Thanks for those observations, aps722.
I wonder about some of the footage towards the end of the documentary. For example, was the word "bitch" written by Fischer or was it just put there to make us think that?
When we see BF insistently talking about nuclear proliferation to the tall guy at the end, at one point the camera is far enough behind them to make me wonder if the conversation was really captured at that time or if it was added in later.
I'm also suspicious about the general slant in this and many other depictions of Bobby Fischer that basically dismiss anything he has to say in later years as the ravings of a madman.
I've seen a lot of photos and footage on Bobby Fischer and there was much here that I had never seen before (and much that I had).
One irony was when Larry Evans claimed that Fischer's instability could have been responsible for his death, as he refused treatment that could have made him last longer. Evans died just last year after complications from gallbladder surgery.
Susan Polgar mentioned that no one could have predicted Fischer's first move in game 6. Actually, prior to the match the Soviet Sports Committee 'invited' a large number of GMs to submit their analyses on Bobby Fischer. Korchnoi was alone in warning that Spassky should also prepare against 1. d4 (quote: "It is notable that in recent years Fischer has begun playing the Alekhine Defence, 1 b3, and has also paid attention to the Réti Opening. I would imagine that for the match with Spassky he will also use 1 d4.")
The documentary gives the impression of an inexorable decline, but fails to mention that the first game of the 1992 match showed Fischer playing top caliber chess even for 1992. True, he made some incredible blunders in later games in that match. In fact, even at the very beginning of Fischer's career, a number of older GMs at the chess club (I forget if it was the Marshall or the Manhattan) were thinking of getting him some psychological help. This was a concern of theirs for some time, but when someone said, "do you realize that if he does get help, he might no longer be so committed to his play?", the matter quietly disappeared.
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There is no mention of John Bosnitch (see Wikipedia entry) who was more responsible than anyone else for getting Bobby out of detention in Japan, including the idea of getting him Icelandic citizenship. Bosnitch told me a few rich anecdotes about him that would have fit well in the documentary. He should certainly have been included and at the very least mentioned.
One of these anecdotes, which goes counter to the above-mentioned slant, came after I told Bosnitch that I had the impression that Fischer unwaveringly told the truth as he saw it. Bosnitch agreed. For example, as part of the process to get Fischer out of detention, he had to sign a document which included the statement that Gerhard Fischer was his father. BF crossed that out, replacing it with "according to my birth certificate, Gerhard Fischer is my father". When Bosnitch warned him, "why did you do that? You're lessening your chances of getting free!", Bobby simply answered "I'm a Christian".
We all know the old joke that "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!" Fischer's credibility with Bosnitch soared when, after he told Bosnitch that George Bush would be calling the Japanese PM about him - something Bosnitch seriously doubted. It later transpired that Bush did indeed call the PM about him. Bosnitch said that it was like a spacial intelligence whereby Fischer could see disparate, seemingly unrelated features and see them intersect where we wouldn't have an inkling of it.
Probably the key 'gambit' Bosnitch used to get the Icelanders on Bobby's side was to get his wife Miyoko Watai, to plead to the Icelanders on his behalf. Problem was, she couldn't speak Icelandic or English. So, what Bosnitch did was compose a message in English and get a Japanese writer to put together Japanese words that phonetically sound the same! (This recalls an anecdote about Fischer who once called Friðrik Ólafsson who wasn't in. His young son answered in Icelandic, which Fischer didn't understand. However, he remembered every syllable and later repeated it to an Icelander who then explained what it meant.) Her message was:
"I am only small Japanese woman trying to help your hero. Please, I need strong Viking people to save Bobby Fischer."
After this, popular support for bringing Fischer to Iceland was 95%, enough to convince their parliament to withstand US pressure and embargo threats.
