Was Bobby Fischer crazy?

You're right. I sit corrected. Wikipedia cites a 2009 Chess Life article to that effect. Fischer also apparently didn't sever his ties with the church until 1977. That at least explains some of his years living in that Pasadena basement apartment. But still ... it took five years from the failed prophesies and coed sex scandals to realize he'd been had? Sometimes all you can do is shake your head and say, "wow".

According to Fischer himself he stopped paying taxes in 1977. Somewhere around that time he started calling himself "Robert D. James" on his apartment, mailbox, and storage space. So it wouldn't surprise me if the US State Department had contacted the IRS for info and been told essentially "Good luck on collecting. We've been after this guy for 15 years!"

Also, his payday for the Spassky rematch never passed a US border. As soon as he got the money he gave most of it to his sister in Belgrade and she then traveled to Zurich and created a bank account in his name.

See if you can get your hands on the 2010 HBO documentary "Bobby Fischer Against the World". It recreates the period pretty well and has lots of Fischer interview footage. It also recreates how important ordinary people thought the event was.

Fischer wiping out Taimanov, Petrosian, and then Spassky was a huge blow to the USSR's international prestige and presented an internal problem as well. It was interpreted by some in their power structure as a implicit repudiation of their culture.

On the flip side, there was a huge Fischer and chess boom in the US then. Chess masters were suddenly able to make a living because so many people wanted to learn the game. Good times!

Back then I knew the owner of a chess shop. He sold out of most items in 1972 and therefore stocked up his inventory in anticipation of the 1975 world championship. Then Fischer didn't play. Suddenly a lot of people didn't care about chess anymore. My friend and plenty of other people took big hits to their incomes that year. Bad times!

So, no, back then the world championship wasn't simply a matter of propaganda.

 I have some friends with some what many would say "minor" mental health issues/conditions and while ostensibly nice normal guys on 90% of occasions on 90% of topics are completely off the wall on some other, especially when they feel emotionally connected to those issues and the issues are currently compounding. The reason for this is that once you are removed from reality and start "investigating" on the non-peer reviewed sources, such as many of the youtube sources posted here and the conspiracy enamored sites the logic and scientific method is abandoned for all further analysis and minor discrepancies are the smoking gun and each further unanswered question is further proof. The fact that nearly all of these conspiracy points have been categorically answered by expert in each field is ignored and the same BS is trotted out in the catalog of "proofs" again and again.  These people are also detached from reality and their minds will never again be open to ant other than their interpretation of these events, there is therefore no point in even entering into a discussion with them.

My thoughts are with the posters above that were actually affected by these terrible event.

and now back on topic...

Yes he was "crazy", after many years living the way he did, it all came to a head fairly early on, probable early '60's and slowly got worse and worse, quoting from wiki Hein Donner wrote that at the time of Bled 1961, "He idolized Hitler and read everything about him that he could lay his hands on. He also championed a brand of anti-semitism that could only be thought up by a mind completely cut off from reality", It is both a shame and surprisingly normal for someone at that level of genius and in many respects, isolationist (critically thinking of chess only for many years) to cross over from rational thinking to total cuckoo.

Full disclosure: some posters above (and I?) may be on that path without the genius aspect.

   ---   And on and on we go.

I'm a proud Anti- Zionist! The state Israel has no right to exist. Read how it was "created"- A line in the sand by James Barr.

You are a nutcase

He's a PROUD nutcase, though.

Agreed. The more I learn about the adult Bobby Fischer away from the chessboard, the more obvious the verdict becomes. Dr. Magnus Skulasson is a clinical psychiatrist who also a friend of Fischer at the end (although Fischer wasn't his patient). Brady's Endgame quotes his opinion that Fischer "definitely wasn't schizophrenic" and that although he had problems, "He was misunderstood. Underneath I think he was a caring and sensitive person."

While I salute Dr. Skulasson's compassion, I wonder where the facts are to support such a conclusion.  Just two years after Fischer's welcoming press conference where he talked about Iceland being a "wonderful country" with "very fine people" he was emailing Pal Benko that it was a "God foresaken country", that Icelanders were special "but only in the negative sense", and he didn't owe them anything. In the HBO documentary Icelandic neurologist Kari Stefansson noted "I met Bobby after he came to Iceland. His existence was a very lonely one. He gradually, in Iceland like everywhere else, he alienated people with his behavior." He also noted the obsessive-compulsive nature of his commenting on the evil nature of the Jews, the US, etc. It wasn't just a political opinion, he simply couldn't stop talking about those things.

