POLL FOR ALL CHESS GEEKS: Where were you...?

...when you first heard or read about Bobby Fischer's death?

(I myself saw it on Yahoo! News for the first time the day after it happened -- January 18, 2008. It's hard to believe it's been a full year since we lost our pride and sorrow. May God have mercy on his soul!)

Anonymous2009-01-17T13:29:36Z

Favorite Answer

I remembered then, and I remember now, that Bobby Fischer
in his earlier years was a likable human being.

Cavett interviews Bobby Fischer (play the included video!):
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/was-it-only-a-game/

Appearing on The Dick Cavett Show in the summer of 1971,
Bobby Fischer shares his various views about chess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPlXC3M8hbg

A Very Different Bobby Fischer, The Supporting Chessbase Article:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4475

Toward the bottom is a great video of the 15-yr-old Bobby Fischer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JcwOJADf8

"It must seem strange to people too young to remember that there was once a chess champion of (all things) who became arguably the most famous celebrity on earth."

"And that his long-anticipated match against the reigning Russian champion,
Boris Spassky, was broadcast and watched worldwide as if it were the Super Bowl, except that chess drew a much bigger audience."

"With Fischer the American and Spassky the Russkie,
the monumental match was seen as a Cold War battle."

Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
Died at age 64, the number of squares on a chessboard.

Anonymous2009-01-17T11:19:55Z

He's dead?:)

Pride and sorrow was Paul Morphy. Morphy kicked butt, took names, the got clinically depressed and died in an asylum.

Fischer kicked butt, took names, the ran away with paranoia. Unfortunately he occasionally made the news and we'd have to explain he was crazy and does not speak for me just because I play chess.

Yes, he was good. However the world-wide Jewish conspiracy headquartered in Moscow did not conspire to strip him of his title when he did not defend it in 1975.

More embarrassment than tragic figure.

Oh, I saw it on Yahoo news.

crochet2016-12-24T13:38:23Z

even inspite of the incontrovertible fact that i recognize how the products circulate in chess fairly. Checkers for the convenience it quite is merely too play. i'm afraid that the physique of techniques for chess is a few thing that I lack quite at.

Anonymous2009-01-17T17:01:58Z

I saw it on Fox News. I wasn't exactly devastated by the loss, he was a genius on the chessboard...but this song by Denis Leary sums up the rest of him.