Child of the 70s, I heard his name spoken occasionally. My more significant introduction to him was in the movie and book, Searching for Bobby Fischer.
Despite the troubled nature of the man, I appreciate comments / anecdotes that continue to be shared nearly two decades after his passing.
I find him to be a complex character, and given his anti-Semitism, I would not be the type of person to admire him literally...
but otherwise, I would say that he is a bit like the Glenn Gould of chess in the way he changed the understanding of the game and made it more competitive with the USSR-USA rivalry
Brilliant Chess player, somewhat unstable and deranged unfortunately.
I thought that "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was about Josh Waitzkin.
@Mopman said in #3:
> Brilliant Chess player, somewhat unstable and deranged unfortunately.
One day, someone told me that "all geniuses are either crazy, or psychotic or mad, or even all 3" and "there is no such thing as a sane genius"
It fits Fischer's reputation quite well.
1972 World Chess Championship. ABC's Wild World of Sports. USA versus Russia. Cold War. Drama, Fischer imposed at that. I was fourteen and ate it up! Bobby was the king of the hill, the man, and the hero to many and not just limited to chess enthusiasts. At fourteen I knew I wasn't destined to pitch in a World Series, but just maybe, a chess champion? Well, nope. Nope! But Bobby was the icon of all icons.
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The onIy one to be at eye level to the US admin as an individual !! Bobby Fischer rules,no doubt about it. Never forget his "(...excuse...) the US "
on a Manila Philippine radio station in 2001. Who else on the worId could withstand US pressure. He is alltime hero,You mustnt agree folks, but this is the truth. I am sorry ,my US friends,but this is what has been told to me
"Bobby Fischer sentenced to prison" in absentia in 1992, because of playing chess, which was and is absurd !
What is "told to us" often needs to be independently examined.
Fischer was a terrific chess player, and a nice, polite kid.
Much later in life, I would not call him heroic. Nevertheless, and with reservations, it's hard not to feel kindly toward that brave kid from the fading past.
Chess owes so much to Fischer. He brought money and respect to chess. Great chess player, sad he didn't play with Karpov and left chess so soon. He became inspiration for a lot of players around the world and he still is. Good and a bit crazy man but with sad fate that turned him wrong and crazy to a bigger extent.
If we take young Fischer, a lot people chess players said good things about him and had good memories. I read that Tal said that Fischer was only player who visited him in hospital for example. He was always a bit strange, but not rude I think.
He became a bit schizo in his understanding of history later in life, and I think, he actually had some medical condition, but he was more or less harmless. People talk about him being antisemitic, but he had plenty of jewish friends, and they knew a way to deal with him, even when he already was focused on all of this "Jews control the world" stuff. So I consider him more or less harmless, some people just make out of him some kind of demon, while he wasn't a one. People should be more tolerable. This quote of Seirawan often appears in lichess tournaments that he is "most misquoted and misunderstood player".
He's got enough for his wrong behaviour I think. US push him out of his country for not following the sanctions and playing match with Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992 (While France didn't do same with Spassky for example) and tried to extradite him from Japan, before Iceland gave him asylum. In my opinion he was right, sanctions don't work anyway, but even if he isn't, why being so harsh on him and going after him.
And after all of this he became even more bad on everything and said some stuff that I don't even want to quote here ) But words are just words, US has free speech after all, and I still think he was harmless, and he did say sorry for some of the worst stuff (like praising 9/11 thing). Not like I excuse him, but he was crazy and i don't think it's entirely his fault.
