On Chess: Fischer’s reputation as egomaniac unfair
Saturday, March 26, 2011 03:07 AM
The Columbus Dispatch
In his account of the 1992 rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, Yasser Seirawan offered his opinion – after spending hours with Fischer – that 60 percent of what he had read about him was wrong.
Indeed, despite his often grievous negatives, there was another Fischer whom many of us experienced and admired.
He could be kind and appreciative of others in many contexts.
In a 1969 column that he wrote for Boys’ Life magazine, Fischer praised U.S. junior champion Ken Rogoff and added:
“It should encourage each of you who read this column to know that by applying yourself, as Ken did, you can become a fine player in a relatively short time.”
When the father of American grandmaster Larry Evans died in 1978, Fischer offered the following condolences:
“I was very sorry when I heard he died. His personality was a unique combination of brains, guts, dedication, perseverance, generosity, humor, steadfastness, heart, shrewdness, honesty and loyalty.
“And to offset all these fine traits, he was incredibly self-effacing.”
Such comments by Fischer suggest a much different person from the one painted by certain journalists, who have characterized him as an egomaniacal loner, an illiterate idiot savant and worse.
Source: http://www.dispatch.com
oh Susan i recall emailin yaz back in ’97 thanking and congratulating him on this fine book about that match and the ultrastuff. i wonder if that email is starting to make more sense now that its 15 years later? UM just curious.
Fischer is king.
Thank you for this post. Bobby like us all had his problems. While he when sideways later in life that is not the way we all should remember him.
When Mikhail Tal was hospitalized in 1962 in Curacao … etc. But this is well known.
For years all the stories about Fischer were born from the interview in 1962 by Ralph Ginzburg. Many completely invented, others exaggerated to sell more newspapers.
Other unknown aspects of Fischer are revealed by Betty Roberts … aspects are very human.
The truth, as always, is in the middle.
Thanks Susan.
Stef
The Fischer of the 60’s and 70’s was not the Fischer of the 90’s and 2000’s. Humans are complex and dynamic, and I think Fischer became a completely different person from what he had been.
Bobby was correct on many fronts, especially about the Israeli funded Neo-cons and Neo-libs who have plunged the world into war and chaos. Bobby hated the Illuminati and the one world government run by foreign royalty, the 13 richest families, and their decedents running America.
Bobby knew about the coming perpetual wars in the middle east sponsored by Tel Aviv.
He was the genius and we ignored him like the patzers we are.
Bobby was crazy like a fox. The media destroyed his image because he knew too much about the Illuminati. He didn’t play along with them like other celebrities do who have sold out to them. Bobby’s soul was not for sale.
With Fischer, it’s probably wise to delve no deeper into him than the moves he made on the board. If Brady’s recent book can be trusted, Bobby Fischer didn’t need Ginzburg fabrications to put him in a bad light. He was capable of doing it on his own. Visiting some one in hospital, praising someone’s achievement…those are basic human acts within the range of any adolescent.
Saying people should be killed on sight or insulting a Jewish host when you’re a guest ( as in the case when he stayed with GM Lilienthal), now, that’s the stuff of legend!
I’ve long ago stopped taking the mainstream news as a reliable source about anything. For example I’m not going to jump in with the crowd and say: “those courageous young Arabs pushing out that rambling mad Gaddafi”, I do not know anything about the conflict really.
What difference does it make if his host was Jewish or Martian?
Again, these vignettes are example of how Zionism has pervaded our collective thinking. Bobby was aware of Zionism and he clearly rejected it for what it really was: fascism. Bobby once said no racial or religious group is more special than the other here on planet earth.
Bobby pointed that out, but talk negatively about people, who happen to be Jewish, you are immediately an anti-Semite and enemy of the state. This is why the ultra-liberal leftist Anti Defamation League wants to have the US 1st and 2nd Amendments repealed so that they can conduct their business behind closed doors free of dissenters and from outsiders who would object to their collusion and plans to destroy western democracy to prop up their corporate oligarchy.
This is really happening. This is why the banks are failing and the middle class in America is disappearing. The money is being made worthless and the jobs have been exported to 3rd world countries. Check the racial lineage of most of the CEO’s and owners of these banks and corporations… Surprising?
Bobby knew. Bobby knew!
“…What difference does it make if his host was Jewish or Martian?…”
Exactly, Fisher was fractured enough to insult anyone, regardless of the hospitality they showed him. An amazingly poor excuse for a human being.
And I’ll bet “Bobby knew” that Grandmaster Lilienthal was part of the worldwide Zionist plot.
The only reason anyone pays any attention to Fischer is that he could move bits of wood around a board in a particular way and for a few shining weeks he made his country proud.
He should have disappeared for good when he avoided Karpov. Today, he wouldn’t be in need of apologists just as mad as he was.
Torre might be on to something.
If anyone has learned from past history is this: The individual soldier is a nice fellow to visit and be friends but if you measure his character by the effectiveness of his army, then you will see that he is just another nicer form of the monster that his army represents.
The SS soldiers who put Jews into ovens in WW2 were kind people who loved their wives and children, but had a job to do, they imprisoned and killed Jews. That was fascism in the past. Today, the Jews created Zionism to avoid being put into ovens ever again and to make the world sorry for their treatment in WW2. They have taken western governments over with the help of the richest Jewish men (Soros/Rothschild/Silverstein/Wilde/Goldman/Lundt) in the world. They make foreign policy and make sure the US is involved in the middle east. They want people to have feelings for the middle east, especially Israel.
Ask yourself this, what does Israel export? Oil? Gas? Entertainment? Nothing! So why is America involved with Israel? The US owes Israel nothing. The US has been infiltrated since Roosevelt.
As Zionism becomes more exposed (Larry Silverstein [Mossad] involvement in 9-11, Federal Reserve fraud[Bernanke], Bank Insolvency collapse in multiple countries (Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, and Germany) [Soros], and the failure of the Dollar [Rockefeller/Rothschild]) people will begin to see how they have been lied to to continue these wars in the middle east and wake up to the outright theft of their money and freedoms. For the sake of mankind, Zionism must end.
Zionism is going to be the fuse that starts WW3 and will end this age with blood and sorrow.
Fischer worked all of this out, identified the players in the conspiracy, and he is called crazy for this? If you could shoot Hitler as a child would you? Bobby would have. Everyone is so bloody afraid to speak their minds but time is almost up.
There is something coming from space that will kill most of the world within the next 18 months. When it comes you can say a mad man on the web named Bobby told you it would happen. http://rabbithole2.com
“…There is something coming from space that will kill most of the world within the next 18 months…”
Will it be smaller than a car but bigger than a bread box?
Animal, vegetable, mineral…or just another fruit?
And the bonus question? Did Bobby know?
You chess players scare me.