Bobby Fischer - The Player, Not the Man

In my opinion, Fischer was the second best player of all-time, only beaten by Kasparov.

One can only imagine what a Fischer-Kasparov wolrd championship would've been like. My money would still have been on Fischer. 

 Sadly, that was possible.  They were alive at the same time...

Bobby was pure ego - anitsocial, rude, incredibly cocky, self-absorbed, self-entitled, inconsiderate, bratty when he didn't get his way, capable of cruelty, but he was the BEST - he strode in and CRUSHED everyone because he COULD.

Which is awesome.

He thought he was doing what he was supposed to - that if he was the World's Best he would get a kind of praise (money, women, etc) that was unrealistic - and the more and more the world disappointed these lofty expectation of reward for result the more it hurt him, and ultimately made him crazed.

Sure, he was ego, but he thought that was the game - the chess game of life; to be the best at the one thing he understood. So when he was tortured in jail, or when America didn't support him (their own hero! in his mind) it developed in him the deepest, broiling resentment - a resentment that needed to lash out so badly at the people who had wronged him, ignored him, when he was a genius in their midst... that yes, it bubbled over in the most inflammatory of possible language.

I don't blame him, not really. The world that doesn't support "the arts" but only praises genius once it's dead deserves the rancor that it's Greats flood back at it.

Fischer lost the chess game of life in the sense that he couldn't take the crushing pawn storm of rejection and disappointment, and the castle of his mind was cracked open, and he was reduced to a blubbering, frothing mess of anger that his soul never truly felt.

I know the mentality - if he was given what he wanted he would've been glowing, benevolent, magnanimous.

It's a sad story - nonetheless I'm loyal. He was also uncomprimising, clever, intellectually powerful, disciplined - pure, singular focus, an example of what dedicating ones life to a single thing at the expense of all else can achieve.

/I dunno, I just felt like writing a sketch
//carry on

I agree with you but make number two Karpov and we'd be in total agreement. Maybe Fischer is fourth??

It's hard to compare people of different eras. You get into endless what-if scenarios. What if Philidor had access to Rybka? What if Morphy had been able to study the games of Kasparov? Chess accumulates knowledge, so play at the top is always improving. Trying to take the player out of his times is like asking whether Alexander the Great could have beaten Patton.

As for the OP, the article seems to state the obvious. It takes two seconds for a thinking person to understand that Fischer was one of the best chess players ever. It takes another two seconds to understand that he was troubled, mentally unbalanced, paranoid, and prone to disgusting outburts of hateful vitriol.

You know what my granddaddy always said about Patton?  "Our blood and his guts."

He is not exactly remembered as a great military strategist.  Maybe Alex vs. Monty or Alex vs. Ike would have been more appropriate.

 Congratulations ! Your spelling is correct for one of these very famous GMs ! 

And only because the last name wasn't attempted...

Although not the topic of the thread, my top 5 world champions (undisputed, and so Topalov is not included) are:

1. Fischer

2. Kasparov

3. Tal

4. Capablanca

5. Petrosian

Nytik: So you'd put Fischer, who won the title once and then refused to defend it, ahead of Kasparov who had to defend his title several times in succession against probably the 2nd strongest player in history?

 I do because of things Fischer did in chess that no other player has, such as his 20 straight wins against GMs, 13 of these were in Candidates matches. 4 wins in a row against the mighty Tigran Petrosian is also something no other player has ever done. In fact, after becoming a GM I dont believe Petrosian ever lost 4 games in a row.... until Fischer in 1971. Petrosian had 50% with Kasparov despite being well past his prime AND playing black in all the games.

Marvellosity, I haven't just taken into account their performance in world championship matches, but their entire careers- the US championship (7/7) is further evidence.

 Isnt his US chmps 8/8 and one of those with 100% ? 

Nytik: the US champsionship with a few average GMs, great.

Kasparov, by a huge margin, has the most victories in toptop level tournaments. He has about three times the number of victories in 'super-GM' quality tournaments as Fischer.

 Actually, its Karpov who is the tournament king, not Kasparov. Kasparov won the most consecutive top level tournies but Karpov is the most successful tourney player of all time. He also won his last match against Kasparov in a time control (rapid) that noone thought he had a chance in.... and I dont think Benko and Reshevsky are considered "average GMs" by many people. Oh, and R Byrne who was also a candidate for the WC.....

Yes, I apologise, he has won 8 out of 8 US championships he participated in- I don't know where I got 7 from. Perhaps it was because it rhymes with 11, as he scored 11-0 in one tournament and the 7/7 was actually referring to his score rather than the number of championships he won.

Reb: sure - you have 3 or 4 names there. Maybe a third of who he had to play :)

The fact that Fischer didnt face the quality of opposition that Kasparov did makes his achievements even more remarkable marvel. Yes, the US Championship is weaker field than the Russian, USSR, Soviet championships, noone can deny this. However, Spassky, and Petrosian and even Taimanov also had this "advantage" over Fischer. They all faced greater opponents than Fischer normally got to face, or any other great western player (Larsen) for that matter. The fact that Fischer was still able to not only win the world championship and his candidates matches but to DOMINATE them in spite of the handicaps he faced make him even more amazing ! Kasparov, Karpov, Spassky all had an entire country of strong GMs behind/helping them where Fischer was the lone genius doing battle with them all......

But he basically only managed it for 2 years. And then gave up. I think his lack of sustainability should put his achievements in a more suitable light.

You sound like the Sandy Koufax detractors in the baseball community.  "He retired when he was thirty, so he shouldn't be in the hall of fame."