Why is Fischer considered the greatest chess player ever by so many?
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Fischer was an agressive persoun, his excentrical requests on match were nonsense.In my humble opinion i managed to put opponents nervous with those little schemes.Sure he was good, i can t deny that.but for me he has no place in a top 10.
"his excentrical requests on match" helped make chess playing conditions remarkably better.
Yeah right...ask Spassky
Yes, ask Spassky. Because of Fischer, Spassky made far more money losing than he ever would have previously dreamed of earning by winning. Because of Fischer, the audience was better segregated from the players and the noise and interference was kept to a minimum. Things Spassky surely appreciated but would have never demanded.
no place in the top 10!! thats laughable! as for spassky, his play suffered from his own case of nerves, namely they were shot. he even said so himself. he was quoted as saying his yrs as world champion were the unhappiest of his life. there's little doubt that fischer was a prima donna and eccentric, but to suggest he wasnt a top 10 player of all time is to deny reality. fischers demands reasonable or not had little to do with spassky's defeat in my humble opinion. spassky was the world champion and a great chess player but bobby fischer was better!!
I have heard allegations of Alekhines "anti-semitism". I find it hard to believe he was really anti-semitic given that his last wife was an American jewish woman. Sorry, but this picture raises too many questions that I havent seen answered satisfactorily. What I have read of Alekhine makes me believe he was an opportunist and very selfish, more than anything else.
found this article on the web about alekhine and the nazis, i dont know how acurate it is but it is very interesting none the le
In March 1946, he died in a hotel in Estoril (outside Lisbon), Portugal after choking on a piece of meat. Some say he did not choke, but died of a stroke or heart attack. He had been sitting in a chair with a pocket peg chess set beside him, analyzing a chess position after eating dinner alone. he was 53.
A day after Alekhine's death, a letter arrived inviting him to England for an Alekhine-Botvinnik match.
The doctor who wrote the official death certificate, Dr. Antonio Ferreira, later denied that Alekhine died by choking or even a heart attack. The doctor told his friends that Alekhine had actually been shot and murdered. The doctor said that the Portuguese government put pressure on him to complete the death certificate to show that Alekhine died of a heart attack and not murdered to avoid any controversy. There is speculation that Alekhine was murdered by a French Resistance secret death squad who targeted French citizens who collaborated with the German Nazis.
In 1956 the manuscripts of the 6 Nazi articles appeared in Grace Wishard's personal effects. They were all in Alexander Alekhine's handwriting.
ss
yes yes, of course
I am the author of that article on Alekhine. I tried to find as many sources as I could on Alekhine (Winter, Spraggett, Chess Life, BCM, Moran's book, others).
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/nazi.htm
About Alekhine:
There was article in Soviet newspaper: "While we beat nazi on the front, Alekhine's beating them at the heart of Germany!". That's why nazi sent Alekhine away from Germany to Portugal. They didn't like that non-German man is winning all Germans - this was opposing their theory!
@batgirl: I read this book in original Russian. First of all "13 years old kasparov found another, more beautiful way to draw... ". Then there was written a lot about Botvinnik - Fischer's match. I think you're right - Fischer wasn't afraid of Botvinnik, but the most interesting thing is that first he agreed to play this match, then he refused, then he agreed again, finally he refused.... It's strange, isn't it? My opinion is that Fischer wasn't afraid of Botvinnik - he was afraid to lose. I don't say that he's bad player - he played great games and he had great talent, but he thought that he mustn't lose even one game... And I remember that you said that computers proved that Fischer could win that game. But that's what I'm talking about! Computers never worry and they never make mistakes and they never lose feeling of danger like Fischer did in that game. It's like equation: Success = talent + qualities(character). Fischer had big talent, but qualities... That's only my opinion.
The idea that the game might have been objectively salvageable is more ironic than meaningful. Just as the idea that 13 year old Kasparov found another (I take it, another as opposed to Geller's original) beautiful way to draw is also ironic since I believe it was Botvinnik himself who observed, in comparing Kasparov to Fischer, that Kasparov was stronger tactically while Fischer had better endgame technique. All these things add another layer of intrigue if not substance.
