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Bobby Fischer dies.....

He was a genius. A flawed, severely eccentric genius. The Fischer-Spassky rematch in the early 90s was the first chess tournament that I followed completely, replaying all the moves of each match on my chessboard.
 
He was troubled and fell prey to messages of deep hate and bigotry that made his character questionable and distasteful, to say the least, but he was a supremely brilliant individual.

His story is a tragedy, really.
 
themadchemist said:
He was troubled and fell prey to messages of deep hate and bigotry that made his character questionable and distasteful, to say the least, but he was a supremely brilliant individual.

His story is a tragedy, really.
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agreed. sad story. brilliant man, but a victim all the same.
 
Don't know anything about him. All I know is that there's a movie with his name in it, and it looked boring, so I never watched it :eek:

Sounds like a brilliant man, though. I wish I learnt to play chess.
 
8x8

Although 64 is pretty young, it seems an appropriate age for a chess master to kick off. One year for every square on the board.
 
I am sorry but I do not care how great a chess player he was. An anti semite is not a great man nor is he "troubled" He is just a hateful person.
 
Fischer certainly was a great chess player, but a terrible person. Even before he went completely off the deep end he was at best a deeply eccentric individual.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Fischer certainly was a great chess player, but a terrible person. Even before he went completely off the deep end he was at best a deeply eccentric individual.
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I wonder if he ever received psychotherapy or tried anti-psychotic drugs. From the article I read, it sounds like he was opposed to Western medicine, at least in his later days, but I wonder if he never gave it a shot or he tried it and it failed.
 
Kamera RAWr said:
Not that I know of, but he was an anti-semite. That is, one who hates Jews.
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His mother was Jewish, and his father might have been. His parents divorced when he was very young.

Don't look for any logic. The complete essence of Bobby Fischer's logical abilities were directed at chess. He evidently had nothing left over for the rest of his own life or the world around him. I think he was a kind of idiot savant -- absolutely brilliant at one thing but completely incapable of comprehending anything else.
 
Here in Iceland, the word is that Fischer might have been operated on and would have lived longer, if not for his hostility to Western medecine. He had kidney problems

He was laid to rest in a small cemetery out in the country this morning with a Catholic priest officing and very few people present, (this was done in great secrecy, and according to his wishes). You can see a photo of his grave at this link:

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2008/01/21/fischer_jardsettur_i_kyrrthey/

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Somebody above was pointing out that he died at the age of 64, the number of the squares on the board. Here's another remarkable coincidence, but this time it concerns Sir Edmund Hillary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdZH6LMH3Rk
 
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