Looks like authorities finally caught up with the world’s greatest chess wacko. I suppose he vindicates the claim that there’s no such thing as a neurological free lunch. Though acknowledged as a grandmaster at 15, evidently he has more than a few screws loose.
Good luck, Bobby.
:eek: (Checks, OK, not the Pit).
Wha?!? He’s in big trouble because he violated sanctions by playing a chess game??!! Which he won?
What kind of priorities do we have anyway?? Yeah he’s weird, yeah he’s said anti-American things, but I know other people on this board agree with me in thinking that that’s OK. Or at least it should be, as lon as he doesn’t act on it.
There’s a bit of a difference between mere anti-Americanism and the crap he’s been known to spew.
Anyway, he violated UN sanctions against Yugoslavia, with the full knowledge that he was doing so. (At least partially it seems he did it just to piss off the US. But who knows. The guy is seriously mental.)
Here’s a lengthy bio-article. The guy did some amazing things, but he’s a pretty despicable human being.
And he fully deserves the jail time he’ll receive for the sanctions violation. The sanction was in place for good moral, legal reasons. It was in place for humanitarian reasons; it was in place to save innocent lives.
Fischer violated the sanctions knowingly and intentionally. He was given plenty of notice of the consequences. He spit on a notice at a press conference, making clear he knew what he was doing. After he’d done this, he fled and hid for decades.
He’s a sad sorry man, and he’s an embarassment to those of us who love the game of chess.
In defense of the guy, it has been claimed that he has Asperger’s Syndrome.
So do I, and I don’t violate UN sanctions for the hell of it.
His legal problems aside, the guy’s a bigoted prick and undeserving of the adulation given him.
Fascinating article Bill H., thanks for the link.
You know, I’ll bet he hasn’t paid his taxes, either.
Very few aspies are anti-semetic assholes who violate international treaties.
I’m not jumping down your throat for defending him. I’d enjoy it if you researched him well enough to try, anyway, so you can see firsthand how demented he is. I’m saying that his behaviour has very, very little excuse, and that he deserves jail time for violating the treaty.
His homepage (http://bobbyfischer.net) is down. (He could have become a world-class net kook, if anti-semetism wasn’t already so common online.) Looking down, Bill H. has already posted a link to the article I was going to link to (from The Atlantic), so I’ll link to a page that substantiates my claims from a site more friendly to Fischer’s views. This page is hateful and bigoted and more than a little crazy, so it may not be work-safe. (It probably is, though. Tits and ass are infinitely more damaging than race-hate, after all.)
Who else here thinks that playing a chess game where the position of each back row piece is randomized before beginning (as mentioned briefly in the OP’s link) sounds like a lot of fun? 
Allow me to clarify. I was not defending his words, just that he plainly is afflicted in many ways. As such it’s pointless hold him entirely responsible for his words. Even if Asp is not responsible for his condition, it’s certain that the fellow is clinically paranoid and not deserving the spiteful treatment he’s getting from officials.
He’s a sick, tortured fellow and needs help. I find it hard to believe that playing a chess game in Yugoslavia is worth all the hassle he’s getting.
Bobby Fischer …
Where is he?
I don’t know, I don’t know …
I don’t know if this is a mirror of his homepage or not, but it has an interesting news update, as well as the usual spewings.
The opening sentences are rather curious in their repetition:
“The World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer has been viciously attacked brutalized seriously injured and very nearly killed when he was illegally detained and arrested by the Japanese immigration authorities at Narita international airport in Tokyo Japan. Also the Japanese immigration authorities at Narita international airport have illegally detained Bobby Fischer at the Narita airport jailhouse.”
Well I must thank* you all for tumbling a minor childhood icon (sort of). When I was…15? 14? I saw Searching for Bobby Fischer on an airplane trip. That was all I ever heard of him, and all I knew was that he was some chess whiz. The next I heard about him was this thread!
Oh and great link, Derleth. Reading it now.
*Not sarcastic, genuine!
The ABC article mentioned:
What conditions did he demand? (The one link says he refused to defend his title, but is that all?)
I don’t think he sounds like he has Aspergers at all. If he has anything, it sounds like he’s paranoid with delusions of persecution. Severe delusions of persecution.
Let’s see:
-The Soviets poisoning him.
-Having all his dental fillings removed so that no monitoring devices could be put in his head, that would influence his thoughts.
-In Yugoslavia, he insisted his toilet be higher than all the other players.
-Accused his ex-girlfriend of being a spy for the Jews to lure him out of retirement.
-Constant claims of persecution by the Jews.
Oh yeah, total fruitcake. And they mentioned a guy named Sam Sloan-if he’s the one I’m thinking of, he has this website full of all kinds of crazy conspiracies and bullshit, and claims of being persecuted and under observation. (I know he’s listed on Crank Dot Net)
Um, correct me if I’m wrong, but what would be the difference between Soviet communism and Bolshevism-aren’t they just one and the same?
:eek:
From this page:
FIDE is the acronym for Federation Internationale des Echecs, the official French-language name for the body known in English as the World Chess Federation.
Yep- they’re one and the same.