There have been many great American chess players, but perhaps the best were Bobby Fischer and Paul Morphy. In a weird kind of way, both went mad. Morphy is often referred to as "the pride and sorrow of chess," and in a way, so too is Fischer.
As a young boy, I studied the games of Morphy and he was my chess hero. I still use his games as teaching tools to very young kids who are amazed at what he could do on the chessboard. Later as an adult, I carefully followed Fischer in 1972. His games amazed me even more than Morphy's.
However, whereas Morphy was educated as a lawyer too, Fischer was absorbed in chess to the exclusion of everything else. His lonely trials and tribulations against the powerful state-sponsored Russian chess machine did not help his sanity. But he beat them anyway; such was his greatness at the chessboard.
Bobby Fischer, March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008: Requiescat in Pace
You can say what ever you want about this footage of Bobby Fischer. He was not your regular run-of-the-mill chess player, but that just adds to his greatness. With all the contovesy that was created with his actions and ideals, he was still a truly great chess player.
I started playing chess in 1972 when he created this worldwide chess boom, and i'm still playing 36 years later......
Originally posted by AttilaTheHorn Remember him for his chess and forget all the other crap, because it's meaningless.
well said. I posted in the other BF threads, and may as well here.
He was mentally ill, in most country's that is a reasonble defense (if proven true) against murder, why do we hold people who are mentally ill to the same standard as evryone else. They are not in complete control of their thought process.
Bobby Fischer RIP
18 Jan '08 17:45
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