and 
Posted on 11/23/2002 8:40:28 AM PST by .577 Tyrannosaur
Even on scholastic championships, winning is everything. One one US team, for example, one player had problems with his visitors permit, another didn't even speak English. And some tournaments ended up with "our Russians" vs. "their Russians."
Nope, I don't own stock or sneak around with the publisher's daughter :-)
and
"It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random; I will, therefore, take occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed, resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers. In draughts, on the contrary, where the moves are unique and have but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished, and the mere attention being left comparatively what advantages are obtained by either party are obtained by superior acumen. To be less abstract --Let us suppose a game of draughts where the pieces are reduced to four kings, and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that here the victory can be decided (the players being at all equal) only by some recherche movement, the result of some strong exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus, at a glance, the sole methods (sometimes indeed absurdly simple ones) by which he may seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation. Whist has long been noted for its influence upon what is termed the calculating power; and men of the highest order of intellect have been known to take an apparently unaccountable delight in it, while eschewing chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt there is nothing of a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of analysis. The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind. When I say proficiency, I mean that perfection in the game which includes a comprehension of all the sources whence legitimate advantage may be derived. These are not only manifold but multiform, and lie frequently among recesses of thought altogether inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. To observe attentively is to remember distinctly; and, so far, the concentrative chess-player will do very well at whist; while the rules of Hoyle (themselves based upon the mere mechanism of the game) are sufficiently and generally comprehensible. Thus to have a retentive memory, and to proceed by "the book," are points commonly regarded as the sum total of good playing. But it is in matters beyond the limits of mere rule that the skill of the analyst is evinced. He makes, in silence, a host of observations and inferences. So, perhaps, do his companions; and the difference in the extent of the information obtained, lies not so much in the validity of the inference as in the quality of the observation. The necessary knowledge is that of what to observe. Our player confines himself not at all; nor, because the game is the object, does he reject deductions from things external to the game. He examines the countenance of his partner, comparing it carefully with that of each of his opponents. He considers the mode of assorting the cards in each hand; often counting trump by trump, and honor by honor, through the glances bestowed by their holders upon each. He notes every variation of face as the play progresses, gathering a fund of thought from the differences in the expression of certainty, of surprise, of triumph, or chagrin. From the manner of gathering up a trick he judges whether the person taking it can make another in the suit. He recognizes what is played through feint, by the air with which it is thrown upon the table. A casual or inadvertent word; the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment; the counting of the tricks, with the order of their arrangement; embarrassment, hesitation, eagerness or trepidation --all afford, to his apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true state of affairs. The first two or three rounds having been played, he is in full possession of the contents of each hand, and thenceforward puts down his cards with as absolute a precision of purpose as if the rest of the party had turned outward the faces of their own."
Chess, however IS the greatest board game that has ever been devised or ever will be. 
Bobby Fischer was a flamboyant, poignant meteor in the heavens of chess masters. He was always quirky, but that is not that unusual in the history of top rank chess players.
Clearly, Bobby's rants show that he is in the grips of pretty extreme paranoia. To even try to respond to them, is an exercise in foolishness.
Secondly, Bobby is one of those geniuses like Mozart and Einstein, who outside their fields of genius are almost childlike. It is doubtful if, before the paranoia, he had a very clear understanding of political, historical, social and religious issues. But that is also beside the point.
What troubles me about this, is that he really does seem to be a victim of an abuse of power, in the indictment for violating an Executive Order, which would have very dubious Constitutional bases; and he may also have been a victim of a real crime as to his personal belongings. Whether he would be so insanely paranoid without such treatment, is a good question. One suspects that he would certainly be somewhat more rational.
This is more sad than anything else; although Bobby is not the first world Chess great who has come apart psychologically, after demonstrating profound genius at the game.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
I remember that playing in exhibitions, where he would play 30 different players--different games--at the same time, drove Alekhine--the greatest Master of his day--to drugs. I have never been able to force myself to concentrate for long enough to be a very good player, and the same failing makes me stay out of serious stake poker games.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
I don't want this sentence to drown:
"A lot of people wouldn't care if Michael Jordan was an anti-Semite if they could play a game of Horse with him."
Very nicely put: it is this mentality of the "masses" that brings terrifying figures to power. Very much like electing Clinton because "he feels my pain." Very much like listening to what Barbra Streisand has to say about society and politics.
We seem to have our share... Michael Jackson, Howard Hughes, Bobby Fisher...
WFTR
Bill
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