CHESS LEGEND BOBBY FISCHER DIES AT 64

[bigworld]

Source: France 24



CHESS LEGEND BOBBY FISCHER DIES AT 64

US-born chess legend Bobby Fischer has died at age 64, according to Iceland's national radio. Fischer defeated Russia's Boris Spassky in a famous Cold War face-off held in Reykjavic in 1972.


No link yet.

[The Straight Story]

1. Thanks - there are 2 links on my thread in GD:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7195840.stm

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijDA5bgxiHlTvS_r-SSj...

[liberal N proud]

2. Chess champion Bobby Fisher died

Source: MSNBC

.

No link yet.

---

Breaking on MSNBC Bobby Fisher died

[xchrom]

3. the end of an era -- Peace be with his family and friends.

[bluestateguy]

4. He was an anti-Semetic dick who applauded the 9/11 attacks

Fuck him.

[RebelOne]

5. Please supply some proof of that statement.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Some stuff here

Radio interview after the September 11, 2001, attacks
Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live<51> by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio City station of the Bombo Radyo network, shortly after midnight September 12, 2001 Philippines local time (or shortly after noon on September 11, 2001, New York time). Fischer commented on U.S and Israeli foreign policy that "nobody cares ... the US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years".<52> <53> Informed that "the White House and Pentagon have been attacked", he proclaimed "This is all wonderful news."<52><53> Fischer stated "What goes around comes around even for the United States"<52><53> and said that if the U.S. fails to change its foreign policy, it "has to be destroyed." After calling for President Bush's death, Fischer also stated he hoped for a coup d' etat in the U.S., and that the military government would then execute "hundreds of thousands of American Jewish leaders", "arrest all the Jews", and "close all synagogues".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

What goes around does indeed come around.

Can't figure why he should be anti-semitic given the spelling of his family name.

[Teaser]

14. Because he was mentally ill

and had been for a long time.

Context, people. Context.

[ohio2007]

46. So what you are saying is people who hate jews are mentally ill ?

interesting theory with proof to back it up;

Hezbollah taunts Israel with 'body parts'

HASSAN Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief and one of Israel's most wanted men, appeared in public for a Shi'ite religious event in the Lebanese capital for the first time in more than a year.

In a fiery speech, Mr Nasrallah said that his Lebanese Shi'ite militant group had the heads and body parts of soldiers that the Israeli army had abandoned.

"We have the heads, the hands, the feet and even a nearly intact cadaver from the head down to the pelvis," he said.

Mr Nasrallah has been Israel's top public enemy since his Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite militant group fought a deadly month-long war against the Jewish state in the summer of 2006.

snip

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,230780...

I wonder when they release that video to the western MSM

[Teaser]

49. No, I'm saying Bobby Fischer is mentally ill

He suffered from paranoid delusions for years. This is not a closely kept secret.
These took the unfortunate form of anti-semitic conspiracy theories.

[boricua79]

16. "what goes around comes around even for the United States"

that's his big crime...thinking that 9/11 was karma whipping back at the United States after a century of unpaid debt to karma?

As for his "anti-semitism", I don't think he hated Jews (his own mother was Jewish). I think the man was trying to make sense of the unexplainable, irrational policies of his government and he fell prey to some of the fringe stuff that passes for "explanations" on the left. Just like many good Germans did under the Nazi regime.

Some people are unable to distinguish their hatred for the powerful Israeli lobby and Judaism. They hate the Israeli lobby...they hate the undue influence Israel and its Jewish supporters have here in U.S. policy, but cannot effectively distinguish between that hatred and all Jews. An example of a Jewish man who has been able to do that would be Noam Chomsky, who writes similar political positions regarding the State of Israel and its actions, but does not condemn Jews or anyone else.

The man was an eccentric even from day one. It's possible that the same disbalance in his brain that gave him the genius to play Chess so effectively rendered him ineffective in being able to distinguish some aspects of reality.

I pity him...more than hate him. And I hope that with the Creator he now understands that things weren't as black and white as he thought they were.

