I'm under the impression that Fischer suffered from Aspergers and possibly a mild case of paranoid schizophrenia. 

The man exhibited many symptoms of both, from a genius at chess, highly ethical  standards with an inexhaustible amount of demands on tournaments, to thinking the Russians were manipulating his mind through gold fillings... taken individually these things might not seem all that severe, but together they paint a picture... add to that his reclusive, bitter, unhappy nature, defiant, impossible to work with, am I missing anything? 

That's sad.

I'd say he's a case for the books. 

It is sad, I literally cried watching "Anything to Win", the man was a Greek tragedy. Fischer stayed at m grandparents house a weekend in Wisconsin many years ago, my grandfather being a famous state champion for 5 years and chess columnist for many years.

A long while back I read an article by a psychologist who said Bobby Fischer didn't meet all the necessary criteria for schizoprenia or asperger syndrome he said he may have suffered from paranoid personality disorder:

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/a-psychological-autopsy-of-bobby-fischer-25959/

I believe Fischer was truly the greatest mind to play chess, I wonder what a Fischer-Carpablanca game would have looked like.   by the way, thanks for the link, Alec.

Fischer's about as much of a genius, as a calculator is. When I think of Fischer, I think, 'even assholes are good at games'.

I dunno about Fischer himself, but there seems to be irrefutable evidence that everyone who talks about Fischer having a mental illness on the internet has some sort of debilitating affliction.

Evidence supports that drinking water rich drinks reduces chances of dehydration.

Fischer was never rich, so I guess that he's the poor man's eccentric.

i have often thought of the aspergers bit... seems plausible, at least.  bobby was a bad mofo on the board, though.  :)

These are just stories.  It may be true and it may be false.  You do NOT know for sure unless you were there yourself.  If you were THE LORD God Jesus Christ, you would know for sure.  Unfortunately, none of us is God!!

Jesus christ!!!

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But at least we can put a picture of the guy as our avatar.  Isn't that a bit blasphemous to Lord Jesus to make him into your personal avatar?  Instead of imagining Jesus as being representative of you, shouldn't you be  representative of him?   

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Are you talking about the Bible or Fischer?

Anyway, to be properly diagnosed with a mental disorder, you need to have a chat with a clinical psychiatrist.  I don't believe Fischer ever did that, so a disorder is conjecture.

Fischer may have exhibited behaviors that point to a certain disorder, but those behaviors may simply have been overlap with a disorder.  A disorder itself is defined by a specific constellation of symptoms--overlap doesn't cut it.

OMG

Perhaps chess at a certain level is the symptom  of a disorder.

Of course, everything is a spectrum.  

Someone who studies/practices a lot in any field and is considered top 10 in the world may be labelled "obsessive-compulsive personality disorder" but s/he may shoot back "but there is no way to achieve this level of accomplishment without being strictly disciplined day in and day out without exception" and the other may reply "see I told you that you had an obsessive compulsive personality".  

We also know that at higher levels of competition, there is likely a greater amount of chicanery and psychological sabotage, so a degree of paranoia is understandable among those at the highest levels as opposed to someone at my level (even though people cheat and collude against me all the time, and I can only beat their engines about 40% of the time...easier to keep the next Fischer down by keeping him at a 1000-ish level USCF, rather than waiting until he is 2785 to collude against him, see?).  

So, Fischer had signs of Asperger's, schizophrenia, paranoia, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, arrogantia, etc, which a lot of people who excel in fields probably have.  That, or what he said actually happened.  Or didn't.