Talk about Robert Bobby Fisher and Morphy

Let's remember these outstanding players of their time, what do they have in common?

Both were exposed to strong chess players at an early age and had access to good books. The same can be said of Capablanca.

As Kasparov has said, "Hard work is talent".

Both were outstanding in chess and became more and more mentally disturbed, one can say batshit insane.

Quite true, the style of play is the same, but in his personal life did not develop, mentally were both unbalanced, then appeared then lost in the chess arena

I have never read of Morphy being insane.
About Fischer it has been said, but as far as I know never proven i.e. by credible reports from psychiatrists. Sure he was excentric and controversial, but calling him insane is slander if not backed up by proof.
Morphy, Fischer, Pillsbury and Fine were American, best player of the world and all four early stopped playing.

Bobby Fischer is better than Morphy.

@taliozder

They are both dead so I'm going to call them evenly matched...

However, Fischer was not "better" than Morphy. Fischer had all of Morphy's games, and all the strong players have after Morphy like Capablanca, Alekhine, Tal, Petrosian, Karpov and even strong computers and Kasparov towards the end of his life.

Not only that Fischer had indoor plumbing, and indoor lighting, and antibiotics, and air conditioning, and an automobile, and all sorts of luxuries Morphy never saw.

Morphy lived in a time before electricity.
Computers could beat the world chess champion at the end of Fischer's life.

Morphy had NOBODY of strength even anywhere near him to challenge him. He could give a knight to the next top 10 players and still be the favorite in his day.

Morphy had NO DATABASE of chess games.

Morphy had NO ENGINE ANALYSIS.

Morphy had NOBODY NEAR HIS STRENGTH HE COULD DISCUSS CHESS WITH.

Yet still, he was by far the strongest player in the world for about TWENTY years.

Fischer was a 1 shot wonder that went in beat Spassky, then chumped out and refused to play Karpov in spite of it having millions in prize money.

Both of them when they were super strong became a recluse and stopped playing the game out of boredom... Only difference is Morphy did not have Karpov & Kasparov come along. All weaklings came along folks he had to give odds to.

To argue that Morphy is better than Fischer is like arguing "Bill Gates is richer than John Rockefeller was. He got 80 billion and Rockefeller only had like 1 billion..." Ya, but you forget to mention that a billion dollars then was like a trillion today.

If we had a time machine...
Then we took Morphy in his prime, and Fischer in his prime.
Then we held gave them both 1 year to prepare for a match against the other. Then we had them play first to 10 wins match at gunpoint loser gets shot in the head... Morphy would win that by at least 5 points.

I've read vassi the Lord's answers what's that have to agree not to say who is the better of the two igrokov they didn't play together, Morphy was GeneAmp its that time of Fisher and more!!But do not envy their worldview and some irony is impossible!))Two geniuses, two left early not to say that they were psychos there are no such psychological conclusions, but the fact that were both like that yourself svoeobrazno the fact that on the face, and thanks to Fischer chess began to be paid not by books and real money prizes!!!With him began high fees. In the years of Morphy this was not.

70 years in the United States and around the world, Fischer was the strongest player. Morphy was in the early era of the champion without a crown

I believe it has been suggested that Morphy suffered with paranoid delusions that he had been defrauded by his brother in law. Morphy, if I remember correctly, had trained as a lawyer but could not practice until he reached the age of 21. Hence his visit to Europe to massacre the leading chess players of the time over a two year period. His practice failed, apparently because the public saw him as a chess genius rather than as a lawyer.

His apparent derangement was not caused by Chess. Neither was he ever declared insane despite apparent attempts by his family to do so after he clearly argued his point in law - suggesting a clear and lucid mind.

There has never been an attempt to section Bobby Fischer and it is clear he was considered sane enough to be tried and imprisoned as well as being considered an unwanted figure by the US.

Many of his views were strange, in my opinion, and downright distasteful. My opinion is not enough to get someone locked up in an asylum.

They were both chess geniuses, though, and chess is not the cause of their or anyone else's bad disposition. As we all know anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all.

They both stopped playing competitively but retained an abiding interest in the game whilst they could. Chess is not a cure for eccentricity or apparently deviant behaviour.

There is no cure for our mediocre obsessions with the personalities of genius, either, though a review of their games has been known to delight and to show the capabilities of human cognition through chess.