Fischer hated press — sometimes for good reason
Saturday, July 19, 2008 2:59 AM
By SHELBY LYMAN
The media were the bane of Bobby Fischer’s existence. He avoided them, fled from them, even once asked a friend whether it was legal to kill a journalist.
Friends were warned never to give reporters information about him. Those who did were summarily excluded from Fischer’s life — forever. Whether the interview was negative or a glowing account didn’t matter.
After he became world champion, his aversion seemed to worsen. A lifelong chess associate, fellow grandmaster Robert Byrne, was cut off when he became a journalist — as was this writer, a much more casual acquaintance. We were journalists, and that was it.
Usually, the media had trouble getting their facts straight about Fischer. The American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan once declared that most of what he had read about him was simply wrong or misleading.
Fischer’s naive directness offered succulent grist for the media mill. He was brutally honest.
A contemporary reader would cringe at an archival Harper’s interview of the teenage chess prodigy that included politically incorrect remarks about gays, girls, working-class subway riders and poorly dressed Jewish chess players.
By any measure, of course, Fischer was extraordinarily individualistic. He had his own slant on virtually everything and typically and stubbornly insisted on doing things his way. The independence, even defiance, made him especially vulnerable to media misunderstandings and caricatures.
His reflection in the media — often cruelly unfair — frequently caused him painful embarrassment.
Source: dispatch.com
While Fischer’s aversion to journalists was understandable, it’s difficult for me to believe that most of the information attributed to him was incorrect.
Now that Fischer has passed on, this would be a good time for his family/friends to speak up and correct any misconceptions…
Well Bobby got his revenge in the end. I saw him yesterday back in the USA I asked about the treatment of his death by the media. He smiled that trademark grin and replied, “You know, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”.
I like people like Fischer: they are HONEST. It doesn’t matter if you agree with their opinion or not.
In our world of “political correctness” people nowadays never ever say what they really think.
Just take the stupid public outrage about Jesse J. and the “Nigga”-word.
Aah….I wrote the bad “N…”-word ….stone me!!!
I have had the naive trait of being brutally honest. It has gotten me into lots of trouble. However, I hang on to the honesty as wonderful. It has been the best thing in my life in the long run.
I am starting to mellow in my older age. Not that I dont tell the truth but I am learning to say nothing.
Saying the correct thing is all about lieing. I refuse to do that. How can I have character if I were to lie.
It is like Obama. He is not himself. He knows not who he is. He has all his life tried to be someone he is not. This will have terrible consequences for America if he is President.
look at some simple examples. He is half white but refuses to be white. He is Arab but chooses to be Black which he is not. He is probably not a citizen of USA. but he wants to be president. He was born muslim and went to muslim schools but refuses to acknowledge that. The list goes on and on. He gave a huge speech supporting the war to get elected as a Senator but claims he was always against the war. He was firmly against FISA and ready to filibuster but voted in favor of FISA giving away every American’s freedom to privacy on the phone. He is this and then he is that. He changes with the wind. He knows not who he is. He sells himself for power and money. You can definitely buy him. He will easily sell himself for money and power. It is his personality to be who other people want him to be. He wants to be liked by everyone. And thus knows not who he is. It is a dysfunction that come from his early broken family upbringing.
I like Fischer. He was always honest. I respect that. Bobby is and always will be the greatest chess player because he worked it all out on his own without a computer. Everyone after him got to use a computer and knows not how hard the game really is.
first of all he admits to being white. secondly he wasnt born muslim nor did he go to muslim school. his mother married an idonesian guy and moved the family to indonesia which is mostly muslim. does a five year old obama have the opportunity to decide where he lives. the answer is an obvious no. he was born in the usa how could he not be a citizen.
he voted for the new fisa not because he completly agrees with it but because its better than nothing. so if you have to choose bewteen horrible and extremly horrible you choose horrible. he was against the war from the begining. he voted against the war. where do you get your facts from. obviously youv’e been believing garbage. all we need is another four more years of bush to drive the usa into the ground.
should i start with what bush has done. what about the the katrina disaster. where most of the money designated to help the people never even got there. from running up record debt by running war and cutting taxes. thus forcing the usa to borrow obscene amounts of money to pay for the war. going to war on false pretences. having no strategy for the war and having your secretary general resign as well as numerous generals plus your chief of staff. giving one bid contracts to military companies. allowing the deregulation of electricity in california so enron could make a huge profit. allowing of oil speculators to buy west texas crude oil on the london stock exchange thus not being monitered for price manipulation by the ctfc and driving up the price of oil by $100 a barrel in one year. 70% is caused by price manipulation.
the housing crisis. numerous staff getting caught in scandal. guantamo bay torturing. the allowing of wiretapping with paa. i mean where does it end with bush. obama will be a huge improvement.
Obama is related to Bush.
Didn’y you know this. Google it.
American politics have been bought out well since JFK. I doesn’t matter if you are Democrat or Republican. It is all a sham.
Now Sleep… Sleep… Sleep. Consume. Obey. Vote. Obey. Sleep.