My brief brush (almost) with Fischer

It was a long time ago -- 1984. I was my state's class A champion and the treasurer of my state's USCF affiliate. I played actively with the Charlotte Chess Club, where most of us were huge Fischer fans. At that time, his snub of Karpov was still a fairly fresh topic.

One day, we officers of our affiliate, got together and made a plan that we presented to the USCF Congress held in Florida that year. The plan was to try to get Fischer to come back to active chess.

After a lot of tense argument, it was finally agreed that we would send Fischer a letter asking him to come back. We offered him a generous stipend, health insurance, and the title "Undefeated World Chess Champion." He would be free to play, tutor others, or whatever he wished.

The USCF also apologized for not backing him in his demands for the Karpov match. (Fischer didn't want ties to count.) This apology was the hardest thing to get, but we got it. And so, the letter was sent in care of Claudia Mokarow in Pasadena. (To get to Fischer you went through Claudia.)

We all waited anxiously until about six weeks later, when we got a post card that said simply, "He wants $10,000 to open the letter." The USCF executive director at the time blew his stack. "I'm not going to shove ten grand down a hole to see what happens! What if we send it, and he demands more!?"

Our affiliate thought Fischer's request was perfectly reasonable, but the USCF would not be moved. After our disappointment finally faded, we laughed about it -- wanting ten thousand dollars to open our letter. Now, that's Bobby Fischer.

It would have been shoving the money down a hole.

I think thats what any reasonable man would do

Was the letter addressed to "Bobby Fisher"?

Maybe if you spelled his name right he would have opened it for free!

Trole?  Trolle?  Trol?  

Oy! My kingdom for a "c"! Still, I'm glad for anyone who might have enjoyed the story. Thanks all.

If a moderator would be kind enough to fix my title, I would buy him/her a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud.

If you can buy a Rolls Royce (despite being an old one), you should have been able to send those $10,000

I did enjoy the article; Thanks. It's a good example of people trying to reason with an unreasonable, unstable person.

Wasn't rich then. Just a kid. My advice, start investing your money now. As Einstein said, compound interest is the greatest force in the universe. :)

Thanks! You even nailed the moral.

I thought inflation was.

Thanks for sharing that story... it's a cool little piece of history :)

KantWasWrong wrote:

"If a moderator would be kind enough to fix my title, I would buy him/her a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud."

The moderators say'll they'll read this post if you pay them $10 000.

Little-known trick: you can edit the title yourself. Go to HOME, then scroll fown to "My Recent Activity" and click "Manage all Content," the click "Edit" next to the thread that you want to edit.

Thank you. Most kind.

I don't live there anymore, although I've kept in touch with Leland. He is an honorable man. He credits me with the start of "The Gambit," the NCCA's chess magazine. I used to publish it on an old Commodore 64 computer! Wonderful days, and yes, Leland still runs the club.

To answer your question directly, I'm now homebound and seldom get to play. That's why I joined up. Thanks for asking!

Interesting thread.