Bobby Fischer Found

[SpiderMnkE]

Someone must have already posted about this... but just in case. Bobby Fischer was found this morning...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5447613/

[SpiderMnkE]

Now we can all lie about our chess ratings... just like our SAT scores and bench press maxs.

I for one am rated 2300 and beat my first master in a tournament when I was 17.

Oh.. I bench 275... only 6 sets of 15 reps.. I haven't maxed yet.

My SAT score was well above 1590

[andyfox]

"It was not immediately clear if Fischer would be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted for playing a 1992 chess match in the former Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions."

Fischer is a lunatic. But he's wanted for playing a chess match? This sounds like something from an early Woody Allen movie. He is also suspected of impersonating a paperweight or dancing with a mailman?

[SpiderMnkE]

I'm glad we finally found this rebel. I hope that it's my portion of our tax dollars that bring him to justice.

[BassMasterK]

I also found it to be odd to be wanted for playing a chess match. With his praise of the 9/11 attacks and his statements saying that America should be wiped out, he didn't pick a very good time to be caught.

[jagoff]

My penis is currently 14 1/8", I can run the 40 in 3.5 secs and my craps measure some 2m long and 17 MT. With that being said I finally feel secure. Sure terrorists have threatened us again and plan on killing some politicians (which to me is no big deal since they are a dime a dozen) but we have finally nabbed BOBBY FISCHER!! It is a great time to be an American indeed!

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Sure terrorists have threatened us again and plan on killing some politicians (which to me is no big deal since they are a dime a dozen) but we have finally nabbed BOBBY FISCHER!! It is a great time to be an American indeed!

[/ QUOTE ]

The biggest problem here is that "we" have managed to elevate the status of the "hate crime" well above that of the mundane, everyday murder or robbery or rape or whatever.

I watch people get so swept away in lynch mob mentality the moment anyone says anything to disparage a certain race, it's almost like a collective hypnosis.

Fine. He's anti-Semitic. He's anti-American. Lately these two seem to be the same thing. This is a CRIME now?

I understand that he's being extradited for something totally different.

Or is he?

I say we kill him.

[jagoff]

The only reason that you or I or the common Joe heard of this was because of MSNBC/threads here. It didn't bother me one bit that he was making all of these remarks because I don't get any radio stations from the Phillipines or where ever he was stating them. He is being extradicted back to the country for some unheard of UN law because he played a chess game for money! What next? Is the government going to come after me because I beat a French poker pro for $3 in some back alley poker game over in France? I don't think they would. There has got to be something more to this than the story tells, don't you all think?

[fnurt]

They weren't playing for $3 though. Nor were they playing in France. It was a high-profile event for a lot of money, conducted (quite intentionally) in a country that was subject to severe sanctions.

If the government says not to do business in Qatar, and you do business in Qatar, you're going to get on a list of people who broke the law about doing business in Qatar. How else do you expect the world to operate...

I guess no one remembers what happened in Bosnia? Considering the ethnic cleansing that the government of Yugoslavia was spending its money on, it's not surprising people made laws designed to keep them from getting more money.

[andyfox]

I posted this link once before, but it's fascinating, if depressing, reading.

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/12/chun.htm

[Phat Mack]

Despite being a Yankees fan, you manage to come up with some perfect lines:

But he's wanted for playing a chess match? This sounds like something from an early Woody Allen movie.

Calm down, Andy. Have a chocolate bar and a cigarette.

[BassMasterK]

Thanks for the link, that was a very good article.

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
But he's wanted for playing a chess match?

[/ QUOTE ]

Andy, the Fischer-Spassky rematch was a huge event. Chess isn't big in the U.S. But, it even got press attention here. In other nations, it was the big international sporting event of the time, especially since Fischer hadn't played in two decades.

Yugoslavia (was it Yugoslavia, I get confused over the names sometimes with the break-up) was under substantial international economic sanctions. Yet, they held a major international sporting event and the government brought in substantial funds by doing so. I'm sure that money wasn't put to very good use.

I suspect that if you found out that the "Enron Games" had been held in Yugoslavia at the same time, you would be much more interested in seeing a prosecution.

[vulturesrow]

It is sad that one of the most brilliant minds in a game that I rate a hair behing poker in my personal favorites, has come to this.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
My penis is currently 14 1/8", I can run the 40 in 3.5 secs and my craps measure some 2m long and 17 MT.

[/ QUOTE ]

My penis is 3.5" long, I run the 40 in 14.125s, and I have no idea what a crap is - or what an MT is.

~D

[MicroBob]

i first saw this mentioned on CNN-headline news this morning. they showed video of the 1992 Fischer-Spassky match....but the portion of the video they were showing had a close-up of Spassky. you never saw Fischer...weird.
i suspect that whoever edited the video didnt realize they were showing Spassky and not Fischer.

amazing when compared with the massive rock-star type popularity Fischer received in 1972 when he beat 'those evil soviets' at their national game.
fischer was on the cover of Time Magazine...started the chess boom in this country (which i am a product of...my Dad taught me to play in 1975 when i was 4) and around the world congress even passed some sort of 'Bobby Fischer is a national hero' legislation or something like that and he met Richard Nixon.

now....when it's mentioned on the news that he's been found they show Boris Spassky and not Fischer.
my how times have changed.

