He was mentally ill, probably a borderline, off-again, on-again schizophrenic. For a few years after Rekyavik ‘72 he was the Tiger Woods of the chess world. Membership in the U.S. Chess Federation peaked in 1974.
He lived in the Philippines 2000 - 2002, and was seeing a young woman at the time. Now she’s claiming he fathered her bastard daughter. Not everyone who knew them then agrees, well, we’ll see.
What a sad life. The family life was a mess. He was practically an orphan with nutty commie mom. He was a huge American hero after he won but he had terrible mental problems. Sad.