A genius dead

[Skybird]

German media just have reported in news-alert-style that according to Icelandic news sources former chess world champion and ingenius chess player Bobby Fisher has died at the age of 64.

One of the greatest minds and most original players in his sports.

[3Jane]

Sad loss.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

64 is no age :cry:

What was the cause?

[Skybird]

He died in a hospital in rejkjavik, that's all so far. and 64 is a good age, imo. I hope I will leave while still being not ill, debile, or dependant.

He lived on Icland and was given their citizenship to avoid him being extradited to the US that wanted him to bring to court for having refused to obey the political decision of boykotting Belgrade in the early 90s. He decided to ignore poltiics and instead focussing on sports, played a tournament there back then, and won, earning 3 million prize money. Since then, he was a hunted. Iceland accepted his request for asylum when he was arrested in Japan where he hid for years, trying to leave there with a no longer valid US passport.

In his later, anonymous career he earned a reputation to be playxing on the internet without identifying himself, and stun people by his playing style which seemed to have violated all common sense and reason and violated all the golden rules of chess theory, and did not care for things to do and not to do, nevertheless put all the loose ends and the chaos to successful rearrangement and victory, which left most players and experts clueless how he did it.

It is said and rumoured that he was driven by hoping to find a chess player that could match his abilities, and thus anonymously haunted the chess servers and played against people and watched matches without revealing his identity. It seems he did not find such a talent. Or brother in soul, if that was what he was looking for - who knows.

An excentric, yes, but one who remained loyal to his principles and who was gifted a talent that many players even cannot value. Sometimes these stories remind me of what you have seen in "Rainman", Dustin Hoffman looking at the hundred firematches on the floor and within a split of a second and by just one glance immediately knowing how many there are - exactly. In this way i mean it when saying that Bobby Fisher maybe was not just "normal". His chess certainloy was not - especially after he withdrew from the public scene in the 70s.

It seems to me it was a lonely man on a lonely quest, maybe thinking of himself to be the only one of his kind.

[STEED]

I only had one beef with the guy, why the hell he did not defend his crown. I don't buy his reasons, never the less he was a good player and a bit odd.

[kiwi_2005]

So he got pawned then :D

[CCIP]

I only had one beef with the guy, why the hell he did not defend his crown. I don't buy his reasons, never the less he was a good player and a bit odd.

Honestly, I don't think he cared. I'm pretty sure that his passion for chess was something that he considered above mere competition.

I say that as someone who was born without a competitive bone in my body, myself, of course :p

Always said when one of the truly bright and original minds in the world passes on :(

[Skybird]

I should have been more precise, the tournament he did in Yugoslavia actually was a rematch against his old rival Boris Spasski whose world champion title he had taken in the 70s - the great cold war duel, only the collision between Kortschnoi and Karpov came close to raise that much of international interest - but only close.

Fisher won that rematch again.

[U49]

and the story starts maybe here ?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

ssshhhhht.. do not dististurb... I'm still reading

[joea]

Very sad, a great man and legend of chess.

[Skybird]

and the story starts maybe here ?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

ssshhhhht.. do not dististurb... I'm still reading
Look at that strange, almost childlike handwriting of him on the scorecard! :hmm:

[XabbaRus]

Just reading about him on various sites about his life story, and though he might have ben a chess genius, when reading about the lists of demands he made for the competition with Karpov the phrase "spoiled brat" sprung to mind, which is my conclusion of what he is. Eccentricity is no excuse.

[CCIP]

Just reading about him on various sites about his life story, and though he might have ben a chess genius, when reading about the lists of demands he made for the competition with Karpov the phrase "spoiled brat" sprung to mind, which is my conclusion of what he is. Eccentricity is no excuse.
I think we can all agree that he certainly didn't have the greatest personality. I don't know about "spoiled brat", but between his unsportsmanlike behaviour and his downright paranoid and nasty attitude in later years - I think the least we can say is "antisocial"!

But again, I think what was going on in certain parts of his head was absolutely remarkable and worthy of recognition.

[XabbaRus]

True but I was reading about the match he was supposed to play against Karpov and he wanted the rules changed so if he drew 9:9 he would retain his title but Karpov had to win 12:8 to gain the title. Seems he wanted it sorted in his favour so it was even harder for Karpov to win.