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A very recent article at ChessBase tells of a wealthy Dutch patron wishing to hire Bobby to play a single game for his club's team, against any opponent, even a 1600-rated player. This was during BF's wilderness period. He was willing to pay as much as $100K, and went to discuss terms with him (agreeing to pay a 50K just to talk to him). Because the patron wanted proof of the talks, he hired a detective to secretly take pictures of the meeting. They met several times, but the last time the patron was waiting at a specified rendez-vous point at a park in Pasadena and Fischer wasn't there! He waited and maybe 20 minutes passed. This had not happened in the previous meetings and he was worried that Fischer wouldn't show up. But suddenly he heard "pssst!!" from behind some bushes. It was Fischer. "Come here, I'm being followed", Fischer said.
Anyway, the talks fell through, and Bobby refused the 50K, taking 2 or 3 thousand instead.
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I didn't dislike the documentary, but a truly incisive and balanced treatment would have been much more fascinating. It would have required a larger cast of speakers rather than a rotation of relatively few people.
Fischer is one of the most intriguing individuals to have shared our time on this Earth.
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aps722
13 years ago
JR - Couldn't agree more. The more the typical American thinks he was crazy, the more I'm convinced he was saner than most. I listened to all his Baguio tapes when they first came out. No doubt he was pissed. No doubt he was lazy and a procrastinator - all of which probably contributed to his losing his possesions from Bekins storage. But lots of times lazy/procrastinating is a trait that accompanies a pre-occupied mind.
Did you happen to see the videos of him en route to Iceland? - I thought he was very forthcoming - even answering questions you know he hated to answer: like...how would he fare in a game against Morphy? He answered that for the benefit of his fans, because he's always side-stepped questions like that before.
I'm sure part of Spassky's surprise at 1.d4 was also regret at not having listened - though I didn't know he was warned beforehand.
I was hoping for orange juice as well from the documentary. But since most Americans only know the outline of his life, all we got was Targ, I mean Tang ;)
I think the producers felt that had to make sure - even though they did reveal some new information - that they also hit all the known chords very heavily, so people could recall the stories, nod and say, 'yeah he was crazy'.
I am still trying to find a copy of the film 'Bobby Fischer Live' - though I've heard reports that its disappointing.
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Get outta here ya half-a-sissy 'for I give ya a slap.
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jrbleau
13 years ago
APS,
I've seen a number of videos of BF and Iceland, but I can no longer sort them out in my mind.
I can relate to your Orange Juice/Tang analogy. It's a very unfortunate reflection on our zeitgeist.
I've never seen Bobby Fischer Live. If you do get to see it, let me know via a reply here.
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Pistolpete332010
13 years ago
Are you happy to be in Iceland this time around Bobby?
BF: Why? Are you talking about my match before?
Interview: Yes
BF: No no, I wanted to go. That was all a CIA cover up. I'll explain that later
Either Fischer is *beep* with the interviewer, or he's bat *beep* crazy. I'll go with the latter.
Don't push it. Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go.
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zephyr-123
13 years ago
I thought the whole thing with playing in Yugoslavia was interesting. The government wants to put him in prison for up to ten years for playing chess? Then that gov. rep. said how BF's winnings would automatically go to the government and I thought, that's the real reason they wanted to arrest him. Not for some embargo but because they wanted to get their hands on the millions he won. Things like that had to exacerbate his bizarre paranoias and beliefs.
In the end, he became so obsessive about his own issues and whatnot but it was like a combination of things. I posted info about this on other threads and on another board but he had Asperger's (which is not a mental illness, but a disorder) and that with things that just happened in his life (particularly towards the end wherein he lost what little family he had and he became an expatriate which means he also lost his country) most likely contributed to him becoming more and more self-absorbed. He was like a nowhere man. Very sad.
GG's-Sophia: ". . .my dear husband Sal, may he rest in peace until I get there. . ."
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TheSummer2012
13 years ago
Then that gov. rep. said how BF's winnings would automatically go to the government and I thought, that's the real reason they wanted to arrest him.
