RIP - Robert J. Fischer

Although he died a month ago, I had to think long and hard about this.  Bobby Fischer was the seminal figure in chess for my entire childhood through my twenties.  A brilliant analyst, he never wrote to the level of his audience.  In one particular piece, he wrote "and white wins."  What was obvious to Fischer was not at all simply grasped by me.  When, in an international correspondence team match game against Algeria, I reached the position he said "and white wins" thinking that the game was in the bag (and, foolishly not having bothered to analyze the position until I reached it, for if Fischer said it was a win, it was, so to speak, in the win column), I had to spend all My allotted and saved time (in this instance 32 days, burning all my previous banked time) to find the torturous 8 move combination that led to a winning position, which still required technical finesse to bring home.

It was after this experience that I learned that he placed chess players in two categories, almost peers and weakies.  Weakies included most up to and including the International Master level.  At the time he earned that title and later the International Grandmaster title he was the youngest in the world to have done so.  Although the age has since been eclipsed, had Fischer lived at this time of lower standards and more qualifying events, he would still have the record.

He was a tempermental player, a prima donna when they did not exist in chess.  Of Jewish parantage (mixed religious marriage) he was virulently anti-Jewish and anti-USA in his last thirty years of life.  His will to win was exceptional. 

Despite being a total nut case in most regards, in chess he was a nonpareil.  Although primarily remembered for the way he manhandled Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Championship Match (he inexplicably blundered in the first game, forfeited the second in a pique of whatever, yet, in the best of 24 clinched the win in 21 games, an unheard of result) the measure of his true genius was demonstrated in the qualifying events.  To make it to the world championship, one must place in one of the Zonal tournaments (The USA zonal, the US championship in the qualifying year, has three slots), then must play in the Interzonal, from which the top 7 qualify.  The 8th is the previous challenger or the ex-world champion, depending on the last Championship match.  The final 8 play best of 10 matches, based on their Interzonal positions.

There are no weakies in the Interzonal.  After clinching first place in the Interzonal, rather than coast home with draws, he won his last three games.  He then dismembered Mark Taminov in 6 games.  Next, he played Bent Larson.  The Great Dane, as Larson was called, was one of the most mercurial players of the day, but never an easy mark.  He too, fell in 6.  In his final qualifying match, against ex-world champion Tigran Petrosian, he won the first three games before finally drawing the fourth.  18 straight wins against the best players in the world was, until it happened, inconceivable.  Get 4 official at bats for 18 games and hit a home run in each of them and you have something approaching what he did.  His performance rating for that period has never been approached.

Sorry for taking up bandwidth on something so obscure, but gods, was he a great chessplayer.  If you want to replay some of his games, with notes that even someone as weak as myself (compared to Fischer I do not register on the rating list) can understand, try his "My 60 Memorable Games.  If anyone wants to borrow my copy, PM me.