[MicroBob]

an amazing article on bobby's life.
thanks for the link andy

obviously most people disagree with most of bobby's outlandish statements....
but there was one rather offensive quote that i do happen to agree with...


[ QUOTE ]
especially since he referred to George W. Bush during one of his radio interviews as "borderline retarded."

[/ QUOTE ]

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
they showed video of the 1992 Fischer-Spassky match....but the portion of the video they were showing had a close-up of Spassky. you never saw Fischer...weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure? Fischer looks a lot different than he did in 1972. Specifically, he's heavier and bald.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
I for one am rated 2300 and beat my first master in a tournament when I was 17.

Oh.. I bench 275... only 6 sets of 15 reps.. I haven't maxed yet.

My SAT score was well above 1590

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't get it.

Some people gauge their skill in certain activities compared to the best in the world. Some people compare themselves to their parents, and after beating daddy for the first time in checkers they think they're good. Some people actually are among the best in the world at what they do. Some feel compelled to lie to say that they are the best in the world.

I tend to be in the first group, which is why I suck at everything. The cool thing about that, though, is that aiming for the stars and missing usually gets you higher than you ever would have gotten otherwise.

~D

[MicroBob]

i am ABSOLUTLE 100% certain that the portion of the video they showed this morning around 5a.m. or so on CNN-Headline was Spassky.
Fischer perhaps appears later on the loop...but they had finished reading the story by then thus they cut to the next video to correspond to the next story before you could ever get a close-up of Fischer.

you do see Fischer sitting at the table across from Spassky...but the close-up is definitely Spassky intently studying the board.


i was interested in this match when it was taking place in 1972...i know which one is which.
but i understand your point. you are correct that fischer is borderline unrecognizable from his clean-cut 1960's look.


i also know from personal experience how easy it is to make mistakes in the world that is broadcast-journalism.

CNN is trying to get their stories on as quickly as possible....and likely someone (possibly an intern) just pulled some video from the Spassky-Fischer 1992 match and cut a segment they thought would work well with the story....not realizing they were showing 'the other guy'.

[BassMasterK]

check out his home page:

http://home.att.ne.jp/moon/fischer/

I dug this up today in a search...The dude obviously has some problems...

[andyfox]

"I suspect that if you found out that the "Enron Games" had been held in Yugoslavia at the same time, you would be much more interested in seeing a prosecution."

You'd be wrong. I have much less respect for Bobby Fischer, who has an advanced and incurable case of David Sklanskyitis, than I have for Ken Lay.

[SnakeRat]

Maybe Sklansky has an advanced and incurable case of Bobby Fischeritis?

[doggin]

nm

[citanul]

I'm not sure, but didn't he also not pay millions of dollars of income taxes?

citanul

[djack]

[ QUOTE ]
With that being said I finally feel secure. Sure terrorists have threatened us again and plan on killing some politicians (which to me is no big deal since they are a dime a dozen) but we have finally nabbed BOBBY FISCHER!! It is a great time to be an American indeed!

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think it is quite as simple as you make it out to be.

Fischer was hindering Clinton's ability to make foreign policy in a region where we eventually went to war, and Americans died as a result thereof.

The US made a reasonable law, and not only did Fischer violate it, but he violated it willfully and very publicly.

[dm34]

At least David doesn't suffer from a severe case of paranoia and borderline insanity.

[MicroBob]

actually...George Bush was the president when this happened...not Clinton.

the match was in the summer of 92 i believe.
clinton won the presidency in November of 92 and wasn't inaugurated until Jan of 93.



btw....i saw the same video on CNN-headline....and overhead shot of the match, followed by a close-up of Spassky (the one without the bears), followed by a high overhead again of the match.
no close-up at all of Fischer.



side thought - does anyone else hope that somehow this leads to Fischer getting some help??
with the proper medication maybe his paranoia can be curbed (ala John Nash maybe) and perhaps he could even find his way back to the chess-board.

i think that any lawyer assigned to defend him on any criminal charges could try to justify a psych-consult on the guy to determine if an insanity plea is in order.
yes, i know, i've been watching too many Law and Order re-runs on TNT.....but isn't this possible??


somebody observed previously that Fischer's story has many similarities to John Nash...except without the happy ending.
i would like to point out that Fischer's story is not necessarily concluded and there may still be time for a happier ending. call me a goofy optimist.

[JTrout]

Microbob, you're a goofy optimist.

[MicroBob]

thank you.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
somebody observed previously that Fischer's story has many similarities to John Nash...except without the happy ending.
i would like to point out that Fischer's story is not necessarily concluded and there may still be time for a happier ending. call me a goofy optimist.


[/ QUOTE ]

I like this perspective; it's nice to see for a change.

Microbob=G.O.