From an Icelandic magazine recapping the Fischer saga, the last paragraph has something of an update:
Meanwhile, Fischer seems to be adjusting well to life in Iceland. He frequently goes to an antiquarian bookstore and has been seen sipping beer at local bar. He has not played chess, but he did give a lecture on the world chess championships between Russian masters Kasparov and Karpov, which he claims were fixed. The audience did not embrace those claims, but grandmaster Jóhann Hjartarson, Iceland’s highest rated chess player said that it was interesting to meet the legend and to hear him speak about chess.
This is an ironic twist because most of the Icelanders who brought him there never really expected Fischer to stay in Iceland. They expected him to take his new passport and head somewhere where he'd be less conspicuous, perhaps back to Hungary or to Serbia.
The Kasparov-Karpov match fixing accusations have been a Fischer staple for quite a long time and seem a natural extension via paranoia of the very real arranged Soviet draws that he denounced in his playing days. In 1996 Fischer claimed that he had proof of the K-K fixing in copious notebooks that had disappeared when his storage locker was emptied.
Irony! The real irony is that there's a story about Fischer after a story about marbles, because clearly fischer has lost his marbles!
Is there any word as to how Fischer is supporting himself while living in Iceland? Or is he simply the beneficiary of some form of national or private welfare?
The name should be "Greg." Sorry for the "fingerfehler."
Mig, I have always read that the heist of his paperwork on the fixed Karpov-Kasparov '84-85 match took place at Bekins Storage Co. in Pasadena, Ca. Never heard about the Florida heist.
I remember Fischer claimed, during his 'come back' match with Spassky, that he would provide all the evidence for the two K's fraud. Its all documented in Seirewan's book on the match, and even then his 'I'll prove it later' strategy sounded like a way of brushing off the need to justify crazy claims.
But later on I heard rumours that he was still up for playing his Fischer-random. What came of that? Are we likely to see him playing this version in the future ...
I`m coming out soon with a book about how the Fischer-Spassky match was rigged. Stay tuned.
i don't believe KK matches were fixed, but Fischer is certainly not the only one who would entertain such a possibility. Why is it that always when Fischer's name comes up, some people just can't resist to repeat how crazy he's supposed to be?
On the other hand, i don't know exactly why Fischer believes they were fixed, i agree that some mistakes from both of them were very shocking in those games, but perhaps Fischer knows something we don't, or perhaps, he's simply...wrong?
How crazy is that? i agree it's a little crazy considering how intelligent he is, but... Anyway, the point is, hardly means he's crazy because he believes in extraordinary things sometimes.
(In case some of you don't know, by definition a genius is someone who sees connections where most people don't)
ps. On the other hand, my only reason for believing the matches weren't fixed is that i trust integrity of Kasparov...now i could be far from truth with that and my belief is a little crazy, too.
"(In case some of you don't know, by definition a genius is someone who sees connections where most people don't)"
Of course, by definition a psychotic is someone who sees connections where they don't exist...
Hey how come Fischer isn't playing the Chess960 tournament in Mainz? It would seem like the perfect time to show the world if he still has it.
He probably doesn't still have it, that's why he's not playing. Plus, aren't there rapid games involved? He's obviously pretty good at 960, but how is he at rapid after not having played traditional chess for quite a while?
By the way, does anyone know if there's an official site for tournament?
The address for the Mainz site is http://www.chesstigers.de/ccm5_index.php?lang=1.
No, but wasn't there some talk that he would be willing to play a Chess 960 match?
Thanks for the link. Yeah, I also heard something about a 960 match. Wasn't there something about a match with Pal Benko?
Anton, there was a rumor that Fischer was going to play a 'Fischerrandom' match with Pal Benko. I did a quick Google and the only mention I could find was on this site.
I suspect that the problem with getting a match with Fischer is that sponsors would want to see him play one of the current top-10 players, but Fischer would not.
I also cannot believe that the K-K matches were rigged . . . just seems impossible.
But I tell you what: I would absolutely LOVE to have Fischer's book detailing his arguments. It would be fascinating reading if nothing else.
Of course, if he really did have solid arguments for his thesis, it wouldn't matter if all his "notes" were stolen, would it: a chessplayer of his stature would easily be able to go over the games of the five matches and recreate his notes to prove his point in about, oh, one or two weeks???? In other words, if he really wanted to make his point (or, if he COULD make his point), he would have dones so long ago.
Damn. That sure would would have been one hell of a book.
RedIvan, exactly, the definition is similar because there is a very thin line between crazy and genius.
And Fischer has jumped over it ("the fine line")like Carl Lewis on 'roids.
Only a genius would take Fischer's rantings seriously.
Except for an alleged IQ test, I have never seen any indication that Fischer was good at anything other than chess. The man handled everything else with supreme stupidity. As much as I admire his achievents in chess, I honestly feel he was closer to idiot savant than he was to genius.
BTW/ only a very stupid and/or crazy person would not see the K-K matches for what they were: epic battles between the two strongest players of all time. Only Karpov could take Kasparov to the brink of defeat and only Kasparov could overcome Karpov's all-around virtuoso play.
:-)
In my previous post, I meant "achievements".
There's really no good reason to post this, but here you go:
A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel
and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse."But why,"they asked, as they moved off. "Because", he said,"I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
An appeal .....
If you plan to be in a room where Bobby Fischer is talking about, please take a tape recorder so the rest of us can hear what was said. It would benefit chess geeks worldwide. Fischer did (according to Leko) study the K-K matches for 2 years, before coming to the 'conclusion'(*) that the matches were pre-arranged. So the analysis was probably awesome to listen to, whether or not Fischer is crazy.
(*) - the matches weren't 'pre-arranged', but they were heavily handled by players other than the ones doing the playing. Both contestants had a small army of strong Soviet GM's analysing openings to a depth not known before. In addition, there were adjournments, with problem-like endings arising, and ideas obviously worked out in detail away from the playing board.
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