Bobby Fischer RIP

:(

A childhood hero of mine.

RIP big man, hope heaven has plenty of Jews for you to hate.

where is kasparov comment?

the ultimate way to disappear ;_;

it seems like being a genius chess player comes with soem eccentric disadvantages

I guess he really doesn't care anymore.

Sad - RIP, strange but compelling man.

RIP Bobby.

In an ideal world this thread would play "A Rook House For Bobby" when you clicked on it.

that was my first thought too!

what a fucking life.

RIP you mixed up fucked up genius.

"He hit world headlines again after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

In an interview to a radio station in the Philippines, he described the attacks as the "wonderful news"."

Rot in hell, you fuck.

commenorative tshirts available
http://www.turntablelab.com/images/content/5/0/50686.jpg

so long you crazy antisemitic weirdo

Damn it, he would have been a great deadpool pick.

That's all I got for him.

CHECKMATE.

The door was burst in. "Robert Pavelovich, Robert Pavelovich," roared several voices. But there was no Robert Pavelovich.

one of my childhood heroes too - an incredibly magnetic, fascinating, horrifying guy.

a tragic story any way you slice it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUuV-FE8uE0

I don't think this particular hardman was ever very humble

Oof. RIP.

I highly recommend profile of a prodigy, which tells his story up until he wins the world title.

http://www.bobby-fischer.net/fischer1956b.jpg

Mazel tov, guys! We finally did it.

what a fucked up dude

Because when I think of someone to play Bobby Fischer in a movie, I think of Spider-Man.

the life of bobby fischer post-chess would make a pretty good story, but I can't see myself ever watching a movie called 'pawn sacrifice'

I saw the new documentary tonight. The post-title years are as grim as you'd expect. Well done, but what I really loved was the first hour. Period music is a roll of the dice, but because they're so incongruous as applied to this world, "Green Onions," "Bang a Gong," "Rock and Roll Part 2," and (especially) "Theme from Shaft" are fantastic. The worldwide level of interest in the Fischer-Spassky match is so improbably intense that you can't help laughing: ABC interrupts regular programming to cover one of the matches, and one of the big-three nightly newscasts (John Chancellor, I think) basically starts off one evening with, "We'll get to Watergate, the McGovern campaign, and the new unemployment figures in a moment--first, Bobby Fischer..." Fischer himself, before the fall, is fascinating to listen to--I'd never even heard him speak before tonight. I haven't played chess in 35+ years, but I'd gladly see this a second time.

Dear Mr. Osama bin Laden allow me to introduce myself. I am Bobby Fischer, the World Chess Champion.

i read frank brady's new biography of fischer a few months ago and it was a pretty riveting read, tho i can't say he did much to illuminate why fischer became what he became after 1975. probably nobody can, honestly.

I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than this, but the film tries to explain it in terms of a) a difficult relationship with his parents, and b) the nature of monastic devotion to chess (high incidence of mental illness among world chess champions, including a guy from the 1800s whose life paralled Fischer's closely).

I see someone posting "Rot in hell you fuck" upthread while I just think that many of his opinions were not too different to many of the people around my neighbourhood. The post-911 interview was transcribed in Harpers as I recall. Harpers is a popular magazine around my neighbourhood. Possibly many of my neighbours read the interview in Harpers and marvelled at someone with these opinions being granted a forum like Harpers to express them. A while later a local newspaper printed an editorial echoing many of the same thoughts about 911 which was well received by people I know.

ladies and gentlemen everything, bill magill!

ok didn't read that whole post fwiw

Years later the guy that wrote that editorial was forced to withdraw from a local by-election where he was standing for the Green Party when someone dug it up. Lots of people still supported him but the Green Party axed him for good.

That period shortly after 9/11 had a bunch of people publicly saying stuff they later regretted. If I remember correctly Moby said something that he retracted pronto.

As hateful as Fischer's 9/11 glee and rabid anti-Semitism were--there's a great confrontation later in his life where Dick Schaap's son shuts him up good--I did leave the film feeling sorry for him, as irrational as that may be. Memorable: the story where Spassky joins the spontaneous applause after Fischer's win in game 6, supposedly a legendary game and performance.

what's the documentary called, clemenza?

Bobby Fischer Against the World. It's an HBO thing--not sure where you are, but it's not the kind of film that will open everywhere. Here's a trailer, and a link for the the IMDB page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooEpfCkMr08&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1777551/

watched this last night as well. it seemed pretty clear from the doc that he was mentally ill - is this something that is disputed, or wasn't well known before this documentary? strikes me weird to see someone up-thread responding to news of his death by saying "rot in hell". I also don't think it's irrational, or anything but commendable, to feel sympathy for anyone who loses their mind. The only difference I can see between Fischer and the homeless guy who sleeps behind my office building is that Fischer had money and fame, so the voice he ranted with was louder and harder to ignore.

I think it's absolutely mental illness that overtook him. If you were to look at interview footage of Hitler at 15 or 25, my guess is you'd think, "That's Hitler all right." But you look at Fischer at the same age, and he's so interesting and so engaging (and soft-spoken even, contrary to some of his behaviour around the Spassky match), that it just doesn't go together with the vitriol he spewed later in life. The film's explanation for his madness, family + obsession with chess, seems valid to me; he was completely detached from anything resembling a normal life till he was at least 30, and seems to have basically severed ties with his family by the time he was 16. Throw in a degree of fame in 1972 that was anathema to his solitary way of being, and you can see why he went off the deep end.

When I was in HS I worked as a summer camp counselor and had the kid who played the little boy in Searching for Bobby Fischer in my group one year. Not that that really has much to do with him or this thread but I always remember that kid when I hear his name. IMDB tells me he never really did anything else but that "at the time when he made his big-screen debut in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), he was one of the country's top 100 chess players in his age group". I think I knew that actually. He was a smart kid.

doc had some A++ bobby fish photos esp him up in the hills of iceland after winning that match

lots of good footage overall actually though i found a lot of the music used fairly grating & overbearing

Have recorded this, looking forward to seeing it. The Jeremy Schaap showdown was detailed quite well in the new ESPN book as well.

for months i've been trying to shake the feeling that donald trump's voice and tone reminds me of something i'd heard a long time ago and couldn't place. it finally struck me that it's bobby fischer, not the young bobby but the old bobby, the one on those horrible radio interviews. not just the raspy new york accent or the fondness for anti-semitic conspiracy theories (barely disguised in trump's case, frighteningly strident in fischer's) or the obsessive insistence that he is the most important person in the world and that's why everyone is out to get him, but the terrifying sense that he really could say anything, laugh at his own joke as the interviewer titters nervously, and then say something worse. but bobby was, by that time, a lonely and powerless nobody and an international fugitive from justice, and trump is now the most powerful man on earth.

shit that's not a bad call

*gulp*

you can find a lot of raw associated press footage from the reykjavik match on youtube. most of it isn't terribly dramatic, ppl milling around or getting in and out of cars, but i find it strangely haunting to watch. here's a clip from the day of the first game, played 45 years ago today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKGIUIsLiww&feature=youtu.be

Clip won't play :(

weird, that's annoying. here's a different one, let's see if it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lraE7DP2oM4&t=2s

sorry, no idea why these aren't showing up! but you can find all of the clips by going to the ap archive youtube page and searching "fischer spassky."

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHTK-2W11Vh1V4uwofOfR4w

Can't find the specific yt's you linked, but that AP archive is a gold mine for sure. Seen lots of Fischer vs Spassky footage I've never seen before! Haunting is the word, indeed.