Amen. He was like a shooting star.
In defense of Fischer
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Smart like a fox but CRAZY for attention. That's why he made ridiculous and outrageous statements... he craved the attention he got as a 15 year old prodogy. By 29 those days are gone and so was Bobby to the World of Chess. Knowing no other profession well enough to make a living he slipped into obscurity. Morphy 2!
I've been surprised how Fischer has attracted such absolute fans and absolute detractors here.
There is no question Fischer is one of the greats. It is a tragic loss to chess that we have so few Fischer games compared to other world champions.
A Fischer-Karpov match would have been wonderful.
I think of Fischer as the Jimi Hendrix of chess, a guy who came out of nowhere, blew past the best, then vanished with so much potential left unfulfilled.
Oct 31, 2015
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#5
If he was crazy for attention he willingly gave up rock star attention and millions of dollars to retreat into his self made shell. Your argument doesn't make a lot os sense as if he craved attention so much why would he purposely live in obscurity when all he had to do was play chess, and why would he need to know another profession when he was one of (or very possibly THE) best chess player in the world.
I think the you could have just stopped at crazy.
I love this picture of Spassky and Korchnoi as chess elders and old farts sharing a good laugh at the front of a room.
If only there were some other world where Fischer could have been up there with them.
Spassky's friendship with Fischer in spite of everything, especially Bobby being Bobby, is one of the beautiful stories of chess.
Nov 2, 2015
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#8
I appreciate that. I'll take interesting any time. I rarely post on sites but like to read stuff by those more experienced and intelligent than I am. I enjoy chess but don't play enough to be good. I'm fascinated by brilliance though and the greats of chess certainly qualify. I actually had my flame suit tightly fastened for this post as I was expecting a lot more emotional negative responses from people since Fischer is such an iconic, divisive figure.
Well, if I post this comment -- making ten comments-- your topic will appear (I think) in the Hot Topics list and you may need your flame suit.
Nov 2, 2015
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#10
I agree dude. You have the best post on Fischer thus far. It is really weird that his crystal clear style morphed into something alien...something obscene.
Bobby Fischer doesn't need me to defend him, but I'm posting this in response to comments made in the thread about Karpov being the greatest of all time.
It's very true that Fischer has his annoying fanboys (like any other iconic sports figure), but I think the argument needs a bit of clarification. If we are talking about the greatest chess career, certainly Karpov has to be talked about, along with Kasparov, Lasker, and with others that have to be in the conversation. In this, Fischer is obviously no where to be found for many reasons brought up in the mentioned thread.
However, if we are talking greatest chess player of all time, while clearly being unanswerable, Fischer absolutely has to be high in the conversation. If the years from 1970-72 are looked at, he dominated the greatest players in the world as had not been see before or since. Many of the top players that he crushed during that time period were shocked at how much his game had changed since the mid/late 60's. His record against top players was questioned in the other thread as being average/below average against a number of top players, but most of those matches were when he was in his early/mid 20's, and well before he hit his peak (which everyone admits was a PEAK) in 1970.
Just reading some of the quotes of top players at the time, they speak of his game as possibly on another level, while one actually used the phrase that his playing at times "didn't make sense" (and that was a compliment).
No one will ever know why Fischer didn't play Karpov. Officially, they couldn't come to an agreement due to Fischers terms. But since I don't believe he played in any major competitive matches after his championship and basically disappeared after '75, mental illness has to be number 1 on that list.
It surprises me that with all the chess fans on this board, there is not a lot more regret that the '75 match with Karpov never happened. IMHO that ranks as one of the greatest, saddest, most intriguing "what ifs" in the history of chess, and for detractors to sneer that he was scared, or fans that say he was bored, are kind of silly.