I can't be sure, of course, but I would hazard a guess that the biggest economy in the world would probably find easier sources of income than trying to confiscate a couple of million of dollars from a chess player for breach of economic sanctions (and I am not mentioning the long legal battle that would be necessary and would probably cost the government more than the proceeds from the law suit).
Maybe you don't remember but the war in Yugoslavia was kind of a big deal and not only can you not make an exception for "just playing chess" in an economic sanctions scenario, it would also take away all credibility from your sanctions regime (and make your country look ridiculous) if one of the most prominent citizens of your country openly flouted the sanctions for personal gain.
Economic sanctions are not easily imposed because they cost your economy money and jobs so Bobby Fischer going there and cashing in while bombs were falling and people getting killed was absolutely the wrong thing to do. Mind you, it wasn't him flouting the sanctions by driving a truck with much-needed humanitarian aid for the civilian population or anything remotely justifiable.
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roell29
13 years ago
My impression is that most of the world and an increasingly large proportion of the American people have come to share BF's hatred of the US government, though few have the gumption to express it as passionately as he did. It was "absolutely the wrong thing to do" only in the pragmatic sense that it would have been easy to foresee that he couldn't possibly have achieved anything other than a moral victory while being forced to pay a heavy price materially for putting himself on the wrong side of the US gov. For highly principled people like BF, it's worth the trouble. And I don't think one has some metaphysical obligation to become the reincarnation of Mother Theresa (who wasn't all that either) should one find oneself in the fateful position of denying Uncle Sam on a matter of principle. After all, every corrupt empire goes belly up eventually and Fischer's act of defiance was a small but significant contribution to that end.
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TheSummer2012
13 years ago
Fischer's act of defiance was a small but significant contribution to that end.
I don't have a problem per se with someone standing up against his or her government. The issue here is that Fischer chose the wrong forum to do so. These were United Nations sanctions against a murderous regime that was killing its own people. By deciding to play the match in Belgrade, and leaving aside the illegality of his actions under international law, Fischer indirectly endorsed that regime, giving Belgrade a huge propaganda victory.
What is more, I think it is wrong to paint his actions as some sort of "moral act" or "matter of principle" to stand up against the US government. This was a selfish act, primarily for personal gain. He didn't care that innocent women and children were blown to smithereens by the very people that were paying him to play chess. You could say the money he was paid was "blood money".
And as for "paying a heavy price materially": With $3m plus in the bank, you can live pretty comfortably pretty much anywhere in the world. So not going back to the US (to avoid prosecution) wasn't such a heavy price to pay at all.
Whatever you think of Bobby Fischer and of his beef with the US government, this was ill-advised and unjustifiable.
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roell29
13 years ago
That's just a big pile of American propaganda you have there. No one in the world believes that stuff outside of the American mass media reality bubble which comes straight out of the CIA ("The C.I.A. owns anyone of any importance in the major media” - William Colby, former directer C.I.A.). The destruction of Yugoslavia was about breaking up a successful socialist alternative to Western crony capitalism. Have you ever noticed that the countries we despise are also the ones without a Rothschild controlled central bank? And the moment we invade, we set one up (as in Libya, for instance, formerly the richest country in Africa, soon to be reduced to Iraq/Afghanistan levels of extreme misery and poverty). Do you really think the US cares about countries that "kill their own people"? We sell more weapons than any country in the world. I could list for you dozens of brutal dictators who "killed their own people" in vast numbers that we not only supported but installed to do precisely that. The US has over 700 military bases in 63 countries worldwide. Do you think the people in any of these countries want our military occupying their land? And by paying a heavy price materially, I am referring to the loss of his country and his family.
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TheSummer2012
13 years ago
I am not one for conspiracy theories but I am not defending US foreign policy (which has done more harm than good, we can all agree on that). But I am living in Europe and have personally met people who had half their families brutally wiped out by that "successful socialist alternative" you are referring to.
