Recluse Bobby still fighting his battles
Bobby Fischer is in the news again and surprise! he still thinks somebody is out to take advantage of his good nature.
Andy Soltis, writing in the New York Post on May 13 has this to say:
QUOTE
May 13, 2007 -- CHESS IT'S been two years since Bobby Fischer last made headlines, when he won a battle of wills with Japan and was freed from prison to start a new life in Iceland.
But the reclusive Fischer, who turned 64 last month, hasn't gone underground again.
Last week "The RJF Campaign," an Icelandic organization representing him, complained that a policeman who protected Fischer during the 1972 world championship match and befriended him is helping to make an unauthorized documentary.
UNQUOTE
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posted by David Evans at
10:49 am
3 Comments:
"First of all, I'll make a tour of the whole world, giving exhibitions. I'll charge unprecedented prices. I'll set new standards. I'll make them pay thousands. Then I'll come home on a luxury liner. First-class. I'll have a tuxedo made for me in England to wear to dinner. When I come home I'll write a couple chess books and start to reorganize the whole game. I'll have my own club. The Bobby Fischer ... uh, the Robert J. Fischer Chess Club. It'll be class. Tournaments in full dress. No bums in there. You're gonna have to be over eighteen to get in, unless like you have special permission because you have like special talent. It'll be in a part of the city that's still decent, like the Upper East Side. And I'll hold big international tournaments in my club with big cash prizes. And I'm going to kick all the millionaires out of chess unless they kick in more money. Then I'll buy a car so I don't have to take the subway any more. That subway makes me sick. It'll be a Mercedes-Benz. Better, a Rolls Royce, one of those fifty-thousand-dollar custom jobs, made to my own measure. Maybe I'll buy one of those jets they advertise for businessmen. And a yacht. Flynn had a yacht. Then I'll have some more suits made. I'd like to be one of the Ten Best-dressed Men. That would really be something. I read that Duke Snyder made the list. Then I'll build me a house. I don't know where but it won't be in Greenwich Village. They're all dirty, filthy animals down there - lower than cats and dogs. Maybe I'll build it in Hong Kong. Everybody who's been there says it's great. Art Linkletter said so on the radio. And they've got suits there, beauties, for only twenty dollars. Or maybe I'll build it in Beverly Hills. The people there are sort of square, but like the climate is nice and it's close to Vegas, Mexico, Hawaii, and those places. I got strong ideas about my house. I'm going to hire the best architect and have him build it in the shape of a rook. Yeah, that's for me. Class. Spiral staircases, parapets, everything. I want to live the rest of my life in a house built exactly like a rook"(Bobby Fischer)...read more
Thanks for that, and for the link.
Reading about his dream highlights the tragedy that, for the general public, his genius has been obscured by his erratic behaviour.
The greatest player who ever lived? Maybe! He's certainly on the short list. But he achieved far more for chess than only his games. I remember the lead-up to 1972 when he set the world to talking about chess, players and non-players alike. The press coverage of his campaign was sensational.
In spite of his paranoia and his irrational outbursts, Bobby Fischer did more to promote professional chess than any player who ever lived.
What a shame he's not a fictional character in a novel so that the Author could turn things around and give his life a happy ending.
Still no sign of end game yet... even in his grave.
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