Who is the greatest chess player of all time ?? Bobby Fischer ??

I saw several exhibitions. He'd have all 64 squares covered with a name from the audience, with a State from which they were from, and repeat it back when the knight landed on the square.

But "technically" it had nothing to do with memory. He had an exceptional photographic memory. This characteristic has various degrees and is very comman by exceptional blindfold players.

Get a life . 

I don't really understand why there are so many stupid arguments about Fischer. Wonderful player, horrible person. End of the discussion.

No dud.

Everything he talked was the truth.

I dont know why stupid americans dont realize that their fellow Murican was right!

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/fischer-and-the-truth

BronsteinPawn wrote:

kingofshedinjas escribió:

I don't really understand why there are so many stupid arguments about Fischer. Wonderful player, horrible person. End of the discussion.

No dud.

Everything he talked was the truth.

I dont know why stupid americans dont realize that their fellow Murican was right!

Fischer was a racist who supported the 9/11 terrorist attack. Guess that tells us where you stand Bronstein.

Racist?

Did he kill black people just like you are doing right now in your country?

More like the 9/11 self-harm.

YES IT DOES.

Greetings.

Regarding the 9/11 attack.Two buildings were hit by planes,yet three buildings collapsed;all three collapsed in a matter of 10 seconds each into a heap of powdered dust.In the midst of all the confusion though,a well organized convoy of trucks was taking away tons and tons of steal the very next day to be destroyed.The government's explanation for the 9/11 event is very poor.

Nigel Short who defeated Karpov, among others, to challenge Kasparov for the world title was asked to name the greatest player of all time. "Fischer burned brightest for a brief spell, but overall the greatest player was Kasparov." I do not think anyone has put it better. As for Fischer's character- the poor fellow became mentally ill. ( The child of a Jewish mother AND a  Jewish mathematician father, Fischer ranted endlessly against Jews, believing such nonsense as the forged "Protocols of Sion".) As a good chess-playing friend of mine who has recovered from mental illness said, it is painful to hear Bobby Fischer denigrated; what remains is RJF's legacy of games: true chess aficianados know that the games are wonderful. Fischer was the only player to whom Kasparov devoted a whole volume of "My Great Predecessors".

It might also be worth remembering Barenboim's comment: "If we chose our composers by the loveliness of their characters we wouldn't have many left!"

"The poor fellow became mentally ill"

Like one day later in his life he woke up with a cold?

He showed the early stages of schizophrenia at a young age and was always an ant-semite. His paranoia was legendary. No...you can't make excuses that easily. Yes, it is tragic and yes he really had little control over his character, but he was not so nice a person from early on. Should this matter when talking of greatness? Absolutely not when you're speaking chess skills. But as a great "Player" representing chess? Of course

The image the general public has of a chess player has suffered immensly, because their 1st thought is of Fischer

hanky ?

Haters of fischer fans is a decades old medically varified neurological condition.

 If someone you know or love has an absolute foaming at the mouth flea bitt'n hairless OBSESSION with hatred of Fischer fans then please...PLEASE get them the help they need...

A HUG. Give 'em a hug. They soooooo neeed one in the absolute worst way. :D

you mean there is a known cure for hating ? great!

could certainly have ruined his motivation for beating up on soviets :(

With_every_step wrote:

Maybe that's what brought down Fischer.

One person brought down Bobby, and one person alone.

then you must excuse for me extremely impetuous interruption!

Folks, you can't bring up ratings when comparing players from different eras, and claim at the same time that you understand how ratings work. It's either one or the other :D

Chess ratings are a measure of one's performance against past opponents and probability of success against future opponents within the closed pool of players they are derived from. Nothing more, nothing less. Ratings aren't absolute numbers that transfer from pool to pool (e.g. FIDE, USCF, chess.com, FICS) which means they also aren't equivalent over long periods of time. Why?! Because the pool of GMs was replaced almost completely between 1972 (Fischer's peak), 1999 (Kasparov) and 2014 (Carlsen). Even if a handful of GMs played in 2 different eras, they surely didn't play at the same strength.

You are free to ignore the science behind ratings, the rating inflation and so on, but you can't pretend your opinion is based on indisputable facts. It's just your opinion.

The only way to objectively compare players from different eras is by comparing their moves with computer choices. In that regard, Rybka and Crafty have issued their verdict (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_players_throughout_history).

Speaking of Fischer and his much quoted rating, as of 2016 there are 15 players to ever have achieved or surpassed the 2785 "threshold" (btw Karpov isn't one of them).

If you are going to tie greatness to a simple number, then according to your criteria all these 15 people are greater (or stronger) than Fischer was at his peak. I wonder why you almost never hear somebody seriously claiming that Radjabov or Giri or Ivanchuk are greater than Fischer...