Whatever you think of US foreign policy, US arms trade and foreign interventions, Bobby Fischer was wrong to flout international law by playing in Belgrade to make a few million dollars while women and children were killed not far from where he was sitting.
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roell29
13 years ago
An excellent article by Michael Parenti dismantling the phony anti-Serb propaganda campaign which was all about the fragmentation and subsequent "thirdworldization" of the former Yugoslavia - http://www.michaelparenti.org/ToKillANation.html
Excerpt - 'In 1987, in an early untutored moment of truth, the New York Times reported: “Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. . . . Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls. . . . As the Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years . . . an ‘ethnically pure’ Albanian region. . . .’10 Ironically, while the Serbs were repeatedly charged with ethnic cleansing, Serbia itself is now the only multi-ethnic society left in the former Yugoslavia, with some twenty-six nationality groups including thousands of Albanians who live in and around Belgrade. "'
Also, there's a brilliant Canadian documentary called The Weight of Chains (7.9 on IMDB) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1789083/ covering much of the same territory. You can watch it for free here - http://www.solarmovie.eu/link/the-weight-of-chains-2010/436794/
By the way, Fischer did not violate any laws but rather an executive order signed by the boy king Dubya (George Bush Jr.) I conclude with a letter Boris Spassky sent to Dubya in defense of BF -
Mr. President,
In 1972 Bobby Fischer became national hero. He smashed me in the match in Reykjavik. The Soviet chess hegemony collapsed. One man won against a whole army. Soon after that Fischer stopped playing. He repeated the sad story of Paul Morphy. At the age of 21, legendary Paul had beaten all leading European masters and became unofficial champion. He stopped playing and finished his tragic life at the age of 47 in New Orleans in 1884.
In 1992, twenty years after Reykjavik, there was a miracle. Bobby resuscitated and we played a match in Yugoslavia. But at that time there were sanctions against Yugoslavia forbidding American citizens any sort of activity on the territory of Yugoslavia. Bobby violated the instructions of the State Department. He became the subject of a warrant for arrest issued on December 15, 1992 by the US District Court. As for me, as a French citizen since 1978, I did not get any sanctions from the French government.
Since July 13, 2004, Bobby has been detained at Narita airport on immigration violations. Further events have been described by media.
It is clear that the law is the law. But Fischer’s case is not usual. I am an old friend of Bobby since 1960 when we played in Mar-del-Plata and shared 1-2 places. Bobby is a tragic personality. I realized this at that time. He is an honest and good natured man. Absolutely not social. He is not adaptable to everybody’s standards of life. He has a very high sense of justice and is unwilling to compromise as well as with his own conscience as with surrounding people. He is a person who is doing almost everything against himself.
I would not like to defend or justify Bobby Fischer. He is what he is. I am asking only for one thing. For mercy, charity.
If for some reason it is impossible, I would like to ask you the following: Please correct the mistake of President François Mitterand in 1992. Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.
Boris Spassky
10-th Chess World Champion
08.07.2004
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bobbyh64
11 years ago
If the sanctions that Fischer broke were international law, then why didn't Spassky or the USCF have any problems? France, where Spassky is a citizen, is part of the UN, so they should've indicted Spassky, and since the USCF made money off the '92 match, they should've been indicted as well. Fischer was singled out.
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sfrsez
11 years ago
just playing chess? or making millions/ you make no sense. lets all thank god that idiot died as miserably as he lived. his ugliness was on full throttle onset from a very young age.
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roell29
13 years ago
In all likelihood, the CIA would have been extremely interested in that match and probably prepared to engage in all manner of covert brinksmanship to embarrass the USSR at their most revered national game and gain an advantage for Fischer representing America. I don't think Fischer was crazy at all. Obsessive, probably. Every time they tried to depict him as crazy, after zeroing in on exactly what he was trying to say, it seemed to me he was entirely on point. Some of his opinions were certainly extreme relative to the norm, but then Norm is no one to crow about either.
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