Anatoly Karpov had an interesting take on "Fischer vs. Jews". In one interview, he said this:
"In the beginning of Bobby's career, his main rival was Samuel Reshevsky, an orthodox Jew, and Reshevsky's fellow Jews opposed Fischer strongly. Since then, he didn't consider himself a Jew and became an antisemite."
SK: Fischer sounded better in that interview than I expected.
Yeah, he really impresses me as a very intelligent person. I believe those who say he would have done well at anything, it just happened to be chess.
I've dealt with some anxiety problems myself, and I started focusing on odd things... you can be very logical but convince yourself of crazy things. E.g. worry a pandemic is likely to soon kill 99% of people, meteor hitting the earth... also at one point or another I worried different organs were going to fail... heart attack, retina detachment, bleeding ulcer, brain tumor... all sorts of crazy stuff : /
I realized this wasn't reasonable, but at the same time e.g. I would read symptom lists and talk myself into it.
All this to say, you're not suddenly a raving lunatic, hearing voices, mumbling to yourself and all that. You're just very logical about very unreasonable things. Got out of a relationship and changed jobs and I was fine. Unluckily for Fischer it wasn't that easy. I say unluckily because it's not fun believing the world is ending / your life is in danger all the time.
Aint that the truth. Fischer unlike Dr. Brady, could not be bought! Botvinnik made the comment that Fischers stregnth lay in the fact that he was always true to himself.
The world's pretty simple once you figure it all out.
The frustrating part for those who do, is that invariably, and for some inconceivable reason, most people don't agree with them! Hmm. The world is indeed mad. My comfort, and my torment, is being one of the very few who know the truth.
Aint that the truth. Fischer unlike Dr. Brady, could not be bought! Botvinnik made the comment that Fischers stregnth lay in the fact that he was always true to himself.
Although I will say I agree he was unfairly persecuted by the US, and had integrity most don't have at all. I don't think he was a bad person.
People generalize too much as they get older. Poor Bobby fell victim to Father Time.
An interesting book appeared in 2012 titled 'A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer: Understanding the Genius, Mystery, and Psychological Decline of a World Chess Champion'. Book author is Joseph G. Ponterotto, Ph.D.
Chapters include Research Methodology, Rise & Fall of Bobby Fischer, Early Life of ...., Mother Love, Who is my Father, and other chapters.
Publisher: Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Ohio.
ISBN (Paperback) 978-0-398-08740
I have the book and have read it. The research by the author (including family interviews) and his conclusions are, to a layman like me, fascinating.
If the history & mythology of Bobby Fischer are to be based on two books written by Frank Brady then Fischer is being judged by very few facts.
Other interesting books about the later life of Fischer include
'The Greatest Secret of Bobby Fischer' by Nenad Nesh Stankovic. This is an account of Fischer's time in Serbia & Montenegro. ISBN 978-14-8125-223-2
'Bobby Fischer Comes Home: The Final Years in Iceland, a saga of Friendship & Lost Illusions' by Helgi Olafsson. ISBN 978-90-5691-381-6
These three books offer differing insights into Fischer compared to Frank Brady
There is no debate about Fisher being Jewish. Both of his parents were Jewish.
Of course Bobby Fisher had mental problems. Do some research and you will find psychiatrists stating so.
And yes Fisher denied the holocaust. You can find him denying it on YouTube.
Also, Fischer believed that he was personally the target of a malign Jewish conspiracy. He was delusional and paranoid, at the very least.
It doesn't take a medical degree to discern the obvious.
Evidence if you please.
I think you're trolling. The evidence is there, if you just look. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do this for you.
Dr.Brady has to my knowledge written two books about R.J.Fischer, Profile of a prodigy and Endgame. Its particularly this last tome that has aroused my curiosity, for in the title Dr.Brady intimates that Fischer descended into insanity (he calls it madness). If anyone has read this (personally I refuse to do so) what empirical medical evidence does Dr. Brady cite with which to substantiate the claim that Fischer was as he put it 'on the edge of madness', for personally I have never heard nor read of any credible medical diagnosis.
