January 18, 2008

• I find it strangely reassuring that he was 64.
• Didn't notice that - nice.
• Godspeed, you brilliant weirdo. May you find the rest and peace you couldn't find in life.
• Oh, and just to clarify there, I meant "intriguing" in the sense of being brilliant but f@%! up. From teh Wiki Fischer's win was a momentous victory for the United States during the time of the Cold War: the iconoclastic American almost single-handedly defeating the mighty Soviet chess establishment that had dominated world chess for the past quarter-century. Fischer was also the (then) highest-rated player in history according to the Elo rating system. He had a rating of 2780 after beating Spassky, which was actually a slight decline from the record 2785 rating he had achieved after routing Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian the previous year. The match was coined "The Match of the Century", and received front-page media coverage in the United States and around the world. With his victory, Fischer became an instant celebrity. He received numerous product endorsement offers (all of which he declined) and appeared on the covers of Life and Sports Illustrated. With American Olympic swimming champion Mark Spitz, he also appeared on a Bob Hope TV special.[31] Membership in the United States Chess Federation doubled in 1972[32] and peaked in 1974; in American chess, these years are commonly referred to as the "Fischer Boom." . . . . Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live . . . Informed that "the White House and Pentagon have been attacked", he proclaimed "This is all wonderful news." . . He then called for the death of thousands of Jewish American leaders. His mother, and possibly his father as well, were Jewish. My chess game is pretty weak.
• I learned it five times.
• . Also, the musical Chess is pretty fucking great.
• .
• . It's weird, I had just picked up "My 60 Memorable Games" again for a re-read. His later years were as much a tragedy as his earlier years were a triumph. He shared a lot, in that and other regards, with the American "Meteor", Paul Morphy, who was the de facto World Champion in his time. Such a waste of incredible talent.
• I hear he was working on a new opening maneuver when he died, and now his estate is trying to decide whether to burn his notes on it, since he expressed that wish. (Coincidentally, he called the new opening "The Jews.") Sorry.
• I remember reading "Bobby Fischer teaches Chess" as a teen. Part of his aura I think was because he looked sharp and cool when he was young. Not like his later years when his outsides matched his insides. .
• Remember when chess champions were famous on a massive scale? I blame the internet.
• StoryBored, I read that! I still stink at chess, though...
• Idiot savant.
• Two of my uncles taught me chess (I was five or six) when Bobby Fischer was mesmerizing the world. Just last year, I taught my niece and nephew, by way of returning the favor. Now my nephew has taught, or re-taught, his father, and they play all the time. NPR reported that Fischer was Jewish. I'm sorry he didn't get some peace in his life.
• Fischer was hard to get. His moves will be missed.
• How sad that such talent didn't go further.
• Bobby's mum was quite the character it seems:

  In 1977, standing on the Grunwick picket line in north-west London, I recognised Regina Fischer and introduced myself. "Ah yes," she said grimly, "you're the one who writes all those horrible things about Bobby." I explained that I would be delighted to learn that Bobby's alleged views on the inferiority of women, the evils of socialism and the duplicity of the Jews had been totally misrepresented, and I would be sure to get published whatever she told me. She considered this offer carefully. After some thought, she handed me a slice of the orange she was eating and said: "I forgive you." She added some words on the significance of vegetarianism and the meaningfulness of giving fruit. "But now," she said with absolute conviction, "I will stop this bus." For months, hundreds of pickets, including Arthur Scargill and the Yorkshire miners, had tried to stop the strike-breaking Grunwick bus from crossing the picket line, but without success, for massed police lines held back the pickets as the bus drove through the factory gates at speed. Some time later the bus appeared, as it did every day, cleaving its way through the enraged crowd. As it reached the gate, Regina threw herself in front of its wheels. Braking sharply, it ground to a halt. This was the only time during the historic Grunwick strike that the infamous bus was stopped by a demonstrator.