Fischer's TRUE Legacy

IF Bobby Fischer had lived up to his simple and wonderful promise "to be the most active World Champion in all of chess history," (a promise already shattered long before his shenanigans vs. Karpov), I don't believe he'd have ruined his health nor gone mad. But he reneged. I think his ultimate legacy will include:

Oh I believe his mental problems started before the Spassky match. Much like Morphy, once he conquered the world he could not cope with his success. Very sad!

1. Chess 960

2 Madness and mercurial temperament even before that

3. The Fantastic Fischer chess timing system

4. 19 consecutive wins in GM and Candidate Qualifying play

5. His book My 60 Memorable games

6. Single-handedly ending the Soviet chess championship hegemony

7. The most aggressive style of any Champion not-named Tal

+1

As some people have written in their replies, Fischer showed signs of psychiatric issues way before he became even local celebrity in New York. I've been reading Brady's Fischer Biography titled Endgame. He mentions and very convincingly describes how Fischer's mother was concerned about Bobby's obsession with chess and his lack of attention to school pretty much after he has learned and played chess for about a year. She also tried to get a psychiatrist to evaluate her son. He refused to go and always got angry about that kind of stuff, so she had one psychiatrist who was also a pretty strong chess enthusiast to play some games with Bobby and see if he could be evaluated. So they played chess for four months or more. Then the psychiatrist tried probing with some personality questions. This caused Fischer to have a tantrum and anger and he claimed people were conspiring against him. I believe he was under 15 when that happened. Best guesses people have made is that Fischer has paranoia disorder symptoms, social anxiety, obsessive disorder, and/or probably some autism. When he was old he actually showed symptoms of schizophrenia. He'd talk about one subject and make some claim, then few sentences later he'd claim the polar opposite, or start talking about entirely random subjects. It's ok. We can acknowledge that Fischer had mental problems and that he was a racist and sexist, while still respecting him for his achievements in chess and the positive influence he had on younger chess players by inspiring them.

That psychiatrist was Reuben Fine.

He turned his back to the usa, he had political opinions that many people didnt like.. yep, of course he 's got to be crazy. "Now let's try to find evidence for the craziness.. cause we dont want a sane and intelligent person to be-anti american."

If you try hard enough, you can make every single human being look insane :)

TheMoonwalker... I agree... best post I've read in a long time. I knew Fischer pretty well... used to see him in the Pasadena Main Library reading Chess books and Issac Kasdans column in the LA Times in the late 70's. Robert James Fischer was crazy like a fox. And you can take that to the bank. You know WAR is insanity on steroids... two tours in Vietnam in the Marine Corps 65, 66 and 68!

TheMoonwalker... have any of these other supposed psycho analysts sat down and actually spoken with him? I have and I know... he was easily frustrated by idiots and people who would try to get him pissed off by making stupid and condesending remarks. That would usually bring out rage. But it would in almost anyone. If someone did that to me I would pull out my Nine Millimeter and put ten holes in their freaking heads. At 71 I've learned not to give a crap about ignorant wannabe's and their uneducated opinions. 

It took a badass to bring down the Soviets. America only had one.

..and that was all we needed. :)

Some people live their lives waiting to get angry.

Hey, Folks,

 

Let’s return to the topic, please . . . .

    IF Bobby Fischer had lived up to his simple and wonderful promise "to be the most active World Champion in all of chess history," (a promise already shattered long before his shenanigans vs. Karpov), I don't believe he'd have ruined his health nor gone mad. But he reneged. I think his ultimate legacy will include:

1. Chess 960 inventor

2. Madness and mercurial temperament even before that

3. The Fantastic Fischer chess timing system

4. 19 consecutive wins in GM and Candidate Qualifying play

5. His book My 60 Memorable games

6. Single-handedly ending the Soviet chess championship hegemony

7. The most aggressive style of any Champion not-named Tal

    Since most everyone seems to be concentrating on Fischer's mental problems.  I will say one more thing along those lines:  I honestly had hoped for a Fischer "comeback" when he and Boris Spassky started their talks of a "rematch" -- but his choice to hold the "Championship" in a violent warzone that his own country had clamped diplomatic sanctions upon was strange to say the least.  I wonder how many book sales that cost him.  IF a person won't serve his rational self-interest, you have to wonder about sanity for sure.  What else . . . POSITIVE or negative?????

 

Thanks,

 

A1Rajjpuut

I love it when people presume to diagnose a man they've never met with a diagnosis they're not qualified to give.

Magnus Carlsen has said Bobby Fischer's energy and precison of 1970-1972 is unmatched in chess history,also saying Fischer is his dream opponent.I believe Strongly that Fischer's Legacy is:

THE STRONGEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME.

 

At a 1958 tournament in Yugoslavia, Mikhail Tal, a legendary attacking grandmaster and one-time world champion, mocked chess prodigy Bobby Fischer for being “cuckoo.” Tal’s taunting may have been a deliberate attempt to rattle Fischer, then just 15 but already a major force in the highly competitive world of high-level chess.

But others from that world — including a number of grandmasters who’d spent time with him — thought Fischer not just eccentric, but deeply troubled. At a tournament in Bulgaria four years later, U.S. grandmaster Robert Byrnesuggested that Fischer see a psychiatrist, to which Fischer replied that “a psychiatrist ought to pay [me] for the privilege of working on [my] brain.” According to journalist Dylan Loeb McClain, Hungarian-born grandmaster Pal Benko commented, “I am not a psychiatrist, but it was obvious he was not normal. … I told him, ‘You are paranoid,’ and he said that ‘paranoids can be right.’”

https://psmag.com/a-psychological-autopsy-of-bobby-fischer-f757852a2910#.p726i59md

If not for Fischer the top players would still be playing for a few thousand dollars , even in the world championship . His biggest legacy will be his many beautiful games and the fact that he brought serious money to the game as well as better conditions for top players . His book will always be a classic studied by generations of chess players to come . His winning streaks at the elite level will never be matched , let alone beaten . 

I've read a book about him and from what limited information there is from people who had known him chess probably had little to do with his mental illness. If anything it could have contributed it. As he was growing up he showed signs of autism or some sort of abnormal personality. Could be due to circumstances of his life growing up. Who knows. But I doubt his not playing chess after Spassky had anything to do with. BUT also he actually continued to play and follow chess non competitively. He apparently followed all chess developments through magazines. Also when he lived in Europe he played a lot with the Polgars when he lived on Hungary.

A1Rajjpuut wrote:

IF Bobby Fischer had lived up to his simple and wonderful promise "to be the most active World Champion in all of chess history," (a promise already shattered long before his shenanigans vs. Karpov), I don't believe he'd have ruined his health nor gone mad. But he reneged. I think his ultimate legacy will include:

   ---   Very well put.