Thanks to Jason for pointing out that Bobby Fischer, the Chess Master, is now dead.
I feel the same way about Bobby Fischer as I do about Charles Manson. These are two people whose views of the world are sickeningly twisted to the point that the only conclusion I can make is that mental illness is involved in both cases.
Bobby lived his whole life for only two purposes, to play a game, and to be the poster child for antisemitism. His flagrant disregard for laws and authority caused him to blame the U.S. Government or the Jews for everything that ever happened to him. Even in death he laid blame at the feet of the Japanese and Icelandic governments. If you ask me, Fischer was a media whore and he probably just broke the law everywhere he went in order to stay in the limelight.
Why do I say that? Well, here are a few choice quotes:
Bobby Fischer: This is, they, they did this all behind my back.
Pablo Mercado: Umhum.
B.F.: Nobody contacted me–nothing.
P.M.: All right.
B.F.: Nobody contacted my lawyers–nothing. The fuckin Jews want to destroy everything I’ve worked for all of my life.
P.M.: What, what–
B.F.: There was no holocaust the Jews are liars. It’s time we took off the kid gloves with these parasites.
P.M.: All right with, with all of these things Mr., uh, Fischer what do you intend to do now?
B.F.: I intend to do what I’m doing right now.
P.M.: What?
B.F.: –Which is to expose the Jews for the criminals they are, the parasites they are, the liars they are, the thieves they are, the murderers they are.
Oh, and if you really want to remember what a freak this guy was, watch the video here and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Bobby Fischer, now there is a blast from the past, I forgot that he wasn’t dead already.
So you call him a “media whore” but you still give him attention? It looks like your just giving him want he wanted.
I admire your honesty and courage. I think you have very strong points there but I disagree ultimately. It is sad to see almost anyone go and worse, in the conditions that Fischer did. I wouldn’t relate him with Charles Manson at all, maybe they both belong to the deranged but that doesn’t mean crazy people is bad.
If anything, I feel sorry for the loneliness in which Bobby Fischer lived almost all of his life, misunderstood, left alone with his illnesses, broke(n).
Still it takes some guts to make such a defying statement as you did. It sure made me think deeply about this event.
I admire Bobby Fischer’s courage and I respect him.
He had some good and true points.
Although am a repeat reader to your lovely blog, I truly do, but sometimes I feel sick for some of your comments.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Philip,
You may be right, but this is the last attention he’ll ever be getting from me, and he ain’t even around to enjoy it. ;-)
John
Antonio,
I agree with you that it is sad to see almost anyone go. People who know me well would tell you they are surprised to hear me make a comment like this. I am a huge advocate of free speech, and I’m often critical of governmental abuse of power. So I can empathize with anyone who has suffered abuses of the state.
Having said all that, there is no justification for the hatred and racism that Bobby Fischer broadcast throughout his lifetime, and just because I believe in allowing a man to speak his mind freely it doesn’t mean I have to like what he has to say.
Additionally, although I am a generally peaceful person, I am not naive enough to think that all problems can be worked through. Fischer and I would have never, ever, ever come to agree with one another – and I’m glad that the world is rid of one more person who is so full of blind racial or religious hatred.
You are right that just because someone may be crazy it does not make them bad, but at the same time there are people who are just plain bad – and there is nothing any of us can ever do to change that.
John
Mark,
I am glad that you normally enjoy the articles, and I suppose it’s good that sometimes we will have differences of opinion. That is what makes the world interesting.
You’ve probably also noticed that I don’t often actually post articles that are intensely controversial – maybe 1 in 20. But have you also noticed that some of these are the most interesting? Not because of the articles themselves, but because of the comments! :-)
Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I would be interested in knowing what “good and true” points he had that you agreed with…
John
I admired Bobby as a kid, I think I even used that same thinking pose as him (jokingly but with some respect) when I played chess in grade school. He obviously lost it but he seemed to suffer from that too smart disease that was displayed in your smartest people in the world post. I wonder if the people who deny the holocaust also deny that the US used nuclear weapons. Why do they all deny the same things?
I agree. Bobby was a nutcase. So was the co-inventor of the transistor: Shockley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley
He was pro population manipulation. He believed the “less intelligent” shouldn’t reproduce.
