Bobby Fischer has died

[The Straight Story]

Just heard on the news, no link yet.

If anyone else gets a link please add it.

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

[Why Syzygy]

1. two

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7195840.stm

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijDA5bgxiHlTvS_r-SSjskS1Tq1wD8U88S6O3

[The Straight Story]

4. Thank you (nt)

[soothsayer]

2. check and mate.

so long, Bobby.

[jgraz]

3. Damn, and I was just searching for him this morning.

:P

[EFerrari]

6. He was only 64. n/t

[jgraz]

8. And there are exactly 64 squares on a chessboard

Coincidence? You decide.... :tinfoilhat:

[EFerrari]

9. Do we have a dungeon for chess related conspiracies?

:)

[The Straight Story]

11. I think it is in the election reform section

:)

[EFerrari]

12. Lol. Thanks for putting this up, The Straight Story.

Gosh, my brother and I were so into chess. We had this little travel set we used to take with us on roads trips and while Mom was resting, we'd play and play and play. Those were the days when chess was sexy and baggy pants were dumb.

[EFerrari]

5. My favorite uncle was a chess player. He taught me how to play

and had me following Fischer when I should have been chasing boys.


Chess legend Fischer dies at 64
BBC breaking news graphic
Controversial former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has died aged 64, Iceland's national radio has said.

The US-born player had been seriously ill for some time.

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005, as a way to avoid being deported to the country of his birth, the US.

He was wanted there for breaking international sanctions by playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7195840.stm

[H2O Man]

10. Many years ago,

one of the best teachers I had in college strongly advised people to teach the game to their children and other young family members. He was a psychiatrist who focused on child development. He believed that the ability to play chess was related to language skills. Your uncle was right!

[Tyler Durden]

14. ANOTHER fine legacy of Bush #1...

And by proxy, the Reagan presidency.

[ozone_man]

25. But the boys were playing chess.

Smart man your uncle. :)

I had several chess books by Fischer and several others. He was a bold player, which really captured the imagination of everyone. Instead of playing safe, he often made unusual and risky counterattacks.

[ClintonTyree]

7. Checkmate

too young, man, too young. I remember watching the play by play of the Spasky/Fisher matches. It was an incredible boost for chess. Even with all of his idiosyncrasies, Fisher was a positive force for the game.

RIP Bobby.

[malaise]

13. Bobby Fischer made all his moves

his way. Politically incorrect all the way!! Checkmate indeed!!

[EFerrari]

15. I wonder why he chose Iceland, of all places, to reside in.

He sure was / had an independent mind.

[timtom]

16. To help fight against extradition to the US

because he played in Yugoslavia in the early 90's, in defiance of Bush 1's lockdown on Yugoslavia.

Also, Fischer, child of 2 Jewish parents, was quite anti-semitic since the 1960's, chiefly because of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

The whole messy affair was quite political.

Check out the wiki link in the initial post.

[EFerrari]

17. I know he was fighting extradition but you'd think that there would be

an easier place to go to.

[hlthe2b]

18. How so?

I've not been to Iceland, but I get the impression it is not a bad place to live...:shrug:

[EFerrari]

20. Oh -- I don't think it's a "bad" place to live but it seems like a more

inaccessible location than others. But then, I've never had to fight extradition myself. :)

[tomp]

31. anti-israel is not the same as anti-semitism. nt

[timtom]

34. Good catch!

However, I suspect, from the wiki entry that it was anti-semitism.

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

Have a look yourself and see if I've misinterpreted Fischer's sentiments.

I have always been very, very careful to distinguish anti-semitism from anti-zionism (or anti-Israel). Actually they are three different things (though very closely related.)

[rockymountaindem]

36. In Fischer's case, the one was the source of the other

He made extensive comments directed directly at Jews, not just Israel.

[eShirl]

19. "He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship

in more than a century."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22724870/

edited to add, for any geography-challenged DUers: Reykjavik is in Iceland.

[rjones2818]

23. Remember that Iceland

was where he won the title. Also, it offered him citizenship to help get him out of Japan.

[EFerrari]

24. That must be the answer. Thanks.

:)

[Squatch]

21. Weird...he died at 64.

There are 64 squares on a chessboard

[a kennedy]

22. Here is another article about his death.....

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-01-18-fischer-obit_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

[The Straight Story]

26. Thanks for that link (nt)

[ThoughtCriminal]

27. It's hard for me to avoid thinking of the "7th Seal"

Where the knight plays chess against death.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

28. and that post made me think of Bill and Ted's Bogus Jounrey

where they play Death in Battleship and Twister. haha.

