Bobby Fischer on 9-11


jts

Recommended Posts

Someone said:

1. Bobby Fischer was a genius. (at least in chess)

2. He didn't have a sane bone in his body.

Maybe these 2 facts were related. Maybe an imbalance of brain chemistry.

When Fischer was acting normal, his friends got worried about him. When Fischer was acting crazy, they said God help Spassky.

Bobby Fischer was always entertaining.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What if he just had a different opinion? I don't like that anyone who has very different opinions from the norm, or opinons that offend, is automatically crazy. He makes some good points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe Fisher was evading a US warrant and found protection in Iceland where he died. Something to do with a chess tournament in Eastern Europe and the IRS.

He was likely 75% Jewish and that likely explains his brianiacianism, but not his anti-Semitism which got worse as he got older.

--Brant

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In 1972, Bobby Fischer won the world chess title from Boris Spassky. In 1975, Fischer was supposed to defend his title against Karpov because Karpov won the candidates series in 1974. But Fischer chickened out and retired and tried to make it look like Karpov was the bad guy.

Fischer wanted the rules changed, first player to win 10 games wins the match, draws don't count. That kind of match would favor Fischer because he had more stamina than Karpov. He had this song and dance that it was a more fair match but I think for the first time in his life he didn't have confidence that he could win. In 1974, Karpov beat Spassky more convincingly than Fischer beat Spassky in 1972, in spite of the fact that Spassky played better chess in 1974 than in 1972.

The match in 1975 never happened. People have been speculating ever since what the result would have been. It was called the greatest chess match that never happened.

When Fischer chickened out of the 1975 match, Karpov got the title because Fischer didn't defend it. At first in the eyes of the world, Fischer was still the real world champion and Karpov was just a guy who got a lucky break. But over time Karpov proved that he was a worthy champion.

In 1985 Kasparov beat Karpov for the title.

All this time Fischer was in hiding and nobody knew where he was. There was a campaign to get him back into chess. They offered him millions of dollars and said name your opponent.

In 1992 Fischer came out of hiding and claimed he was still the world champion because he was never beaten and he claimed that all the title matches after 1972 were not legit. (Not a sane bone in his body.) He claimed that most chess games at the world level were prearranged like in professional wrestling and he said Kasparov is no champion and should be in jail. And the legit challenger was Spassky.

By this time both Fischer and Spassky were old and past their prime and the 1992 match was a joke but there was $4 million on it.

And the 1992 match was in Yugoslavia, therefore illegal. Fischer publicly spat on the document telling him that the match would be illegal. Seems to me they could have had the match somewhere else even if for less money.

Spassky spoke prophetic words in 1972. He said "I'm afraid of what will happen to him now."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tend to agree with Nerian, although in the case of Bobby Fischer, I believe there were lots of indicators of his "craziness" beyond the opinions he expressed in this example. There are too many cases of people who lean towards eccentricities being labeled as mentally defective somehow. But again, Fischer went a bit beyond eccentric.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now