A Bobby Fischer story

A friend of mine told me he met Bobby Fischer. Posted this on another thread, thought I would share it in a titled post.

Now,this could be (ahem) 'bovine scatology'--this friend of mine is a good guy but we were in a pub, watching Game 2 of the NBA Finals and the subject came up. After a few beers, I might add.

According to the friend, it was in the late 70's and he was in the LA Public Library. He was strolling the political science section and noticed a tall, gaunt man sitting alone reading a book at one of the cubicles.

"You're Bobby Fischer," said my friend. The guy looked up, wide-eyed, intense... scary for anyone except my friend (a big dude, not starstruck in the slightest). My friend, noticing the guys reaction, said, "C'mon. Don't be like that. I'm not going to make a big deal of it but you're him, right? Bobby Fischer?" According to my friend, the guy nodded. Once. My friend said, "Wish I had a chess board." The guy who my friend thought was Fischer, who according to my friend looked for all the world like Fischer, who nodded his head when asked if he was Fischer, just looked at him and smiled a little. My friend said, "Have a nice night," and moved on, not looking back. Said he always felt a little sorry for bugging the man.

So I did a little research today. Fischer was reclusive in the 70's after abandoning his title, he was in the Southern California area and was known to hang out at the downtown library, keeping very much to himself.

Heck of a story, no?

Your friend saw Bobby Fischer in a library. Nope, I didn't get the tingles.

Bobby Fischer in the library with a wrench.

I have a second-hand Fischer story, too, and this seems like the right time to tell it.  I was in a bar in Seattle and this older guy heard my accent (I have a strong NYC accent) and we got to talking about NYC, and he told me of his first trip to the Big Apple back in the 1950s.  He was a chess player, and being alone in NYC (on a business trip) he went to see the one "club" on 42nd Street he had passed on his way to the hotel.  He walked in, and this little kid dressed "kind of raggetty" challenged him to play speed chess for money.  The guy said something like, no, kid, I don't want to take your money, and the kid started to rag on him, calling him something like hick or hayseed (it wasn't either but I forget the exact term he used) and the guy said fine, I'll kick your butt.  The kid wanted to play for $5 a game and the guy said, "You don't have that kind of money," and the kid pulled "an eggroll of 5s, 10s, 20s, and 50s from his pocket."  The guy had $300 on him and thought the kid had more money on him than he did.  So they started playing and the kid destroyed him, all the while ragging on how poor a player he was.  Well, the guy got kinda hot and decided to teach him a lesson.  The kid kept winning, then told the guy he wouldn't play him at equal odds; he demanded the guy play at 5 to 3 time odds for $10 a game.  The kid kept wailing on him, talking smack the whole time, and the guy just had to win one game to shut him up.  But that didn't happen.  They finally played at 10 to 2 time odds for $20 and the kid just murdered him--he never won a game.  The kid cleaned him out and the guy had to call home to his wife to have her wire some money to him (which lead to allegations of infidelity by the wife).  The next time he saw the kid, the kid was on the cover of Chess Life as US junior champion--Bobby Fischer.

PS--He told me the kid was so obnoxious that if I had met him, I'd be punching his lights out within 10 minutes.

Now that's a Bobby Fischer story

Interesting Bobby Fischer stories. It's kinda sad how the confident kid of the story #2 grew up to be the reclusive man in the story #1.

Bobby was a chicken

trysts wrote:

Your friend saw Bobby Fischer in a library. Nope, I didn't get the tingles.

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Saw and interacted with him. At a time when Fischer was avoiding all human contact. Sorry you're not impressed.

Dashkee94, that's fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

Hey, it was some guy in a bar I only met once, and though he came across as honest, it could be complete rubbish, for all I know.

p2p

I take it you've never been to NYC.  When you go to the clubs, you have players, but if you hit the games parlors or the parks, you get hustlers. At the place on 42nd Street, you can play chess, checkers, backgammon, dominos, whatever, for cash, and nobody says much unless it gets loud.  When you go to those places, you get hustled.  He didn't want to play the kid, but my man had some chops (we talked some chess; he knew the game, and that's how we got to the story) and you gotta know the style of hustling I'm talking about--Bobby wasn't the first or the only one to trash talk people into playing and losing.  If you ever go to NYC, check out the Village and play some chess there--you'll see what I mean.

Is Asa still at it ? ! 

Great BF stories - truly interesting!

He tried to peddle me a book on the czech benoni the other day.

Reb, I haven't been to the city in a while, but he was still going the last time I was there for chess (the Anand-Kasparov match).

Asa might have been good at hustling with time odds, but Djindjichasveilli was the real deal. Back when he had just arrived in New York, Looks(my trainer and a teacher at my school) would play him 5:1 and they nearly always broke even. Looks was a son of a gun at blitz and one day he asks Djindji to play and he refuses saying in his thick CIS accent: "You not easy money. I don't like not easy money". But ya, Djindji could play. The reason I bring him up is that Asa wouldn't even play him! He was scared cause he knew Djindji wouldn't play!

He's still there. I go to the Marshall a lot and he's always there. He makes me pay for any advice he gives, so I usually don't ask him for advice.

There's a story about an IM that came to NYC for a tournament and saw some people playing chess on the tables at Central Park.  Since it wasn't far from his hotel, he decided to whip on the locals and went down to where they were playing.  There was a table open, but some big ole drunk guy was asleep on the bench to it, so the IM woke him up, and to his surprise the guy wanted to play blitz for money.  The IM figured easy money and they began to play.  The ole drunk just crushed him him in so many games the IM checked out of the hotel, withdrew form the tourney, and flew back home, because he couldn't beat a passed out bum.  Turned out the bum on the bench was Dzindzi on a streak of bad luck gambling.  Tough guy to play, that man.

I better would tell my wife a story of infidelity. She would laugh so hard she probably would forgive me being cleaned out by a chess hustler.

I believe this more than most of the other stories.