Pictures of Bobby Fischer

Like i said, the man was undoubtedly a genius of chess, and i've enjoyed a lot of his interviews and ideas from his earlier years. But let's not sweep certain things under the rug and casually call it some sort of 'misunderstanding.' 

I agree that the overwhelming majority of us say and do idiotic things, and usually pretty regularly, but some things are harder to forgive than others, microphone or not. And we're not talking about secretly recorded speech that was said in confidence of privacy here.

As far as i know, he never walked back any of this stuff; if he had been apologetic about some of these things in the end, perhaps i wouldn't be so unforgiving.

Here's a little snippet of what i'm talking about:

[EXPLICIT LANGUAGE]

Which part of that am i misunderstanding?

That first picture--yeah, right, he's playing ball in those pants wearing those shoes.  Nice try.  And he needed to say "j'doube" and get back in the batter's box--he's crowding the plate too much.  I don't know how they played in Brooklyn, but in Queens he'd be eating the next pitch with that stance.  But a great set of pictures over all, and thanks for the post.

I was there when he won the World Championship from the Russians. He was our hero. He literally brought chess to the US. You could walk into any  party and there would always be 2 or 3 games of chess going. He was paranoid and narcissistic, back then and when he violated US sanctions by playing Spassky the second time, he became a fugitive and it destroyed him. To this day I blame his dive into insanity on the Feds. They didn't have to go after him. But he spit on the document stating he would be violating US sanctions if he played and the Feds took it personally. As to his Jewish rant, well he himself was a Jew, so his reasons on that will probably stay in the grave with him. I will always remember him as the hero. He was exactly like Achilles in the movie Troy. Our best man vs theirs at the height of the cold war.

And before this thread devolves into another discussion of Fischer's world views, let's keep this about the pictures, OK?  There are dozens of threads that deal with what he said and when and whether or not people are or should be offended.  If there are some of you who want to thrash this out again, well, have at it, hoss, but do it on another thread.  If you want to contribute to this one, start with asking how batgirl found the name of the catcher in photo #1.  I don't think he played for the Dodgers.

 Yes OP thanks for the pics. As to your comment Dashkee, did I offend you somehow? Are you a moderator here? It's obvious you decided to make your comment after my post, but not after the one damning Bobby. Well this thread is obviously for Bobby lovers and I would think you would appreciate my post, as it gives you a window to what things were like back then. Based on how long ago you got rated, you were not born then. Please show a little respect.

He was exactly like Achilles in the movie Troy? There are lot of things wrong with this sentence lol.

You take things too literal. What I meant by "exactly" is the entire country was rooting for him as no other person in our history, before or after.

Soviet Central Planning Communism, vs American Freedom. A man, built by a system, and trained by an entire country for one purpose, vs a lone wolf from New York, a single man a prodigy with only his mind, his will, and his freedom. 

I agree, there are. First, Bobby was a much bigger badass than Achilles. Second, the mighty Fischer had no weakness. 

Yes I understand your sentiments, I'm just having a chuckle at the way you phrased it.

Excalibr

It's obvious I decided to post after your post?  Pardon me, but I was still typing my post when you posted.  Mine second post was directed at the post above my first post, so, sorry, you fail the Sherlock test.  And your quote, "Based on how long ago you got rated, you were not born then."  What the hell does that mean?  I watched the Fischer-Spassky match on PBS, not youtube, bud, and I still remember JFK on the evening news.  So, unless you're like 80, I say respect your elders--and don't keep jumping to conclusions.

My apologies then dashkee. I assumed you directed your post at me. Your age I guessed at since your FIDE was 2003. Although I never did any rated play, the first time I joined the USCF was back in the 70s. You do seem a bit snarky for someone over 70 though

Well old men are known for being cantankerous aren't they! 

Now get off my lawn. 

For what it's worth, I had (and have) no intention of changing the main subject of this thread. I've been silently following and enjoying it since it started a month ago. 

But I took issue with someone calling him "misunderstood," and so I chimed in with my two cents, prepared to drop it after my short comment.  

But then, when that someone came back and actually defended Fischer's statements as basically something we're all guilty of, I felt obliged to retort.  

So, yes, let's move on. It's perfectly fine to focus on other aspects of his life -- he's not the only genius/hero/artist/whatever who has later gone off the deep end, and having done so doesn't negate the good and amazing things he did earlier (or even at the same time).

But let's also not make excuses for the inexcusable.  

Here is not only my favorite photo of Fischer, but one of my top 3 photos every taken of a person. 

I just realized I must look like a big fat liar to anyone who read my posts. My avatar pic is from 1993. It was a very special time for me.

One last post and then I'll shut up.  I wasn't trying to get into a fight, I just felt that things weren't properly understood.  So let's drop the rest of it, and I'll post some stuff about me.  I just turned 60 this January, and I'm 60 years young.  I was born and raised in New York City and learned the hard lessons of the street there--see my comment about Fischer's batting stance.  That's the way we played.  As you can tell, I still play ball that way (you crowd my plate, you take your chances).  We moved to upstate NY in 1969.  My first tournament was in Syracuse, NY, in December, 1972, and I did rather poorly.  I was sure I was the next Fischer, and then reality smacked me in the mouth.  So now I just try to play my best, and if I give it my all and lose, I don't hang my head.  It's when I just give a game away is when I start kicking myself.  I also play bass (Fender Precision with EMGs) and love to crank it up and blast it.  I have an Acoustic 600 watt head with a 4x10 upper and 1x15 lower cabinet--it rocks.  I also do some writing--check out my story on the Morphy-Lowenthal meeting in 1850, published right here on chess.com.  The story follows what we have of the actual games--if you're not familiar with them, I'd recommend you go over them before you read the story, just to get a better idea of what I (that is, Lowenthal) talk about during them.  You might enjoy it--historical chess fiction, with no diagrams or pictures.  And with that, let's get back to the photos of Bobby.

PS--I'm currently writing a story on Fischer as a boy, embellishing a story that was told to me by a player from Seattle about his first trip to NYC.  It will be posted here in a couple of weeks.

I know this is probably his most famous, but I can see how that stare might unbalance his opponents...

I happen to have a copy of that Life issue in my hoard of impedimenta.  It was published just days after Fischer had completed his demolition of Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian in the candidates matches, and before the match with Spassky.  The article is still interesting to read, both on its merits and also today as a snapshot of a moment in time.