[STEED]

He had an air of arrogance's about him, which was wasted in the world of chess. Off the chess scene, he made some very hurtful and insulting remarks which bought him trouble. America's only grandmaster to date who could had gone on in the world of chess without out his crass side that got the better of him.

[baggygreen]

Having seen some of his chess games played out move by move, Im fascinated by the way he saw things.

Unfortunately, almost every article i've ever read on the man was not much less than scathing... he certainly was an eccentric bugger wasnt he!

[Skybird]

True but I was reading about the match he was supposed to play against Karpov and he wanted the rules changed so if he drew 9:9 he would retain his title but Karpov had to win 12:8 to gain the title. Seems he wanted it sorted in his favour so it was even harder for Karpov to win.
Xabba, that is no single case, it was the rule with many championships. The cionstant lobbyiong of the candidates friends for influencing the codntions in their favour gave us the not less eccentric battle around the match Kortschnoi and Karpo, and it ultimately led to the split of the chess federation, FIDE, or better: the new founding of a competing federation by Kasparov, which for soem years became the far more important than FIDE. It also was a question of Moscow-friendly party politics (FIDE, president Campomenes, and Karpov), and the rebellion against that (Kasparov, Kortschnoi (who was seen as a traitor for he turned his back on the USSR) ). fisher-Spasski was a chess duel with a poltiical diemnsion, but Kortschnoi and Karpov added to that another diemnsion: personal antipathy, even hate. they disliked each other on a personal basis for what they were representing, and for what they stood.

That has damaged Karpov's reputation, which is a shame, because he maybe plays efficient only and by that: unspectacular, but nevertheless must be seen as one of the storngest players there ever were.

You will find eccentric behavior and disputed tournament conditon regarding very, very many of the great chess players. It comes as part of pushing their chess skills to the extremes, like narcissism and lust for power are the shadow of almost every major politician.

If you are interested: it is an older book stopping after Fisher became world champion and leaving our Karpow, Kortschnoi, Kasparov, but it is a very accessible biography of the great world chmapion in the hiostory of chess, from Steinitz to Fisher "Harold Schonberg: Grandmaster'S of chess". I assume their are more modern volumes as well, but cannot recommend any by own reading, only the book by Schonberg. The duels between Karpof and Kortschnoi, and Kasparov, I followed en detail during my school age, that's why I know about them as well. Soimetimes, it was a marathon concerning match numbers - the battle for influencing match conditions in one player'S favour led to these absurd constellations.

[porphy]

Fisher was one of the greatest, but it feels like he turned into some kind of myth, by himself and others, after withdrawing from the world champion match. It will be interesting to see if he has left unseen "chess material" to the world...
Many chess players are ebit excentric, as you say Skybird. One great player who took part in a funny episode was Mikail Tal. Quote below from http://www.starfireproject.com/chess/tal.html

"In the 1959 tournament, he even scored 4-0 against the young, but brilliant future World Champion, Bobby Fischer. Tal's style mesmerized the chess world, and GM Ragozin explained the reason best: "Tal does not move chess pieces by hand, he uses a magic wand".
Tal was so intimidating in those years that he made seasoned Grandmaster opponents shudder with fear. A case in point is a game played between GM Tal (as Black) and Hungarian GM Pal Benko (as White) at the Interzonal Tournament in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1959. This was the third cycle (the first two were played in Bled and Zagreb, respectively), and Benko was starting to think that Tal had been hypnotizing him due to his poor record against him so far. So Benko took with him sunglasses and wore them while at the chessboard. But Tal, who had heard of Benko's plan to wear sunglasses before the game started, borrowed enormous dark glasses from GM Petrosian. When Tal put on these ridiculously enormous glasses, not only did the spectators laugh, but other participants in the tournament did, as did the tournament controllers, and finally even Benko himself laughed. But unlike Tal, Benko did not remove his glasses until the 20th move when his position was hopeless." :cool: :cool:

[Jimbuna]

Having seen some of his chess games played out move by move, Im fascinated by the way he saw things.

Unfortunately, almost every article i've ever read on the man was not much less than scathing... he certainly was an eccentric bugger wasnt he!

Eccentric....definitely, but a guy with a strategic mind that millions would love to have.
RIP Bobby.