MovieChat Forums > Pawn Sacrifice (2015) Discussion > awesome chess player, but..

awesome chess player, but..


Bobby Was Without A Doubt One Of The Greatest Chess Players Ever. But A Scumbag Of A Person. Anti Semitic, Hateful, Very Disturbed Person....

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[deleted]

There's nothing antisemitic about Bobby Fischer.

He was right to criticize israel.

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I have to politely disagree. I have no problem with criticism, but he took it way to far and because of it, in my opinion, it was a distraction to the sport.

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He was not just criticizing Israel, which is something people are allowed and encouraged to do. His comments about Jews were outright racist and paranoid.

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After he blamed Jewish businessmen for selling his property he became rapidly antisemitic. Which is strange because he was (at least) half Jewish himself.

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Sorry, I meant rabidly anti Semitic. He went beyond criticizing Israel to a very personal level.

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But A Scumbag Of A Person
Debateable. He was far, far, far from being what you would call a good person. He was forever unreasonable, and a monumental narcissist. He also came to say some particularly odious things.

But a 'scumbag'? I don't know. He never actually hurt anyone. And I think his poor behaviour was largely a combination of a guideless childhood and walking the line of sanity that geniuses often do.

He was certainly disturbed, though. Such seems not uncommon among the very greatest chess geniuses, like Steinitz and Morphy.

Asians don't care if you have sex with their children - michael_in_ba

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He Trashed His Hotel rooms. Do you know how pissed off the cleaning lady must have been? He's a scumbag.

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Absolutely. Let's remember him for beautiful artistic chess. The crazy rambles were that of a disturbed person. We chess fans make the distinction. We don't remember Elvis for shooting a TV set.

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[deleted]

Whilst he was an active player, by this I mean up to the first match with Spassky in '72, he was incredibly self-centred and egotistical, but was also consider by many of his opponents to behave properly at the board, and almost all of his arguments regarding chess were with officials during matches or tournaments. One of his friends during the period 1966-1972 amongst the foreign chess players was in fact Boris Spassky, whom he had a warm relationship when they saw each other, outside the '72 match.

It was only after he isolated himself after the '72 match, and became very religious that he became more and more anti-semitic and anti-american. He died a lonely, isolated, bitter man, far from home, suffering from mental illness. A sad end to a great player.

He was one of the greatest players of all time, but his behaviour after his retirement was deplorable and unacceptable. There are other instances in the chess world of incredible players who were not very nice human beings, Alexander Alekhine being a good example. One can divorce the player from the person, and admire their genius at the board, whilst still conceding that they became very unpleasant people.....

Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste......

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How do you know the people who he hated wasnt messing with him? people usually grow crazy when they can see what others cannot see and I think its fair to say that his mind could see a lot more then others.

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He was always an eccentric kook and hard to get along with, but most of that hard core hate came about after the big match and he really became a mental case.

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Especially in the first part of his life he was highly principled, which gave rise to many conflicts. After the fact they found out that most of what he said and did was justified. The Soviets even admitted later that they DID gang up on him.

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Bobby was very ill. If he wan't an international superstar he likely would have been locked up long before his eventual end in Iceland. He was in need of psychotherapy
which would not have cured him but may have saved him who knows?
She is a lot like you, the dangerous type...

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If only he'd been normal .

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