Farewell to a great Chess player.

[DemIdeals]

38. his father was jewish as well. the guy ran away

but by all accounts he was also jewish. so the guy is 100% jewish. and yes he did hate jews. don't tell me that jews can't be self-hating- they can. being jewish doesn't shield you from charges of being anti-semitic. in fact it's more disgusting when a jew is an anti semite because they're hating their own people.

fuck fischer

i'm glad he's dead

i would piss on his grave if i got the chance. i'm not joking. he is an absolute piece of garbage and i am so glad he's dead. people who are crying over his death- i'm honestly glad they're crying. it makes me happy inside, because he was a piece of garbage and no one should feel sorry for him.

it wasn't just being anti-zionism. i can distinguish between anti-zionism and anti-semitism, bud. the guy talked about jewish conspiracies and jewish criminals coming to kil him. fuck him

i don't believe in a creator, but i can almost assure you that if there is, he is rotting in hell, where he belongs.

[burrowowl]

39. Very eloquent post

I agree with you.

[LostinVA]

9. Bluestateguy is right

I thought what he wrote, I just decided not to post it.

[Teaser]

13. He had real mental problems dude.

You kick cripples for an encore?

[Guaranteed]

42. He really did- he was mentally ill. He was holed up studying chess for years and years.

Not difficult to imagine that that was either the result or the cause.

[ohio2007]

48. No wonder the Russians arrested Kasparov, opponent for trying to run for president.

a chess nut in charge of all those loose nukes.....

/sarc

[Eugene]

6. Reuters: Former chess champion Bobby Fischer dies

Source: Reuters

Former chess champion Bobby Fischer dies
Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:34am EST

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Former world chess champion Bobby
Fischer has died of an unspecified illness, a spokesman for
the late champion said on Friday. He was 64.

Fischer, who beat Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 to become
world champion, was considered by some chess experts to be
the greatest player of all time.

A spokesman for Fischer confirmed the death in a phone call.
The American-born Fischer had settled in Iceland in 2005 and
was later granted Icelandic citizenship.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL18708922200...

[Burma Jones]

8. Good Bye to a disturbed loon

A Quote from the AP article:

"Over the years, Fischer gave occasional interviews with a radio station in the Philippines, often digressing into anti-Semitic rants and accusing American officials of hounding him. He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[LanternWaste]

10. The guy was an absolute character

The guy was an absolute character, but he did bring chess to the forefront of the American conscious.

This is the time when we have to separate the art from the artist. He had a pocketful of (sometimes willfully) anti-social behavior, but he was a genius in front of the board.

I read a biography of his some years back and while I have little respect for the man as a human being , I am in awe of his genius.

[dingaling]

15. What did he do wrong as a human being???

Was he responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Did he influence anyone to go out a commit crimes against a certain groups of people? Was he indirectly responsible for any bad thing happening to anyone anywhere? Hate (in my opinion) is more human than love. Fischer was a crazy genius. His ramblings point to that. If he didnt sympathise with 911 so what? His sympathy or lack thereof did not make any difference to anyone. What he needs to remembered for is his genius and not for stupid statements he made.

[LanternWaste]

17. He was an antisemitic.

"What did he do wrong as a human being???"
He was an antisemitic. To disparage and to denigrate anyone for reasons of religion, ethnicity, sex and/or age convinces me to lose respect for that person.

"What he needs to remembered for is his genius"
Which is why I wrote that in this instance, we must separate the art from the artist.

"and not for stupid statements he made."
However, if we take the man at his own value, and his statements are part and parcel of who is is, then we would do well to remember what he said.

I see Bobby the Chess player.

I also see Bobby the antisemitic. Admiration of the one does not require admiration of the other.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Unfortunately , he was obviously mentally ill to some degree

This apparently led him to accept paranoid conspiracy theories about the Jews (although he was actually ethnically Jewish himself) and about the Americans.

He was not the only person who has combined genius in one area, with poor mental functioning in others.

It's sad that he died relatively young, and also sad that his mind that was so brilliant in some areas was so impaired in others.

