Top 10 Chessplayers

Who said he could? I've read that he taught himself enough Cyrillic to read Russian chess books, that's impressive because non-romance languages (Chinese, Japanese, Russian etc) are a real drag for most English speakers. And who said he was a genius? Lets see some documentation here not opinions - is someone automatically a genius (ie IQ of +140, which is the entry level for Mensa) if they are a great chessplayer, musician or artist? Were Shakespeare, Mozart, and Michaelangelo "geniuses" outside of their own fields?

I read that ( I dont remember where I read it btw ) that his last years in Iceland he spent a lot of time at one of the Libraries there reading books in several different languages.... maybe we cant believe anything we read ? 

Anyway, I have also seen his IQ quoted/estimated to be over 180 which I am under the impression is high genius. 

I have also read that he was in school with Barbara Streisand.... I wonder if she remembers anything about the young Bobby ?  

The 180 IQ is BS, lets see some documentation other than someone's sayso in writing - when & where was his IQ tested and by who for starters?

I dunno, maybe he was fluent in several languages but that doesn't automatically endow someone with an IQ of 180, even 120-130 would be pretty impressive and uncommon considering that 100 is supposed to be the average IQ - to President Eisenhower's dismay when he was told that half the US population had an IQ UNDER 100!

He was in HS with BS (Barbara Streisand that is :) she remembered him in an interview I read with her many eons ago (probably a Playboy interview)

http://onemansblog.com/2007/11/08/the-massive-list-of-genius-people-with-the-highest-iq/

this one said 187 !

http://www.kids-iq-tests.com/famous2.html

kco: your first link is all ALLEGATIONS = BS!!

BUT your second link at least refers to a book written by a psychologist but offhand it all looks like hogwash to me, Fischer had a higher IQ than Einstein??? Cut me a break - but then again I haven't read the book have you?

Don't take any of this cynicism personally it's just that i get tired of seeing the same BS mindlessly repeated over and over again regardless of the subject - BUT maybe the book I haven't read makes a convincing case for all of those superduper IQs....but I doubt it!

Was Einstein a genius outside his field of expertise ? The proof ?  

even Frank Brandy said that Bobby IQ is about 180 but don't know where he got that from.

His fields included physics and math which are considerably more difficult than liberal arts, which is why I got BAs in English & History. Try reading a biography of Einstein & see for yourself if he isn't just a tad more intellectually impressive than Fischer. But I'll agree that genius in one field is still a form of genius, I guess I just don't like anti-semitic "geniuses" away from the chessboard. Nonetheless Einstein's contributions to physics "upgrading" another awesome genius Sir Isaac Newton strikes me as way more impressive than Fischer's ability to play chess, but I guess maybe that's a value judgement - even though Einstein's discoveries are way more profound than anything Fischer ever discovered and  have affected way more people. BTW when I was taking classes for a teaching certificate I was taught that there are 8 forms of genius and one of them is athletic genius (yes athletic genius) so are Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth in the same league with Einstein, Newton and DaVinci?

That's BRADY not Brandy and not knowing where he got that "fact" from is a minor inconenience to say the least. I'm going to read his book - as soon as I can get it on inter-library loan that is.

Fischer's anti-Americanism bothers me a lot more than his anti-semitism. Maybe its just because I am American and not semitic ? Even so, his anti-American rants bother me very little as I believe it was mostly directed at the govt and not the citizens themselves. 

Incidentally, despite Einstein hitting the ball far closer to the pin, I think Newton is clearly the bigger genius (having taken the approach shot for him).

The physicist analogy is apt, though, as the comparison over time as experts whose contributions are drawn upon by their successors to further a field are difficult to compare over time regardless of the field. 

Well, yeah....

Uh-huh...that's why the State Dept hounded and harassed him for playing a match organized by a scumbag dictator in an active war zone, because his country "never turned on him" although it did revoke his passport leading to his arrest and detention in Japan for several months.He was also threatened with a massive fine and imprisonment, as noted in the recent HBO documentary "Bobby Fischer vs The Rest of the World."

To his credit, Spassky wrote an appeal to President Bush (Sr) requesting clemency for Bobby, and if that was not granted he wrote that he should be imprisoned along with Bobby (and a chess set) because he also violated the UN sanctions against playing the match in Montenegro

http://www.lewrockwell.com/wall/wall27.html

 I've read interviews of Barbra Streisand where she says she had a crush on Bobby. When Bobby was 15 he was the top 15 year old chess player in the world. His name was in the papers---his school had an assembly where he was given a gold medal. I should think he would attract girls like Streisand. He was tall and good looking and he said there was this mousy looking girl who used to hang around him! 

Bobby was lucky he got away from that gal---she has emasculated every male she has been associated with.

 Lordy---You are one creepy son of a gun!!!

@ sheardp: What was Smyslov's day job?