As this is a 'chess only ' forum it is not appropriate to mention here matters arising from the 'personal life ,words beliefs and actions' of Grandmaster Robert James Fischer[deceased]. There are specific forums for such matters. Therefore on a purely 'chess' subject it is fair and correct to pay tribute to the unique and outstanding chess understanding and performances, of the greatest chessmaster ever to emerge from the United States and differences of opinion aside,possibly the most complete chessmaster of all time. The legacy of Robert Fischer to all those who play chess now and in th future, is his complete games collection which will continue to educate and inspire chess players throughout the world for as long as chess continues to be played everywhere--------:'(
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Originally posted by magnublmhis behavior showed that he suffered from pananoia. now, in his post mortem, we shall be reading many fischer stories by many of his former close chess acquaintances and their recollections. this will be so refreshing as there is a dearth of information on him from the 60s and 70's generation of US gms and ims chess masters that played against him.
Yeah, he was anti- American, Jewish, and establishment. I think it was because he had some sort of mental illness. To have that level of self-loathing (he was 100% Jewish and an American), you almost certainly have to. And to choose to devote *so much* energy and time to chess--not interacting w/people--points to the same thing I think. Sad, really. No, I'm face. Anyway, you have to respect his abilities on the chess board. He's Zeus, god of gods.
When you watch the early movies of him, he seems to be in a blur, full of energy and passion and self-belief. He was driven to be the world's best at the game he loved. And i guess the worst thing for him, besides not achieving that dream, was the actual achievement. Once he was the accepted best at traditional chess, he didn't know what to do, so he simply abandoned the game and tried to invent something new (Fischer Random or 360). But, again, when you watch those early images of the teenage Fischer stalking around a simul arena or his intense concentration at the tournament table, you can't help but love the kid if you love chessl.
Why Bobby Fischer loved RP, Filipinos
By Vincent Cabreza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 00:14:00 01/20/2008
BAGUIO CITY -- A GENERATION STILL remembers American chess genius Bobby Fischer as a recluse. It is hard to picture this bearded legend playing tennis matches at a country club or walking hand in hand with a Filipino woman.
But this generation will have to embrace this image of the 64-year-old Fischer shaped before his death on Thursday in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Fischer played tennis at the Baguio Country Club and had a romance with a 30-year-old woman from Davao named Marilyn Young in Baguio City before he went on exile to Iceland.
Fischer’s certified Filipino heir, 7-year-old Jinky, was born in 2002 at the Saint Louis University Sacred Heart Hospital here.
The girl’s birth certificate bears the name “Robert James Fischer” as her father, but she kept her mother’s maiden name, “Young.”
The 6-foot-tall Fischer used to consume large servings of Filipino food and adored sinigang (a popular soup broth) when he lived here for almost two years, said Marilin Torre, wife of Filipino grandmaster Eugene Torre.
Marilin said Fischer used to consume five balut (boiled duck eggs) in one sitting every day, years before he decided to stay in Baguio.
Fischer asked Marilin to bring him 50 such eggs when she went to Yugoslavia with her husband for Fischer’s rematch with Spassky. Eugene served as Fischer’s second in the match.
Eugene, Asia’s first grandmaster who had idolized the American in his own rise to the top of Philippine chess, became Fischer’s bosom friend and was one of the few people he trusted until his death.
The man became an American icon for defeating Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War and again in a highly publicized rematch in Yugoslavia in 1992 that forced him to renounce his American citizenship.
The American government sanctioned Fischer for playing in Yugoslavia in violation of the United Nations embargo imposed on Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic who fomented war in the Balkans.
Fischer became more notorious when he gave brazen speeches and interviews over various radio stations around the world that depicted the United States as an evil nation run by a Jewish conspiracy.
But the man who styled himself as a modern American outlaw made the American-built Baguio his home between 2000 and 2002 after he renounced his American citizenship, his Filipino friends here said on Saturday.
Baguio was the site of the world chess championship between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi in 1978.
Fischer lived a nomadic life, pursued by what he described as a cabal of Jews that controls the world, so he only entertained a small circle of friends like Torre when he decided to stay in the Philippines, said Leonides ‘‘Des” Bautista, a close friend of another chess icon Florencio Campomanes.
But despite his reputation, Fischer kept a normal home with Marilyn Young in the city, according to Young’s friend, Marilin Torre.
A top executive of the Government Service Insurance System briefly hosted Fischer at the country club for three months in 2000.
Jimmy Tangalin, 49, a professional tennis coach at the club, supervised Fischer for a while, and found the man “kind and entertaining.”
“It was Eugene who introduced me to Fischer. I knew about [Fischer’s] celebrity status. But it was still a pleasant surprise. We just met, but he immediately opened up a conversation about Jews and the US. These conversations were awkward for me,” Tangalin said.
Fischer leased a home in the compound owned by former Baguio Councilor Elmo Nevada where the Torre family used to stay.
Elements of Fischer’s bizarre reputation cropped up from time to time, Marilin said. “When he showered, he didn’t use any shampoo. He preferred to wash with just water and soap. He brushed his teeth without toothpaste.”