[edbermac]

23. Agreed. I mentioned John Nash in a previous post.

I would not be surprised if Bobby also suffered from schizophrenia.

[AnneD]

27. I remember....

that diagnosis being bandied about every now and again. He was master of the board but had difficulty mastering his own life.

Because of him-I have played and taught chess. It has helped me greatly and I thank him for that. I am sorry he had the life he did but it only adds to his legend.

Farewell Bobbie Fischer.

[Joe Bacon]

11. What could have been...

I remember his match with Spassky in 1972. His challenge to the Soviet establishment is what got me interested in chess and I was an avid correspondence player for 20 years. Yes I am in awe of his popularization of the "Posioned Pawn" Najodorf Sicilian, but it is such a shame that he went off the deep end of Antisemitism the same way Alekhine did.

I actually bumped into him twice in the early 80s here in Los Angeles. It was so sad to hear the garbage bubbling out of his mouth.

I wonder if deep down, he withdrew into his bizarro world because he knew that Karpov would have beaten him in 1975. So sad

[happyslug]

18. Fisher put some "Zest" into Chess.

I remember reading in the early 1980s that the Russians Chess Players were saying Chess needed another Bobby Fisher just to shake it up again. This was AFTER the Russians had changed the rules to make it hard for Fisher to retain his title in the mid-1970s, which was the technical reason he lost the title at that time. Fisher was a little nutty even in his youth, the Russians always claimed the reason he won was he would move his body while it was the other sides turn, breaking his opponent's concentration. Thus his later mental problems can be seen in his win over the then Russian Chess Champion. Just comments on Fisher based on what I have read over the years.

[Joe Bacon]

44. I really think he suffered from Asperger's

His behavior fit the Asperger profile completely. So totally obsessed with chess and unable to deal socially with anyone else. I really believe the antisemitism was the vector he used to keep people away. He really needed treatment, but sadly, we can't make someone get treatment if they don't want it.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Sad end to a brilliant but lost soul.

The young Fischer was an incredible talent, the last half of his life was a prolonged horrible pathetic decline.

[edbermac]

19. Holy shit! I don't believe it!

Really admired him as a player. As a human being however, he had some major problems. Some compared him to John Nash of A Beautiful Mind fame, the math genius who battled schizophrenia.

Rest In Peace, Bobby.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. RIP, champ

Okay, he was a lunatic. He's also one of the two or three greatest chess players of all time.

Chessgames.com: 938 games of Bobby Fischer.

[Guaranteed]

41. The best.

I am stunned and saddened.

[hunter]

22. Bobby Fischer suffered a mental illness. And he was a brilliant chess player.

There's no sense in looking for meaning in the the vile words he spewed, other than to recognize them as a symptom of his illness.

People with similar illnesses will latch onto the hatreds of the society that surrounds them. These hatreds might be misogyny, homophobia, or racism. They might end up hating their own loving and caring families. Others will find evil in imaginary things.

If Fischer had claimed persecution by invisible demons from another dimension it would be very clear to everyone that he was insane. If Fischer hated cats and claimed they were evil minions of the devil who were poisoning his food we would also recognize his insanity.

Unfortunately Fischer's malfunctioning mind absorbed and amplified the anti-Semitism of the society surrounding him. In a sense he was a mirror who magnified something so horrible and ugly about human society that we we want to turn away and blame him, Bobby Fischer, for his own cruel illness.

But he was a brilliant chess player.

[Davis_X_Machina]

24. The Ty Cobb of chess -- another crazed American bastard genius

His twenty-win run -- no draws! -- against absolutely top competition in 1970-71, including Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian -- will never be duplicated.

[LanternWaste]

25. This is what bothers me...

This is what bothers me...

He was mentally ill-- o-kay, so we cut him some slack for that. And as medical science progresses, we find that more and more of these so-called anti-social behaviors are more a faulty synapse in the brain or some such than anything else. All perfectly rational, valid and reasonable explanations to me.

yet what happens if we end up finding out down the road of time that the vast majority of anti-social behaviors (pedophilia, rape, abuse, rage, etc) are cut from the same fundamental mental illnesses? What happens if in one hundred years we actually find ways to diagnose and treat these problems?

