Bobby Fisher Dead at 64
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080118/...u/obit_fischer

Enigmatic chess genius Bobby Fisher gone...

Checkmate.

I remember Bobby Fischer well. His undefeated march through the world's best chess players to set up the Boris Spassky match was unprecedented. He really was the most potent chess player that ever lived...almost an idiot savant in ability. Most believe he was quite nutty as a loon.

I remember reading in the late 80's or so about a major magazine writer who set out to find Bobby Fischer as he had disappeared for a decade or so. His search carried him to an American grand master who lived in Calif. Turns out this guy had put Bobby up for a few months a couple years earlier. The reporter asked if he thought BF could still compete at the highest levels. The player replied that he had played a few games against him and was defeated rather easily and more amazingly, he really did not understand how he was defeated in some of the games. Obvious winning positions turned out to be losing positions after a dozen more moves played out. Apparently Fischer still had the ability to see moves far in advance than could a more "normal" human being.

The writer finally caught up with BF. He had changed his name and was working for a TV cable company. He was as eccentric as ever. He had the fillings removed from his teeth because he feared that the Russians were somehow using them to spy on him. When asked why he did not play chess anymore, Bobby replied simply that there was no one to play. He promptly disappeared again after that short interview.

I am saddened that BF has passed. Any fan of chess understands that for a short time, there was a "Mozart" among us. It is tragic that perhaps the greatest player that ever lived did not play. Maybe he was right. He did not play because there was no one for him to play.

When my kids were very young, i taught them both to play chess and that they could go pretty much anywhere in the world with a chessboard and even if they couldn't speak the language? They'd be able to play.

I don't know too much about his life, but the name? A name everyone knows.

I thought this was a sweet picture.... before my time but I'd imagine there are those who remember him this way.

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=430369

One of the strangest but also compelling sporting events of my lifetime was the Fisher-Spasky World Chess Chamionships of 1972 where Americans followed the matches in newspapers each day over a two week period at the height of the cold war.

The nightly news programs actually led broadcasts with chess updates as the country embraced Fisher as a sports and intellectual icon that rivaled any other of the time period albeit for a short but significant period. Chess as a "spectator sport" strangely became a source of national pride as americans who might not know how the pieces on a board actually moved suddenly were captivated and hungered for information about two men alone in a room in Iceland in 1972. A unique period in American history not likely to be seen again although his later dulisional paranoia makes one understand what "A Beautiful Mind" was all about.

A brilliant, combative person. He fought his own demons to a draw although he was the best on the chess board.

Byk has gone Guy Perriault on us here....Next up The Hartford Wailers....

Oh well the above itself is loon unless you can copy the Avitar..

Sad to hear; especially given his recent CUTTING EDGE research in DUTCHING and the VELOCITY MACHINE. Yeah

Does this mean I can now take him off iggy?

No tears for Nazi sympathizers from me.

Amen to that. He was a crazy nasty bastard. Nobody will miss him.

Well he didn't chase fishies with a net...why wasn't his name Bobby Chesser?

He may be dead but he's still posting his selections.

:D

Yeah but that's getting to be a common theme here.....

I mean Morty died how many times and he's still posting.

Grits was dead and she used to post.

Oh wait... got dead and soul-less confused. Never mind.

Please ma'am...stay in the kitchen and do something.

Ah yes, The French Connection , Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin & Rene Robert, and do not forget Jerry "King Kong" Korab !

Not even Jewish ones?

I think this is a good synopsis.
The idiot savant part especially
because the man was a social invalid.

BTW's quote sums that up.
Had not a clue what people were
or how they worked.

He found the thing that would make him the most alienated. Crazy guy.

this needs mel brooks sooo bad.....