January 18, 2008
Chess Genius Bobby Fischer Dies at 64
Photograph of Washington Square Park chess table by Paulo C on Flickr
Brilliant, reclusive and eccentric, Chicago-born and Brooklyn-bred Bobby Fischer died at age 64 in Iceland. His spokesman said the cause was kidney failure, after a long illness.
Fischer, who grew up playing in chess clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan, beat Boris Spassky in a 1972 match, becoming the first and only American to become world champion, a Cold War hero, and popularized chess with mainstream America. When called for comment, Boris Spassky said, "I am very sorry, but Bobby Fischer is dead. Goodbye." (Garry Kasparov told the AP, "The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess.")
His antics aside from chess added to the mystery of his persona. Though half Jewish and raised by a Jewish mother, Fischer made numerous anti-Semitic comments in recent decades, frequently discussing a Jewish conspiracy. From the NY Times' obituary:
On Sept. 11, 2001, he told a radio talk-show host in Baguio, the Philippines, that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were ”wonderful news,” adding he was wishing for a scenario “where the country will be taken over by the military, they’ll close down all the synagogues, arrest all the Jews and secure hundreds of thousands of Jewish ringleaders.”Fischer played a rematch with Spassky in Belgrade, defying U.S. sanctions against the former Yugoslavia, and was arrested by Japanese authorities when he was traveling on his revoked U.S. passport. When Iceland offered him citizenship, he moved there and renounced his U.S. citizenship.
You can watch this 36-minute British documentary about the famous Fischer-Spassky match, and here are the moves during the game. And the film Searching for Bobby Fischer intersperses clips of Fischer's life as a young New York chess prodigy deals with his talents.
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There will be a special showing of 'Chess: The Musical' in my apartment this evening. I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine. Free drinks if you dress like Falco.
A self-hating Jew? Go figure. Anyways, fascinating political views from a man with a 200+ IQ...
Good riddance.
Interesting that Fischer, who was born and raised in America, degenerated into a personality remarkable mostly for its hatred and paranoia. Kasparov, on the other hand, is a Russian who continues to speak out against political oppression in his post-Soviet homeland, at personal and political risk.
I'll recommend Fresh as a down the middle look at chess as an amoral metaphor for maneuvering through life to one's best advantage.
Godspeed, you crazy, crazy chessmaster.
Those are MY free drinks! Not Falco's!
-Murray Head
kidney failure? come on, we all know the Elders of Zion took him out for his perceptive views on the Chosen People.
That doc that JC linked to is actually fascinating, since it talks to Spassky a lot... about how he was not a Party member, how the pressure from the government was crushing, how he was "allowed to leave" (re: kicked out of) the USSR, and how that hurt him. As Dave alluded to, Boris had his country turn its back on him, while Fischer turned his back on his country. It's fascinating.
Best remark is at the end: Fischer is looking out the window during the Spassky match and says, forlornly, "The only that I can do is play chess." Then he gets a smile on his face and says, "But I do that rather well."
People talk about mad geniuses. Fischer was truly a genius. And truly mad.