[ThoughtCriminal]

30. I plan to challenge death to "Calvin Ball"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_ball#Calvinball

[CorpGovActivist]

29. Sadness Kick

[oasis]

32. A legend:Fischer's defeat of Spasky started a chess boom in the U.S..

Rest in peace Bobby.

[tomreedtoon]

33. Can we kill CHESS next?

It is the most pretentious, stupid game ever created. It is supposed to teach "strategy" and "clear thinking." Yet I have never met anyone who played the game who could tie their shoelaces.

"Strategy" means nothing in a game with restricted rules. Life has no rules. A proper winning chess move would be to kick over the board and knee the opponent in the groin, but NO! That would be "against the rules."

The sooner we get rid of chess, and accept that the old-style Western gun battle (a la High Noon, with a clever single man taking out three opponents with stealth, guile and outright cheating) is a far better simulation of real life, the better off we'll all be.

[The Straight Story]

37. Hey now, I play chess :)

and don't go saying 'case in point' either :rofl:

[tomreedtoon]

41. We all have sins in our past. I forgive you.

I was fooled into playing The Stupid Game in grade school too. That's when I wised up and learned that it was worthless, and that learning how to hide and run was a far more sensible battle strategy than playing around with little horsies on a board.

Making chess metaphors about real-world dealings may SOUND more sophisticated than making football metaphors, but they're both stupid games and have no application to either one.

[Jim Lane]

35. And now we can begin forgetting the political foolishness of his later years

A hundred years from now, chess players will be admiring and learning from Fischer's games. That will be his enduring legacy, not the demented anti-Semitic and anti-American rants that he turned to after largely abandoning chess.

I'm not using "demented" metaphorically. He was always somewhat eccentric, of course, but I think he developed some kind of mental illness.

[Yavin4]

38. Sadness? He Was An Anti-Semite

So long asshole!

[KamaAina]

39. The first world chess champion also had mental health issues

that'd be New Orleans' Paul Morphy.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Paul_Morphy:_His_Later_Life

The mental derangement which overwhelmed Morphy's brilliant mind and clouded his later life is a curious chapter in his career, and has given rise to no little wonder among chess players as to the cause and conditions of his mania. Without going into the details of his mental troubles, two conclusions stand out very clearly, namely, that chess in no way contributed to it, and that the reverses he experienced in his material affairs did. The latter conclusion is borne out by the fact that his mania took the form of a delusion that his brother-in-law, Sybrant by name, administrator of his father's estate, had defrauded him of his legacy. So intensively did this delusion dominate him that his perverted mind conjured up machinations on the part of Sybrant to poison him in order to quiet his proposed action at law to recover. Morphy was perpetually in fear of being poisoned, and as a precaution would eat nothing except at the hands of his mother or his unmarried sister, Helena. This proposed action against his brother-in-law absorbed Morphy's attention for many years; being a lawyer himself he busied himself with the details of his suit, and was much about the law courts in consequence. It should be stated, however, that Mr. Sybrant discharged the obligations of the trust entirely to the satisfaction of the court, which is a matter of record.

It is difficult to fix the time when Morphy's mind was noticeable unbalanced. When the second American chess congress was held in Cleveland in 1871 strenuous efforts were made to secure Morphy's attendance, but he persistently declined all invitations that were urged upon him. Rumors of his malady were abroad then ; some people who were in a position to know aver that his mania was perceptible even before that date. Morphy was never legally declared insane; he was so harmless and reticent, and lived in such quite retirement at his home, that there was no need of putting him under any restraint. In June, 1882, his family did endeavor to place him in a sanitarium in the hope that he would be benefited. The institution was called the Louisiana Retreat, located near New Orleans, and under the patronage of the Catholic church. Those in the party that accompanied Morphy were his mother his brother Edward, and his intimate friend C. A. Maurian. When they reached the asylum Morphy protested against his detention with such evident sanity, and discussed his civil rights with such a learned knowledge of the law, that the Sisters in charge were afraid to assume the responsibility, and he was taken back home.

There is a street named "Paul Morphy" over by the Fair Grounds, the home of Jazz Fest.

One does wonder why top-level chess (and mathematics: John Nash) seems to be associated with mental illness. Is it cause (overstimulation of the brain) or effect (the "fine line between genius and insanity")?

[smoogatz]

40. He was a seriously weird dude.

I liked that about him.