New Bobby Fischer book

@greenpawn34

I met Karpov at the US Amateur Team Championship (East) in the 90's. He was a very nice, friendly person, which was at odds with how he was often portrayed in the press back then. He autographed a book for me, and was just a nice guy- he made a fan out of me.

And his games have made me a better player, which makes me a bigger fan!

Hi Paul-Leggett,

All the good players I have met have been ace guys and girls (including Topalov
who was a super guy.) Never really met a chess player of any level I did not like
but there are some I've met, in the under 2000 category, who are a bit odd.

Odd in a nice way, maybe just one or two I can think of were 'not normal.'
Remember I know hundreds of players so one in every 100 were '...strange.'

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Utterly pathetic. Get a life.

"Asian" refers to a continent. It is well defined. If you want to refer to something else, use a different term. Duh!

If somebody decides to delete this message, please explain why. Asia is an incredibly diverse continent. Referring to people as "Asian" is effectively meaningless. Is there still intelligent life out there?

@paul-leggett said
@tefeather I do not share your confidence. I'm sure it would have been a great match, but I think Karpov would have at least his share of chances. He had Geller as a second, and Geller scored favorably against Fischer. It's just tough to say one way or the other.

Good point. I am only relying on what others at the time thought. I am not competent to judge, but my inclination, for what little it is worth (which is nothing), is that Bobby Fischer was the most talented chess player ever. I can't compare him to Morphy who may have been more talented. Impossible to know.

I sit here tonight, absolutely amazed. A thread that started concerning a new book about a great chess player has slid down a hill into a mudhole of racial argument...

Do any here still actually play chess?

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If one intends to write a book about Fischer's entire life, however, then it would
be extremely dishonest to ignore his bigotry (or racism) completely.

I often wonder if Bobby Fischer's bigotry could be called that, since in his later years Fischer's hate list included almost everyone on the planet. i.e. If someone hates everybody are they still a bigot and racist, or simply an equal opportunity hater??

@mchill said
If one intends to write a book about Fischer's entire life, however, then it would
be extremely dishonest to ignore his bigotry (or racism) completely.

I often wonder if Bobby Fischer's bigotry could be called that, since in his later years Fischer's hate list included almost everyone on the planet. i.e. If someone hates everybody are they still a bigot and racist, or simply an equal opportunity hater??

misanthrope

Results are dependent on talent and effort. There's a quote attributed to Michelangelo that goes something like, "If you knew how hard I had to work for my mastery, you wouldn't think it so miraculous."

I recall an Andrew Soltis column that presented a mindbogglingly complex game Fischer won (I think as Black in a Sicilian Najdorf) in which White took over 2 hours and Black took around 10 minutes, because Black had prepared it.

Certainly Fischer was talented, but he also worked extremely hard at chess. I, on the other hand...

"When I turned 11 I just got good" -RJF

"When I turned 11 I just got creamed" -ME

@Duchess64

Point of fact: It was not an affair. She was his wife.