I recently finished rereading Brady's Endgame and for a while I was torn by which anecdote best summarized Fischer's nuttery. Certainly his insistance that the 1985 Karpov-Kasparov rematch was "a fake" with all the moves prearranged in advance has to be near the top of the list. But even more loony to me are events that happened when he was visiting the Polgar family. After denying the very existence (!) of Auschwitz or the more than a million people killed there, Laslo Polgar confronted him. After telling him of family members who been killed in the camps, Polgar asked "Bobby, do you really think my family disappeared by some magic trick?"

Even with that provocation, the Polgars continued to be his occasional hosts. Until Sofia Polgar was asked to give an exhibition at the US embassy. Fischer was so furious that she would even consider entertaining his sworn enemies that he wound up arguing not just with her but the entire family. At which point the two parties severed relations.

But while those incidents seem pretty crazy to me, the most chilling words I read in Brady's book are from a collection of Fischerabilia. In an unpublished 1999 book, Fischer laments "we're" not strong enough "to wipe out all the Jews at this time" so he advocates "vigilante random killing of Jews". Because, you know, they're all criminals who have it coming or something. Pretty vile stuff that's right up there with Fischer's many 9/11 radio comments -- and really hard to reconcile with the good Dr. Skulasson's assessment of a "caring and sensitive person" who was just misunderstood.

tygoriusI think the first part "definitely wasn't schizophrenic" could of been an answer to a direct question e.g. Is Bobby a schizophrenic? and the second part shows the closeness and alludes to the real truth "although he had problems... he was a caring and sensitive person", maybe a touch of autism, certainly later in life psychosis and probably more than touch or paranoia but categorically not "schizophrenic" i.e. many "problems" and over "sensitive" it fits the common pattern of the downward spiral these problems can exhibit with that level of IQ and isolationism.  I feel it is bit of a shame that a person obviously so brilliant that had these shortcomings so out there to see, could not get any sort of functional treatment, however the paranoia would provably prevent him from being open to these treatments anyway. If you look at some examples littered through history of some of the best minds, many are tainted with some mental health issues, including Churchill, Hitler, Mussolini and more contemporary Bananaman from Fiji and Syria's Assad. I suppose when you get to that level paranoia is more a survival trait and only a real "issue" when forced out of power. Indeed it may be psychosomatic e.g. only those that have the gift also have the curse? Thus ends K2QS amateur doctor office day for Thursday, gl all chess.com peeps.

LaRosa probably has never heard of irony? The words I was quoting were Bobby Fischer's. But he meant it. Not the book though, as far as I know... Also, the book- A Line in the Sand- gives a good description of how the State Israel was created. Fischer was not schizophrenic, nor did he suffer "psychosis". I really think he had Asperger's cause he took things literally. Also, look at his clumsiness in many things, the avoidance of social contact or to understand the interaction between people. That Fischer called Iceland a godforsaken country was cause of the boredom he suffered. He could not get of the island.He liked to travel but  he would be arrested by the USA when he popped up in another country. That is why Benko also said Fischer was giving up on life. And therefore the hate of Iceland. One thing should not be forgotten too. Fischer HATED it not being independant.

And for those people who were offended by me calling " Fischer was a piece of [profanity -Mod]". I got that from other people. Fischer was a very unpleasant character. Always wanting his way. No regard for other people etc. Fischer was always raving and ranting about the Jews. All the time. Like a guy who has Tourette. If you like that , go listening to his interviews for hours and hours on the net. Have fun!

Fond of WAR CRIMES are we there, Himmler?...

Don't you worry folks. In a great democracy like America, we eventually give politicians who think like that a good spanking.

Don't loose faith in democracy... Watch what we do to any immoral politician who tries to drag us into the mud by proposing WAR CRIMES.  We are a nation of LAWS not of men.

That was a PT Barnum Quote. Not Lincoln.

Why not?

Explain to me why Israel has any less right to exist than any other nation?

I couldn't care less how Israel was created.  Do you know who owns Palestine?... WHOEVER CAN HOLD IT.... and that is true of EVERY ACRE OF LAND ON EARTH.   

Thousands of years ago it was called Canaan and was held by Philistines from Crete, later by Assyrians, later by Persians, Hebrews, Romans, even European Christians, you name it!... The whole argument is IDIOTIC.

I'm sorry, but you are wrong.

I don't know what that drivel is , but it sure as heck isn't NEWS, American or otherwise.

Just another scary youtube KOOK video, complete with ominous music.

Besides, I looked at it and it sure looks like a commercial aircraft to me.. You know what else?... IT ALSO LOOKED LIKE A COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT TO THE ONE HUNDRED WITNESSES ON THE BRIDE THAT WATCHED IT HAPPEN WITH THEIR OWN EYES.

Your nuts!

So whoever like Russia can hold the USA , it's okay?