You were referring to the subtitle:
Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall-- from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness
Cheer up. He repeatedly defends Fischer from the charges made by others. The word "madness" appears only the title and the description is "edge of madness", which was certainly designed to titillate those like you you live and breath this stuff.
The word insanity was used twice in the book- once when he explains why he had some fillings removed (they bothered him) and was used again in a film proposal by an Icelandic filmmaker. (who was trying to raise money to make a film- hardly a diagnosis.) Another section reports "he was not delusional and he did not have hallucinations- hence he could not be labeled psychotic."
Didn't anyone ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover?
That's true, notmtwain. Dr. Brady talks about the media having used Fischer's disheveled and homeless appearance as "proof" of his insanity defining him through what Brady called the "Bobby Fischer Urban Legend Storybook."
He didn't actually say Fischer's fillings bother him, but rather that Fischer felt that fillings were toxic and would evenutally destroy his teeth and health, so he had them removed. Eating without fillings bothered him, but he felt it was still better than losing all his teeth as he aged.
The OP admittedly never read Brady's book, yet seems to feel qualified to critique them and to berate the author.
I actually like Fischer, the poor, fatherless boy and self-made champion. But the man he became is a rather sad comparison and being blind to Fischer's failings is as bad as not recognizing his amazing abilities.
Removing the fillings because of their toxicity is a common procedure in alternative medicine. It has saved lives.
In recent years, more and more dentists are aware of the risks of including heavy metals in dental fillings, and are switching to various polymers for this exact reason.
Apart from this specific point, though, I fully agree with <Batgirl>'s concluding paragraph, of course.
@batgirl: great explanation and view on Fischer - and most likely correctly backed up by the facts. 
Solskytz, that Fischer had his filling removed was a well known fact. Spin-doctors tried to say that the reason was to thwart the Soviets' attempt to control his mind through radio waves using his metal filling - which does sound slightly crazy. But that was what Brady considered as media-manufactured urban legend. It was so easy to sensationalize Fischer, and it still is, I guess. The truth is usually more mundane, as you explained with the fillings, and less "mad."
True about the fillings, of course, <Batgirl>. Not so about his auto-antisemitism, justification of 9/11, publicly spitting on a US official letter (rather than trying to handle his 1992 situation quietly), but I need not write more, as we're still within your last paragraph in #41.
Bobby Fischer in a nutschell: As a chess player, Brilliant. Outside the chess world? A spoiled arrogant, egotistical brat! Bobby Fischer wanted the world to accept him only on his terms or he would pout or throw a temper tantrem. Case in point, his behavoir in 1972 WCC. He won! then showed his bratty behavoir again by ignoring that there would ever be a contender for his WCC crown. Bobby only viewed the world from his own perspective and did not consider anything else. He retired with plenty of money to live, but turned his back on his country and (more importantly) the chess world. He was lucky that Iceland welcomed him. He was simply the product of a single parent home. His mother and sister gave into his demands, but the world finaly said NO!
Oh please, he wasn't that bad until the very end.
He wasn't spoiled, and the biggest brats are often adored by the public.
<Ke4bss> this probably wasn't THAT bad so long as he played chess with some regularity.
He was also brilliant (up to 1973) in talk shows, chess columns and publications. All of his defects were totally excusable, totally shadowed by his enormous and obvious ability and brilliance, nothing but a matter of cheap gossip.
Sadly, at some point he lost direction (by quitting chess), at which point the weaknesses in his position started to become glaring.
This is comparable to the position where you accept horrible pawn structures in exchange for a promising initiative. If you abandon the attack, your position is a shambles.
In life, you always have to be on the attack! Everybody has weaknesses. They become important the moment you stop attacking!
(attack life and its challenges, not attack other people, mind you!)
Oh please, he wasn't that bad until the very end.
He wasn't spoiled, and the biggest brats are often adored by the public.
Ok,excuse me while cough a hair ball! hack! hack!
That's a good quote, NotAllowedTo...yours?