The idea that Fischer was afraid to lose just doesn't make sense to me. Losing is a part of chess. While every professional chess player despises losing, a person who is afraid to lose, doesn't play professional chess. This isn't to say that there can't be times when someone loses confidence or that there can't be times when a person feels fear, but they overcome these things or retire because chess is unforgiving. The impression I've taken from this entire discussion is that Fischer was paranoid, with good reason, about the Soviet's methodology and his suspicions may have led him to over-react in some cases. And if Fischer was indeed afraid to lose, it was the fear of losing, not to an individual, but to an entire system. Adversely, It could possibly be said that such great players as Reshevsky, Larson, Taiminov, Petrosian, Spassky crumbled under fear of losing to Fischer. It's all very complex and all opinions, or evaluations, have merit.
billwall wrote:
I am the author of that article on Alekhine. I tried to find as many sources as I could on Alekhine (Winter, Spraggett, Chess Life, BCM, Moran's book, others).
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/nazi.htm
It's a very interesting article. I found in the article many new facts, that have been not published in Russian Sources (Kotov and others).
Reb wrote: I have heard allegations of Alekhines "anti-semitism". I find it hard to believe he was really anti-semitic given that his last wife was an American jewish woman. Sorry, but this picture raises too many questions that I havent seen answered satisfactorily. What I have read of Alekhine makes me believe he was an opportunist and very selfish, more than anything else.
It does not matter who was his wife. Even among Jews there are many anti-Semitics (for example Fischer).
Even in Hungary, he would visit chess player Lazlo Polgar, and moan for hours about Jews. Polgar is Jewish. ... In California, Raiczanyi met Regina Fischer. 'She was very nice, a strong lady. Bobby started talking about Jews, and she said: “Why do you think you're so pure?”'
Excerpts from Andrew Anthony's article, "Searching for Bobby Fischer"
Don't you have to be a little crazy to be marry someone Jewish and also be anti-semitic? Perhaps you have some insights. From what I've read, Alekhine wasn't regarded as crazy.
Fischer was a one man show, he did not rely on seconds to analyze the position while he rested. He accomplished greatness long before the age of computers that players today rely on. If any of the players today had to play Fischer without the benefit of computer analysis or a team of seconds at Fischers top form, none of them would stand a chance against him in a match, and that includes Kasparov.
Fischer was a one man show.............. that is a very valid point! i think some ppl fail to appreciate that fact. spassky was a product of a govt sponsored chess empire! bobby fischer toppled that empire single handedly!! that fact alone is amazing, in and of itself!!
fleiman:
All of Mr. Wall's articles are interesting. Another online article about Alekhine that might be worthwhile reading is Chessbase's Alekhine's death – an unresolved mystery?
Reb wrote: Ricardo_Morro wrote: I admired Fischer's play greatly for its incisiveness and clarity. I studied his "60 Memorable Games" avidly. But in recent years, after he surfaced with a bunch of stupid antisemitic rants and other ignorant tirades, I got rid of my copy of "60 Memorable Games" in disgust. Now I prefer to study the games of Alekhine. To me it doesn't matter anymore if he was the greatest player or not. I don't want to extend him any recognition, I want nothing to do with him.
How on earth can you condemn Fischer for antisemitism but not Alekhine?! Perhaps you dont know about Alekhine's ? Alekhine is also accused of nazi collaboration! So, maybe you should throw away all your books on, or by , Alekhine if you are to be consistent?
Alekhine was under duress, trapped in Axis territory during the war. He later claimed that the antisemitic pamphlets published with his name on them were not written by him and that his name was used without his permission. Nonetheless he was ostracized after the war. However, at the end the chess world was ready to readmit him: he was at last invited to an international tournament but died before he could attend. So Alekhine renounced anti-Semitism, if he ever had really been antisemitic; what's Fischer's excuse?
Ofcourse Alekhine denied the accusations. However the articles he denied writing were later found and in his own handwriting, if anything can be believed anymore. We must keep in mind that the nazis and communists were at war with each other and given how Alekhines family, and he , was treated by the communists his alliance with nazis isnt so hard to understand , is it? I believe his brother was killed by the communists and he himself imprisoned by them for some time. I personally dont believe someone who hates jews would marry a jewish woman. Alekhine's wife was jewish so......
You got rid of My 60 Memorable Games and now its worth from $48.94 to $75 on Amazon, and slightly cheaper on ebay.
http://www.amazon.com/My-Memorable-Games-Bobby-Fischer/dp/0671214837