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....there, a White Russian....
....
Do players outside the United States think Bobby Fischer wasn't actually that good?
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Nov 30, 2016
0
#403
Luckily for Alekhine, Trotsky was a highly cultured man. When he learnt that Russia's foremost chess player was languishing in one of his cells, he visited him and they played one game. "Should I let him win?" Alekhine recounts in his memoir. In the end of course, his natural instinct was impossible to suppress - on seeing the win he gave a sigh and played the first move in the sequence. A few moves later, with his Kingside blown asunder, Trotsky rose from the table and sauntered out of the cell without a word.
"Ah well, that's it I'm getting shot in the morning." Except Alekhine wasn't shot, he was released the next day and allowed to cross the border under escort.
Dec 1, 2016
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#405
I see this thread is doomed to be closed soon.
FWIW, don't take lessons in the history of post-war Europe from people who can't spell Patton's name correctly.
Dec 1, 2016
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#406
For the record, in an interview following the match, Karjakin revealed that his chess hero, if he had to name one, would be Bobby Fischer: https://russian.rt.com/sport/article/337524-karyakin-shahmaty-intervyu
Thanks to Spektrowski for this: https://www.chess.com/blog/Spektrowski/karjakin-s-first-interview-after-losing-to-carlsen
batgirl wrote:
For the record, in an interview following the match, Karjakin revealed that his chess hero, if he had to name one, would be Bobby Fischer: https://russian.rt.com/sport/article/337524-karyakin-shahmaty-intervyu
Thanks to Spektrowski for this: https://www.chess.com/blog/Spektrowski/karjakin-s-first-interview-after-losing-to-carlsen
аплодисменты
RenegadeChessist wrote:
This question stems from a conversation I had recently.
I know this guy who is originally from Lithuania and who plays some chess and we were talking about different players from history. Eventually we got around to Bobby Fischer and he said, "You know, the truth is that Bobby Fischer wasn't actually that good."
I asked him to explain what he meant and he just made some general comments about how players today are much better than players from that era and how the game has evolved, etc. But the interesting thing about it is that he didn't have a problem talking about the greatness of other players from Fischer's time or even from before his time.
Of course us Americans think that Fischer was not only great, but one of the greatest of all time. But it made me wonder, do players from other countries tend to think that Fischer was actually overrated?
Yes.
Hailing from:
Phoenix, Arizona, Russia.
batgirl wrote:
For the record, in an interview following the match, Karjakin revealed that his chess hero, if he had to name one, would be Bobby Fischer: https://russian.rt.com/sport/article/337524-karyakin-shahmaty-intervyu
Thanks to Spektrowski for this: https://www.chess.com/blog/Spektrowski/karjakin-s-first-interview-after-losing-to-carlsen
That's pretty interesting, thanks for mentioning it.
MarcoBR444 wrote:
Do players outside the United States think Bobby Fischer wasn't actually that good?
Yes, I think BF was not actually that good.
The reason is: how a great GM chess player does such a blunder in a World Championship?
In the game below BF blundered as a 1100 patzer - move 29, Bxh2.
Of course Fisher didn't miss g3. That's just silly and people who say/imply this are wrong.
What Fischer missed was that after 29...Bxh2 30.g3 h5 31.Ke2 h4 32.Kf3, he cannot play 32...h3 because 33.Kg4 Bg1 34.Kxh3 Bxf2 35.Bd2! is trapping the bishop.
But of course some people continue to believe he just missed g3 and that he had an 1100 moment. Sure, makes sense.
For the record, I'm an American who never once in my entire life has thought that Fischer was as good as Kasparov in his prime, or Carlsen. But citing this Bxh2 as an 1100 move is kinda ridiculous imo
Lasker1900 wrote:
Fischer's 29...Bxh2 was a great move, if only because it has given several generations of imbeciles the opportunity to pretend that they are qualified to criticize one of the stronger players who ever lived
ha ha ha !! 
Dec 2, 2016
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#413
"I played like a fish." Fischer after Game 2, referring specifically to 29...Bxh2?
All the same, I'm sure I've seen speculation in various sources that Fischer, in his inimitable style, merely wanted to gift Spassky a 2-0 lead in the match - pure showmanship!
Indeed now I think of it, wasn't this implied in "Pawn Sacrifice"?
Dec 2, 2016
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#414
batgirl wrote:
*courtsey*
Oh no....another "Fischer Boomer".
Don't you find it funny how most of today's Gen X'ers and Millenials regard the band the Beatles as no big talent ? Yet to say that to a Baby Boomer ?....they get insulted !
Why do you feel that is ?
I think some of you need to come to grips w/ the fact that times change and talents get better.
Dec 2, 2016
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#415
BF just missed 29....Bxh2 ??....period !! (double exclam)
Now pleez....someone sit here & tell me he did that on purpose ?
As someone already said, everyone here is a mental chess midget compared to Fischer. It's completely feasible (even though there's no way to know) that Fischer did not miscalculate the loss of the bishop, but rather missed something in the endgame where he might have thought his 2 pawn advantage could win.
Another possibility is that Fischer thought he saw something else - a way for Spassky to win the game as it stood, and that wasn't acceptable to Fischer, so he tried another path. Don't forget Byrne/Fischer 1963, where even the master commentators were shocked at Byrne's resignation, because they thought he had a won game. Fischer greatly respected Byrne for doing that, because he knew Byrne was the only one who could figure out the depth of Fischer's previously confusing move, and resulting lost position for white.
That's not what happened in this game of course, but again - let's not presume to know what's going on in the mind of those so much greater than us.
Dec 2, 2016
0
#417
The_Ghostess_Lola wrote:
Don't you find it funny how most of today's Gen X'ers and Millenials regard the band the Beatles as no big talent ? Yet to say that to a Baby Boomer ?....they get insulted !
Just quoting what you write is enough of an insult.
Alekhine was no Bolshevik-to-be. He was a White Russian, an officer in the Tsar's army and was placed under arrest by the Bolsheviks in 1917.