Searching For Bobby Fischer

I saw it last year. Very emotional, good movie. That kid was cute and 100% decent, good.

Trick or treat

Fischer was a very interesting person IRL. Probably one of the top 3 most talented chess players in history, but an absolute lunatic. He was defeating America's best players at age 12 and it wasn't even challenging for him. He was able to play 20+ games simultaneously blindfolded and win them all. (Blindfolded as in he wasn't allowed to look at the board. Someone calls out the move to you and you have to memorize it. Imagine doing this for 20 games simultaneously).

He became the youngest grandmaster in history being awarded the title at age 15.

He won the world championship in '72 by defeating the entire Soviet machine by himself with no help. (He absolutely embarrassed Boris Spassky in the finals). After that he became somewhat of a "diva" and refused to play any more tourneys because he always had onerous demands that the tournament directors refused. That's when he went into "hiding" as they say.

He almost certainly gave up numerous world championships because he woulda won them all, at least until Kasparov came along.

He almost certainly was on the autism spectrum.

He left the US and went to Hungary to tutor the Polgar sisters who were both child prodigies like him. Some say he was in a relationship with Judit Polgar.

In 1992 Fischer came out of hiding and agreed to play Spassky in a rematch because he was broke and needed money. The only problem was that the match was to be held in Yugoslavia which was under US sanctions at the time (for their war crimes). The USG contacted Fischer and told him if he played in the match he would be in violation of US law (essentially committing a felony). Fischer didn't care and went anyway. He ended up destroying Spassky again. (He and Spassky remained life-long friends).

After that he could not return to the U.S. or he'd end up being arrested. So he pretty much lived a Julian Assange type of life. He moved around a lot. From Japan to any European country that would give him a passport. He finally settled in Iceland who agreed not to extradite him to the U.S.

It was in Iceland where he went totally insane and began giving TV interviews. He claimed "The Jews" broke into his house and stole all his chess sets and trophies. Eventually the U.S. government caught up with him and arrested him (I forget exactly how - I think he was arrested by customs in some allied country and extradited).

He died in prison a while later.

Anyone remember that press conference & Jeremy Schaap stood up to ask a question? Fischer lit into him, insulting Dick Schaap, his father. All kinds of anti Jew nasty stuff. Jeremy held his ground & remained professional, his dad would’ve been proud. I developed a whole new level of respect for Jeremy since then.

HBO did a very well done documentary on Fischer. Highly recommend.
In it, they describe how many great chess player have gone completely insane through the years.

awesome movie.

can never decide if i love or hate the part where the dad is talking to the school teacher and is like (not exact)..."this kid is better at chess than you will ever be at anything in your entire life!"

I'm not a cryer, but it got a little dusty for this one. Amazing movie.

The giving out of the grand master papers is what always gets me.

As an adult, it's easier to see the forest for the trees, but for a young kid it's much more difficult.