Do players outside the United States think Bobby Fischer wasn't actually that good?

Correct. And BF proved that by 29....Bxh2 ?? that he was indeed capable of being a mental midget when the time presented itself.

1100 elo is kinda stretching it tho'. 

Funny that at the so-called apex of his career would he make a ?? move.

Well, anywayz he deserved it....in gobs. 

Yes, Fischer played like a fish when he played Bxh2. Yes, he saw g3. I'm not quite sure what he miscalculated, but he clearly miscalculated. He then played poorly in the ensuing endgame that was still salvageable. 

The Anand game was played in 1988, long before he became a World Champion. He was actually following a known drawn game that Larsen had played before him. His error was not checking for tactics in that game. 

Karpov blundered. It happens to everyone. If we were to judge players by their weakest moves, everyone would look like a fish. Yes, that includes Bobby Fischer, who made some howlers himself. 

I fully understand Karjakin considering Fischer to be one of the all time great players. He overcame tremendous adversity. He was a lone wolf fighting the Soviets, the profession, and himself. For one brief period, he overcame all of those and rose to heights nobody had seen. He was ~10 years ahead of his time. 

I am a Smyslov fan because of his great understanding of the connection between the opening and the endgame, his ability to play almost any type of position well, and his search for harmony in chess which led to surprising tempo changes that wrong footed even the best players of his generation. Couple that with his prodigious endgame technique, and he was a very deserving world champion. 

However, my earliest chess heroes were Fischer, Rubinstein, Tal and Alekhine. 

I don't pretend they were better than today's players, but I still look to their games for inspiration.

Trivia: Did you know that Fischer twice faced 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 as white and didn't win either of those two games?

This example you provided proves the opposite of what you think it does, loool 

How do you compare yourself to Fischer in chess skill and knowledge?

It's also possible that Fischer was correct.

According to modern engine analysis (Stockfish, etc), Fischer still had a draw as late as move 39... ten moves AFTER giving up his Bishop. It wasn't 29. ... Bxh2 that lost the game. It was 39. ... f5? (instead of the correct 39. ... g6!).

Interesting that you would bring that up SmyslovFan (#491). BTW, Vasily Smyslov happens to be one of my favorite player ever !........especially in Russian Chess.

BF played white against 1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 twice....the Latvian Gambit. He lost once. They say if you could get him outta the book early, he could become a horse of a different stable....IOW's "unstable".

The problem was his opposition. They played like wimps against him & didn't put him to the test. I woulda.

And BTW jaboobovich, I just won a 2200+ player a few minutes ago.

So I'll see you in the skittles room....there buster.

Anyone who doesn't think Fischer was one of the bests is crazy, but don't think many would rank him at number 1

BF's timing superceded his ability. IOW's, if it wasn't him ?....it woulda been some other American. I mean, get real you dumb Fischer Boomers.

This post is like tripping yourself up xD

You beauzeau !!

Smyslov was 2-2 against him in the 50's. He outplayed him a little bit in the later years 'cuz VS was born in 1921. Show some respect for chess age !

....and why do you feel that is ?

Smyslov certainly has to be right up there when you think of it, as he was playing in the time of some very great players, as was Fischer. But, he was still under 40 when he was playing Fischer,

Yeah, and when BF played in his 40's ?....he embarrassed himself w/ hilarious howlers that wrecked his reputation and told everyone that he couldn't play good in his 40's.

Do u have anything more dum-dum to say ?

Yes.

What a witty and wise person you are.

It's not entirely accurate to say that Fischer hadn't played a serious game in 20 years before his match against Spassky. 

He played a match against Gligoric to warm up. Fischer's performance rating against Gligoric was actually slightly higher than his performance rating against Spassky (but still below 2650). 

Fischer played 40 games in 1992. That's a fairly full slate of games, and enough to knock the rust off. 

I don't want to bash Fischer, but if people are going to be looking at the Juvenalia of a player and then say they play like a fish, it's only fair to look at Fischer's games in the same light:

Black was lost after 13...Qb6?/??

Juvenalia indeed. Bobby still would have been growing in 1957. 

And Max would have been getting on a bit, I would say, seeing as he became WC about 80 years ago.

Max did close out the game very well, didn't he?