to be a little out of touch with reality.

Though "Fischerandom" sounds fun.

 

[gozpel]

Check mate.

 

[jack merchant]

He's being arrested for playing a match in Yugoslavia, 12 years after it happened?

No, he was arrested for trying to leave Japan without a valid passport. However, now that he's been located and is in the custody of authorities, the US can ask for his extradition for his violation of the economic embargo against former Yugoslavia ( he was even formally warned not to play there).
Guess the statute of limitations hasn't expired yet.....

Anyway, Fischer's is a sad, sad story

 

[insurgent]

Wanted at home for attending a 1992 match in Yugoslavia despite international sanctions, the American former world champion had managed to stay one move ahead of the law by living abroad and being sheltered by chess devotees.

The underground chess resistance movement helped him. They're a powerful lot. I wouldn't be surprised to see a clever jailbreak, perhaps with a Sicilian gambit to trumph it...

Anyway, I've never really had that much respect for that lunatic.

 

[Shadylookin]

No, he was arrested for trying to leave Japan without a valid passport. However, now that he's been located and is in the custody of authorities, the US can ask for his extradition for his violation of the economic embargo against former Yugoslavia ( he was even formally warned not to play there).
Guess the statute of limitations hasn't expired yet.....

Anyway, Fischer's is a sad, sad story

I don't think the Statute of limitations would apply if they knew he did it and put a warrant out for his arrest 12 years ago.

 

[crystal]

Considered by many the best chess player ever, Fischer, now 61, became grandmaster at age 15. In 1972, he became the first American world champion and a Cold War hero for his defeat of Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a series of matches in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The event was given tremendous symbolic importance, pitting the intensely individualistic young American against a product of the grim and soulless Soviet Union.

...

"He is a pathologically perverted anti-Semite, which is strange knowing his origin, and I suspect he is not appreciated in America. But on the other hand, he has done so much good for the country and was the only American to defeat the Soviet grandmaster."

Anyway, aren't Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik or Viswanathan Anand better players? Oh wait, they're not Americans.

 

[Riesstiu IV]

Isn't Kasparov THE best chess player in the world?

 

[crystal]

Isn't Kasparov THE best chess player in the world?

Depends on how you define it. Kasparov is the highest-ranking player according to FIDE's ratings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_chess_champion
http://www.fide.com/ratings/top.phtml

 

[Archer 007]

Sad news, IMO.

 

[Cuivienen]

Isn't Kasparov THE best chess player in the world?

Well, Fischer hasn't played in any formal tournaments since he resigned the World Champion position. Kasparov and Fischer have never played. (Kasparov wasn't even on the radar until he beat Karpov for the top spot in I think 1990.)

 

[Amenhotep7]

What a sad, strange little man.

 

[amadeus]

He praised 9/11. He should be shot.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Anyway, aren't Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik or Viswanathan Anand better players? Oh wait, they're not Americans.

Except for one game in 1992, Fischer hasn't played chess since the 1970's. He's been too busy being crazy. All the chess players you mentioned came well after that.

During his time, Fischer absolutely dominated chess to an extent none of the people you mention, outside of Kasparov, have come close to reaching. We'll never know who would win if they played each other, as Fischer is way past his prime, but he is generally considered to be one of the best players, if not the best player, of all time.

Of course, for some people, the chance to make an anti-American comment, regardless of their ignorance of the issue, is clearly just too great of a temptation. I pity you.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Depends on how you define it. Kasparov is the highest-ranking player according to FIDE's ratings.

Yes, Kasparov is the best active player. But, as said above, that does not necessarily mean he is the best player in the history of the sport.

 

[Plexus]

Good. Genius does not excuse insanity.