ECW
01-20-2008, 04:05 AM
Bobby Fischer, the most brilliant and paranoid of all chess grandmasters, died this week in what he would have seen as a glorious final draw in his titanic match with the US government.
But — as with his career — it was his own acute paranoia that helped end his life, as he refused medical treatment for an illness which led to kidney failure.
Fischer became the US’ s poster boy for victory in the Cold War when — after being urged to play by President Richard Nixon — he broke a quarter century of Soviet dominance of chess to become world champion, in 1972.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=686177
Whatever you want to say about Fischer, he inspired a chess revival with his victory over Spassky in 1972. I remember watching it on TV at the time and being floored at his genius on the chess board.
Many years ago I discovered that he even invented a new way to play the game of chess which involved removing all of the non-pawn pieces from the board, placing them in a hat and drawing them out one at a time to be placed back on the board in a random fashion in the back row instead of the usual rook-knight-bishop placement. It completely changed how the game was played and meant that no two games would ever be played the same.
Too bad he brought all that other baggage with him at the same time.
But — as with his career — it was his own acute paranoia that helped end his life, as he refused medical treatment for an illness which led to kidney failure.
Fischer became the US’ s poster boy for victory in the Cold War when — after being urged to play by President Richard Nixon — he broke a quarter century of Soviet dominance of chess to become world champion, in 1972.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=686177
Whatever you want to say about Fischer, he inspired a chess revival with his victory over Spassky in 1972. I remember watching it on TV at the time and being floored at his genius on the chess board.
Many years ago I discovered that he even invented a new way to play the game of chess which involved removing all of the non-pawn pieces from the board, placing them in a hat and drawing them out one at a time to be placed back on the board in a random fashion in the back row instead of the usual rook-knight-bishop placement. It completely changed how the game was played and meant that no two games would ever be played the same.
Too bad he brought all that other baggage with him at the same time.