Why he decided to make “a former American colony and city” his home for a while still confounds his friends.
Bautista said Campomanes had a hand in bringing Fischer to the country back in the 1970s at the height of martial law.
After that, Fischer became an occasional visitor to the Philippines.
He was a close friend of New York-based Filipino artist Isabel Diaz whom he sometimes accompanied to the country whenever she returned for a visit, Marilin related.
But he began to frequent Baguio when he became close to Torre, Bautista said.
Bautista said his first meeting with Fischer gave him some insight as to why Baguio was the American’s sanctuary.
“You don’t recognize him. He wears a hat. For the older generation, we remember him as clean-shaven so we would not recognize him if he approached you. He had a beard and was balding. But when Eugene introduced us, he was so comfortable.”
“Fischer lives in his own world,” he added, and being incognito went well with a community where people minded their own business.
Bautista said the old Baguio culture developed this habit because residents were used to Caucasians who lived in the city.
“That’s what Bobby loved about Baguio,” he said.
Fischer never lost this connection to the city. When he was arrested by the Japanese authorities in July 2004 for holding an expired US passport, he telephoned friends in Baguio.
Marilin Torre said Marilyn Young, then already based in Davao, kept in close touch with Fischer even after another friend, Miyoko Watari, publicly declared that she would marry the controversial celebrity to keep him out of Japanese prison
While many have hated for Bobby for what he said outside of chess especially recently, I believe there is a method to his madness.
IN this politically correct world, people are being unjustly persecuted for raising questions or even merely pointing out that some regimes' atrocities are brushed aside as nothing relative to just one special one.
Bobby was harsh and vile with his speech but he was angry that no one could see how he thought. No one will ever know if he truly meant what he said or was simply saying it to point out that there is a accepted bias in this world regarding these issues.
Indoctrination in anything is a bad thing and results in hatred and loss of life. Hating someone for their point of view (and wishing them dead) is the precursor to tyranny.
Personally, I doubt if he really hated his own race, more like he hated the politics of the current superpower.
Bobby Fischer should be remembered for his great contribution to chess and nothing else.
Bobby Fischer should be remembered for his great contribution to chess and nothing else.[/b]Dude that's almost as bad as saying Ty Cobb should only be remembered for his amazing baseball skills, OJ Simpson should just be remembered for being a world class running back, and Chris Benoit should only be thought of as a great wrestling champion. Being famous and/or good at something should not EVER give you a free pass on the horrible things you do. Granted, what Fischer said doesn't come close to murder, but there is no good, reasonable explanation for cheering the murder of over 3,000 Americans. If I am perpetuating stereotypes or being the typical arrogant, ignorant, self righteous American, SO F****ING BE IT!
Garry Kasparov:
With the death of Bobby Fischer chess has lost one of its greatest figures. Fischer's status as world champion and celebrity came from a charismatic and combative personality matched with unstoppable play. I recall thrilling to the games of his 1972 Reykjavik world championship match against Boris Spassky when I was nine years old. The American had his share of supporters in the USSR even then, and not only for his chess prowess. His outspokenness and individuality also earned him the quiet respect of many of my compatriots.
Fischer's beautiful chess and his immortal games will stand forever as a central pillar in the history of our game. And the story of the Brooklynite iconoclast's rise from prodigy to world champion has few peers for drama. Apart from a brief and peculiar reappearance in 1992, Bobby Fischer's chess career ended in 1972. After conquering the chess Olympus he was unable to find a new target for his power and passion.
Fischer's relentless energy exhausted everything it touched - the resources of the game itself, his opponents on and off the board, and, sadly, his own mind and body. While we can never entirely separate the deeds from the man, I would prefer to speak of his global achievements instead of his inner tragedies. It is with justice that he spent his final days in Iceland, the site of his greatest triumph. There he has always been loved and seen in the best possible way: as a chessplayer.
Jan Timman:
A great player and a great example for many. His book My 60 memorable games had a big impact on me. It is a shame he didn’t continue to enrich the world of chess with his unparalleled understanding after 1972
Ljubomir Ljubojevic:
A man without frontiers. He didn’t divide the east and the west, he brought them together in their admiration for him.
Lajos Portisch:
A big shock; the best chess player in history has passed away.
Viktor Kortchnoi:
A chess genius has died; a loss for humanity.
Susan Polgar:
In spite of his obvious flaws, he will be remembered as "The King of Chess," a genius on the board and the man who broke through the Iron Curtain. I mostly admired him as a chess player and what he did for chess. He put chess on the map in the U.S. and changed the economic opportunities for chess players. If it weren't for him, demanding reparation and prizes in the '60s and '70s, players wouldn't be making the money they are today.
He was fanatic about chess; he was working on chess most of his life, even years and years after he retired. His dedication, passion and love for the game, it was his life. It was his profession. It was how he expressed himself. It's symbolic that he died at age 64, for the 64 squares of the chessboard.
Raymond Keene:
He achieved his success because of a burning, incandescent desire to win. Most other champions had other intellectual pretensions or pursuits and interests such as art or photography but for Fischer there was nothing but chess, chess, chess. Nothing distracted him - he had no relationships with women or other people - it was just chess