Bobby Fischer: A Hero Lost

Trailer from the documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011)

Bobby Fischer, World Chess Champion

It’s a difficult concept coming to grips with the realization that one of your heroes is really a crazy talking jack ass. Robert James Fischer, World Chess Champion, was one of my heroes. I was only 6 years old when Fischer defeated Spassky to win the World Chess Championship in 1972, but it was his inspiration and his games that were used to teach me and encourage me to play chess. My grandfather and I would sit at a little wooden chessboard he owned and which he subsequently gave me (I no longer have it having lost it when my attention to chess waned) and review and replay Fischer’s great triumph at Reykjavik, Iceland.

I was enamored with chess until later in my teens when video games and role playing games drew away my attention, but I still enjoy keeping up with it (quick. . .who is the current World Chess Champion?) and will occasionally take a glance at the New York Times’ chess column.

Despite my drift away from the game of kings, I still held resolute in my idolization of Fischer whose intellectual capacity seemingly had no limit. And, let’s face it, he took on and defeated the Russians at a time when we all wanted to defeat the Russians and stick their chess pomposity in their faces.

But as he grew older and more isolated, it became clearer that Fischer simply held views of the world that could not and should not be accepted. His anti-semitic rants. His anti-Christian rants. His anti-American rants. And, last but certainly not least, his unbelievable rant on 9.11.

My adoration of Fischer and my later disenchantment with him was confirmed once again as I read his most recent biography, Endgame, by Frank Brady and watched the Liz Garbus documentary, Bobby Fischer Against the World. Both capture the essence of Bobby Fischer and how mystifying it is to watch such a unique genius remove himself from the world and the game that he loved – all because of his rude behavior and offensive talk.

Fischer died in January 2008 at the age of 64 – the number of squares to be found on a chessboard.

Want to know more about Fischer? I would highly recommend Brady’s book, Garbus’ documentary and, if you really want to get into the 1972 match, the book Fischer vs. Spassky: The Chess Match of the Century by Svetozar Gligoric.