Both genius’s, both crazy.
Hey at least you’ll get the last word on this one =p
I’ve never head of him ?
guess I’m better off ay ;)
bobby fischer is one of the misunderstood celebs of our time. i was good friends with his first chess teacher, mr. carmine nigro and another of his childhood friends, grandmaster arnold denker. they both told me many stories about bobby, both from his childhood and his adult years. bobby was neither crazy nor hateful. he was, however very pissed off– and his childlike personality manisfested itself in those types of thoughtless rants and raves of a pissed off child. invective misdirected at the jewish population in general (both carmine and mr denker are jewish as was most of bobby’s real friends) and the u.s. government (bobby was a consumate patriot in his younger days. his behavior in his later years was obviously irrational and unfortunate, but i doubt he was ‘crazy’. he was a very likable person in his youth, save for some temperamental outbursts and misjudgments which his unbridled personality allowed him to indulge in. bobby became very bitter over some unfortunate events which happened in his life, some of which were by his own poor choices and some which were not of his doing.
to judge bobby just from those now infamous radio interviews from the philippines and from some of his public comments is not thoughtful criticism and simply demonstrates a lack of knowledge about the man. i will not defend his ‘vituperative mouth’ in his later years…but in many ways, bobby was a decent person and it was sad the way he finished up what might have been a stellar life.
and to compare him with charles manson is absurd.
– bruce
Just found your site and I love it already, What I didn’t know was that he was coo-coo for coco puffs. And how does a man that was born a Jew, vehemently deny the holocaust.
Although I do agree with Mr. Spocks condemnation of the Manson comparison,(unless of coarse Fischer whacked some people we don’t know about) he’s basing his argument on what amounts to little more than hearsay and supposition.
That’s true, alan, but a lot of the hearsay was from fischer’s close personal friends…:)
It is a worry when a mind can be so brilliant in a board game yet offer the views of a simpleton when facing reality.
erm… but Bobby Fischer DID have a nervous breakdown early in life that did cause irreparable brain damage. Even as early as 1970 he was beginning to show signs of mentally ill behavior.
I’m sorry that his brain damage pisses you off, but get with it. It’s not OK to pick on the mentally ill anymore. He needed help and meds, not public persecution that made it worse.
Teshara,
There is no evidence of any irreparable brain damage on Fischer’s part.
Besides that… lets say that someone was a normal human. Then they got brain damage – for any reason whatsoever. This caused them to have an insatiable appetite for babies. Guess what? We don’t care WHY they want to eat babies! And we aren’t going to feel sorry for them! They are a monster and should be treated as such.
Cheers,
John P.
Bobby Fischer was the greatest chess player that ever lived. Comparing him to Charles Manson – a convicted murderer – is totally absurd. Sure, Fischer was eccentric. Sure, he hated the Jews (which was all the more strange considering Fischer himself was Jewish). But was he totally off-base in his accusations that Jews control the United States? Absolutely not. 50% of all US billionares are Jewish – yet Jews account for only 2% of the US population. Almost 100% of the MSM, including virtually all big-time Hollywood studios, are dominated and controlled by Jews. The Federal Reserve, the quasi-private central bank of the United States, is governed almost entirely by Jews. AIPAC greases our politicians to fight wars for Israel, and to give more money to Israel than any other country in the world. And the ADL manipulates and smears anyone daring to say the things I’ve just said. So, do Jews rule the US? No. But they’re doing a damn good job of fooling everyone into thinking they do.
John P,
If you could not tell from simple observation that Bobby Fischer undoubtedly at some point went over the edge and was mentally impaired, then you are certainly not qualified to make the obviously incorrect judgement and merciless diatribe against a dead man who was once great in life. I’m sure that you would hope for better understanding and compassion, if you were in his condition. Get off your high horse pal.
Bobby Fischer was a brilliant man and one of a kind. He was exploited as a child as an American tool in the Cold War, and pushed over the edge when he rebuffed the Jewish encyclopedia, declining to be one of their trophies. He may have been off the wall in his later years, but was still stalked and harassed by the likes of Jeremy Shaap, anyone wanting to drum up antisemitism, as it’s played to bolster that cynical American watchdog of the middle-east, Israel.