Bobby Fischer dead

[Esckey]

He was a smart man.....pity that he went nuts.

 

[philippe]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QryuMf8qZ0g
he is a mix between Abe Simpson and deep blue
Completely whacky.

 

[LightFang]

Oh, Bobby Fischer. If only your skills outside the chess board were half as good as your skills in the arena.

 

[Lone Wolf]

and became a sort of bizarre nazi.

Wasn't he quite Philosemitic at one point of his life? I remember reading something about that...

 

[bathsheba666]

Checkmate.

Stalemate?

 

[cthom]

inanimate. sorry.

 

[Verge]

Bobby Fischer dead at 64? How humorously appropriate.

I didn't see that!

 

[Stormrage]

So did they uncover his secret underground base or something?

 

[Emperor2]

RIP. I don't agree with his political ideas, but he was a chess player, not a politician, and he was the greatest of his kind. RIP.

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

'Political ideas' is really far too reasonable sounding a term for a man who believed in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.

But yeah, one of the Great chess players, but turned into a complete loon in his later years.

 

[Bamspeedy]

His website gives an insight to his insanity....the 'conspiracy' also included the Iceland and Japanese governments, Budapest police department and the Swiss Bank.

http://home.att.ne.jp/moon/fischer/

Oh, and of course Paul Harvey, too.

 

[Martacus]

I saw his picture in the paper today. He looked like the Unabomber.

While I appreciate his considerable skills as a chess player, and feel the whole 1992 match controversy was terribly overblown (he was playing CHESS, for crying out loud), I also think he was a morally reprehensible man who will not be personally missed by many.

 

[Richard Cribb]

I always had mixed feelings about Robert James Fischer.
On one hand some of his opinions, especially his anti-Judaism, was appalling, on the other hand he was clearly suffering from mental illness and, contrary to certain other people admired by many on this board and elsewhere, did not personally cause much harm and suffering to his fellow human beings.
On one hand there was this terrible hype about his chess, on the other hand while not being a genius in my understanding of the word he was one of the all-time greatest and one who meant a lot for the popularity of chess.
So RIP, grandmaster Fischer.

There goes an 'interesting' guy. Winning the World championship and then renouncing US citizenship. Maybe it was a reaction to the manner in which he won? Anyway, I sense there's an understory which I know nothing about.

While I think I am more informed about chess than most of the posters in this thread (as far as I can see only one strong chessplayer, Narz, has posted in it), I don't feel competent at all to make any qualified specualtion about this.

I didn't know that you could be so dumb, and yet still play chess so well.

Then I am afraid you don't know the chess scene very well...

So in short, Bobby Fischer died, and nothing of value was lost.

Oh dear, callous, aren't we?

It's kind of generally sad. He was a terrific chess player, but as he got older he went off the deep end and became a sort of bizarre nazi. (Literally, as he was extremely anti-semitic)

According to Donner, he was a great admire of Hitler in his teens.
Also, one can be an anti-Judaist without being a nazi.

Why anyone would have any respect for this man is beyond me.

I could say that about many others. Furthermore, one can respect his chess without respecting him. And; one can show a bit more understanding when the person in question is suffering form a serious mental illness. I am not a psychiatrist, but I know a few, and those I have discussed him with usually were convinced that he was schizophrenic.

A great chess player, may he rest in peace. May he be remembered for his actions on the chess board, not those outside of the game.

Exactly.

is there chess in heaven?

Is there a heaven?

As a chess player he was a genius. Away from the board, whether it was arrangements for matches or discussing politics, he was definitely straying over into insanity. As a person he was paranoid from an early stage, and was a plain revolting individual later on.

His chess games are well worth remembering - everything else about him is best forgotten.

Apart from the first sentence, I basically agree.

The guy was an embarrassment to chess and a coward for not defending his title against Karpov. It's too bad he was so messed up. He could have perhaps been an even greater player (instead of running away during the height of his talent) and become a fine human being who used his fame for good. Instead he become reclusive & hateful. Very sad.

I agree that Fischer feared Karpov, just as he also feared Botvinnik (he also pulled out from a match against him in the 60s, one he almost surely would have won as Botvinnik was past his prime). And of course, if he had grown up under other circumstances and got the required treatment for his illness, he might very well have turned out to have been a fine individual. Also please remember he was not a monster; I recommend Seirawan's No Regrets for a more nuanced perspective on him.

You can't blame fame, he was unstable from day one. Plenty of people who had to deal w/ early fame didn't end up so f-ed up.

True. Just to stay with chess, there are many prodigies who turned out to be great people later.

I was leaning towards 'disgust of being adored' or simple perfectionism/simplification as being the cause of his eccentricity, but it looks like he was always wild and:

I repeat; try schizophrenia.

He got beat* by a Polish/American Jew. Perhaps this all comes down to not liking losing and he couldn't let go?

*almost

This is about as wrong as it could get.
It was the other way round. It was Reshevsky, surely one of the meanest and unsporting grandmasters ever and who until Fischer came along had been a veritable pope in American chess, who was resenting and envying Fischer. Fischer dominated chess in the USA completely, winning all US championships he entered, even one with a 100% score, and he had a considerable plus score against Reshevsky in their personal encounters.
That match was abandonned because of a contorversy over the fact that the starting point of the games was changed. Otherwise I think Fischer would probably have won it.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

I have no mixed feelings. He was a hateful, paranoid, anti-semitic bigot. Maybe he was a genius and a winner at chess, but he was a failure as a human being. He was clearly mentally disturbed, but that hardly gives him a pass. He never sought help. And passed it up even when people went out of their way to give it to him. I can be quite forgiving of the 'crazy genius' who makes major contributions to humanity. But this guy played chess, he didn't cure diseases, he didn't reinvent the wheel. If he had never lived, America simply wouldn't have had a decade long stretch of actual interest in competitive chess. Not exactly changing anybody's world.

And its more than debatable just how good he was. He never played Karpov or Kasparov, perhaps the two most dominating players of the second half of the 20th century. He in fact went out of his way to avoid playing Karpov. Sure he dominated Spassky at a very young age, but there is no undying crown for one hit wonders.

 

[Sofista]

Apart from the first sentence, I basically agree.

You mean, that he was a chess phenom? But, as brief as his mature career was, he proved the sort of champion the chess world thought was lost since the demise of Alekhine: the all-conquering, almost unbeatable champion.

EDIT: some comments in this thread call for a clearer explanation of his renouncing of American citizenship, which happened in this decade after the US government decided to pursue him wherever he could be. Link.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

His website gives an insight to his insanity....the 'conspiracy' also included the Iceland and Japanese governments, Budapest police department and the Swiss Bank.

http://home.att.ne.jp/moon/fischer/

Oh, and of course Paul Harvey, too.

Zog owns the USA but Iceland and Japan is pretty safe from ZOG which is the best reason for living there. Anyone who has ever looked at credits soon realises that most of the media we consume is Jewish made and behind every politician there is a jewish advisor.

 

[philippe]

Zog owns the USA but Iceland and Japan is pretty safe from ZOG which is the best reason for living there. Anyone who has ever looked at credits soon realises that most of the media we consume is Jewish made and behind every politician there is a jewish advisor.

thats anti-semitism. Reported

 

[Quildavyr]

thats anti-semitism. Reported

Nope,he is a fake jew.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

thats anti-semitism. Reported

No I am just saying that they are very overrepresented in the media industry and politics. That means that they control our country. I don't find it strange that he dislikes this control.

 

[philippe]

No I am just saying that they are very overrepresented in the media industry and politics. That means that they control our country. I don't find it strange that he dislikes this control.