Knowing your friendship with Bobby Fischer I hope to do something nice sending to you a small poem dedicated to him. Albeit the English translation could not be optimized, I have tried to take inspiration from the “Spoon River Anthology” of Edgar Lee Masters, and to view Bobby as a charachter of this wonderful book.
Thanks for your attention and best regards
Dr. Alfredo Pasin, MD
BOBBY THE CHESS PLAYER
I beseech you, do not confine me,
Bobby, the chass player,
the greatest one the world could ever know
to the only role
of alienated psychic paranoid.
This was indeed the truth:
I was a genius, an artist and a scientist;
a winner ruthless but chivalreous
a rare loser, somber but still stout;
a warrior artist
free from flattery and cheats,
a warrior still living
according to the laws of Samurai.
In that game, what I have sought at most
’twas Beauty, Harmony and Truth:
I raised it to almost boundless heights
but I never encountered
quiet and refreshment.
Maybe it was not Madness
to bring me away
from my human sufferings;
’twas rather the dark and icy wind
of Iceland
and of its melancholy.
RIP Bobby!
“Bobby the Antisemite” by T.S. Elliot:
My house is a decayed house,
and the Bobby the Antisemite squats on the window sill, the owner,
Spawned in some estaminet of Antwerp,
Blistered in Brussels, patched and peeled in London.
The goat coughs at night in the field overhead;
Rocks, moss, stonecrop, iron, merds.”
I feel ill. (Not at the poem above, which is quite good, but at the one that started this whole thing. One more gushing paeon to Bobby and I seriously think they should apply to the government for tax-free status as an official religion.
Even laying aside his racism, Fischer is not one to be emulated. He succeeded in becoming the greatest player of his time but only by sacrificing his humanity. Only by devoting every waking moment of his life to chess for 15 years was he able to achieve the dominance he did. There are other people, less successful at chess, but more successful at life, who managed to both play at a world class (even world championship) level and have lives also. Sometimes even achieve excellence in other fields as well.
Taimanov is best remembered for getting whitewashed by Fischer, but he played chess at a world class level for a quarter of a century, had a normal family life, and even achieved fame in another field, as a concert pianist. I admire Fischer more as a chessplayer but Taimanov more as a person. If I had to live one of their lives as my own, I’d pick Taimanov’s over Fischer’s any day.
I love Bobby
I think his achievements should be put more into perspective. There is more to a human being than a profession and he failed miserably at the human being part.