Will that advanced society look at us the way we look at the witch-hunts? Will they see us as barbaric and small minded they same way we perceive ancient mans fear of the physically crippled-- calling them monsters and devils the same we we call rapists monsters and devils?

I certainly have no answers, but it's a train of thought that has disturbed me for quite some time ever since the question was posed to me.

It's all just an aside to the OP, but sometimes I think it's worth some thought...

[bean fidhleir]

28. You're not alone, if that's any consolation.

There are at least some who reflect on the same historical trend.

Of course, it's a bit like being a Nazi concentration camp guard: they strut around at the time, enjoying the power trip...but afterwards? Afterwards, nobody even knows what "concentration camp guard" means, never mind having been one.

[More Than A Feeling]

26. He was a nutjob, but still one of the greatest chess masters of all time.

And its not like he's the only great to ever go off his rocker. The second greatest American chess legend, Paul Morphy, also lost it in his last years.

[Guaranteed]

43. He was the best.

He did things on the board no one else would ever, ever have thought of.

[Bonobo]

29. Controversial chess champion Bobby Fischer dies in city of his greatest triumph

Source: Hampshire Gazette

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.

Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.

Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century.

But his reputation as a genius of chess soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies.

A few years after the Spassky match, he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it.

Read more: http://www.gazettenet.com/newsroom/index.cfm/2008/1/18/...

---

Interesting guy.

[TomClash]

30. Not really

Very bizarre views on "race" and truly a troubled soul. But one of the finest players to have played the game. Ever.

[cloudythescribbler]

32. I played him once in a round robin -- he beat some 20 odd players, many masters, in 40 odd minutes

I am just a schlumpy player, but many of the others were VERY serious ones

[TomClash]

33. Spassky and Karpov are much nicer people . . .

. . . and Fischer-Karpov would have been a tough match.

[lapfog_1]

31. I'm sad, but Bobby was lost to mental illness a long time ago.

Possibly the best chess player to every play the game. Inspired me (and thousands of other kids) to seriously take up chess in my early teen years, which led to me being a decent player, able to beat one grandmaster one time (he was having personal life issues, I played my best game), only to have my ass handed to me by a russian grandmaster (he was playing 30 people in a simultaneous match play exhibition. I played him to a draw, he won the other 29 matches and I knew he would have wiped the floor with me in a real match).

Still, Bobby was the best.

[ohio2007]

47. Didn't he as a naturalized citizen of Iceland get proper healthcare

all those years since he renounced his US citizenship ?

[Cronopio]

34. Chess legend Bobby Fischer dies at 64

Source: BBC

The controversial former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, has died in Iceland at the age of 64.

The US-born player, who became famous for beating Cold War Soviet rival Boris Spassky in 1972, died of an unspecified illness, his spokesman said.

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported to the US.

Mr Fischer was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a match in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

He also had alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7195840.stm

---

The man was a study in opposites. A brilliant chess player and anti-Semite.

[Auntie Bush]

35. I just saw a picture of him on TV. He looked

more like 94 than 64. If his internal body was a old as his external body
not wonder he died. Actually they said he died of kidney failure. Maybe if he had resided in the US...he would have had better medical care.

[Jack Rabbit]

36. From the Jack Rabbit Chess Report: March 11, 2007

Please click here.

[DemIdeals]

37. Like I said in another thread about this

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Biggest self-hating Jew ever

[Guaranteed]

40. Oh my fucking God, dude.

I am fucking stunned.

He was the BEST. EVER.

[regnaD kciN]

45. America has had two chess geniuses: Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer...

...both of whom peaked early, gave up the game, and descended into reclusive insanity.

By contrast, many of the greatest players, coming from other parts of the world, have managed to combine a chess career with a content life and normal behavior.

I wonder what it is about Americans and chess that seem to drive our most gifted players mad?