Chess genius Bobby Fischer dies in Iceland

[Lizzard[MPE]]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/18/fischer.obit/

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSL1870892220080118

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Bobby Fischer, who became America's first and only world chess champion after defeating the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War, has died at the age of 64.

Gardar Sverrisson, a spokesman for the reclusive Fischer, said the chess genius died at midday on Thursday in Reykjavik, the site of his famous victory over Spassky. Sverrisson said Fischer had died after a serious, but unspecified, illness.

Feted as a national hero for beating Spassky, the eccentric Fischer fell foul of U.S. authorities in his later years. Fischer also stirred controversy for numerous anti-Semitic remarks and tirades against his former homeland.

Rumors that Fischer, once dubbed the "Mozart of Chess", was ill had circulated in recent weeks on chess-related Web sites.

A friend of the chess master told Reuters Fischer was taken to a hospital in October of last year. But, not trusting doctors, he later went home and received treatment there, where he was looked after by friends.

A child prodigy who once said he liked to watch his opponents squirm, Fischer became an Icelandic citizen, coming to Iceland in March 2005. He could have faced jail in the United States for violating sanctions on former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there against Spassky.

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov hailed Fischer as a pioneer of professional chess. "We have lost a great individual," Kasparov told reporters in Moscow.

"He was always alone .. . but while alone he demonstrated that a human being is capable of reaching new heights. We have lost a great warrior, we have lost a great mind."

[Helevitia]

Sad, rip...

[Jammrock]

I hear he was pretty good at Chess. Wacky guy though.

[TransformX]

Great chess player and a very small man. A nut case, paranoid and hateful primadona, Good riddance!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

Just check what he said about the 9/11

[Brian Ellis]

Why are games players, be they from the worlds of chess, football, cricket, basketball, whatever, given such media attention? What do they contribute to the world? They are nonentities.

[Fat Tone]

You surprise me Brian. Anyone with a brilliance is making a contribution.
The only thing I object to is the indecent sums of money it can attract, especially footballers.

[Umfriend]

We had one minute of silence at my chess club yesterday (I am the chairman, I can do things ). I do not know how it is with football, basketball etc but with chess, every once in a while, a player comes along that not only becomes the best player in the world but also adds to our collective understanding of the game, that causes the level at which the game is played simply rises above previous levels. Bobby Fischer was such a man and for that he deserves attention.

Yes, I can only hope he was mad in the head because if he was not then what he (came to later?) believed in made him a really realy evil person.

[Brian Ellis]

You surprise me Brian. Anyone with a brilliance is making a contribution.
The only thing I object to is the indecent sums of money it can attract, especially footballers.

Have Bobby Fischer, Roger Federer, Lance Armstrong, David Beckham etc. DONE anything to make the world a better place to live in, other than arguably given ephemeral pleasure to their fans? Have Stanley Matthews, Don Bradman, Babe Ruth etc. left the world a better place because of their short tenancy of it?

I have nothing whatsoever against PLAYING games for the pleasure of doing so, but the fact that I used to play cricket deserved any media attention? No, of course not, but then I was playing as an amateur, not as a professional, enjoying it, not worrying about what I would do with my next million.

I have nothing against anyone wishing to do so playing chess, poker, scrabble etc for modest gain but I see no reason for the media to turn them into a demi-god just because they might happen to be good at their chosen pastime.

[Umfriend]

I do not think Bobby Fisher is turned into a demi-god by the media. What makes you think they did just because some attention is paid to his passing? The suggestion that chess players are worried about their next million is ludicrous, aside form a very very few, most aren't even thinking about their first.

Is the world better by literature? Movies, plays? Paintings, sculptures?

[Brian Ellis]

Is the world better by literature? Movies, plays? Paintings, sculptures?

That is a totally different kettle of fish. These people leave the world with a legacy of their respective arts for people to enjoy for perpetuity. We can read/look at/listen to/watch Chaucer, Rembrandt, Vivaldi, Molière, with appreciation, centuries after their deaths.

It is true we can use the Blackmar gambit, and others, in chess, over 100 years after it was developed and that Diemer improved on it, and I suppose that their names have been preserved in this way, but do we think of them in the same way as we think of the masters of the plastic arts? I think not. They were perhaps skilled gamesters, the same as many adolescents today become skilled, in their way, in the World of Warcraft but this is not giving anything to the world, such as the emotion packed by Leonardo into La Gioconda.

[Umfriend]

Some people would disagree. Some have played games that many enjoy to study to this day. Some have shown lines of thought, ways of play, that did not exist before. Such is the case with Bobby. Not all may grasp it, like I don't understand anything about modern art.

[RC Agent]

Have Bobby Fischer, Roger Federer, Lance Armstrong, David Beckham etc. DONE anything to make the world a better place to live in, other than arguably given ephemeral pleasure to their fans? Have Stanley Matthews, Don Bradman, Babe Ruth etc. left the world a better place because of their short tenancy of it?

I have nothing whatsoever against PLAYING games for the pleasure of doing so, but the fact that I used to play cricket deserved any media attention? No, of course not, but then I was playing as an amateur, not as a professional, enjoying it, not worrying about what I would do with my next million.

I have nothing against anyone wishing to do so playing chess, poker, scrabble etc for modest gain but I see no reason for the media to turn them into a demi-god just because they might happen to be good at their chosen pastime.

Not sure about the others you mentioned, but I do believe Lance started the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

[Dr Mordrid]

And for Brians edification - it's a US charity that supports cancer victims. They are something Armstrong feels strongly about since he's a testicular cancer survivor.

http://www.livestrong.org/site/c.khLXK1PxHmF/b.2660611/k.BCED/Home.htm

[Brian Ellis]

OK, sorry, I happened to choose accidentally one of the exceptions that prove the rule. Mea culpa.

[Jammrock]

Most major NFL athletes either sponser or support a charity of some type. The entire NFL organization backs the United Way, both financially and by getting their athletes to endosre the charity and act in commercials for the United Way. They also fund the TV spots.

If you were in the states to watch the NFL you would see the wall around the field lined with ads for the athlete's charities, and not advertisments like many other sports do. Most of their charities are to help sick or empoverished children, too. Granted, not all athletes actively participate, or are nice, or give a damn, but there are a good deal who do.