Bobby Fischer has died

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:42 pm

The Weekenders wrote:Geez, Gonz, yer such a buzzkill....

He just likes to harrass Cranberry.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:12 pm

falkbeer wrote:It´s like listening to a piece of music by Mozart or a painting by Rembrandt.

I love listening to a good painting. (Especially pointillism; it's so percussive.)

falkbeer · Post by **falkbeer** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:44 pm

Doug_Tipple wrote:Bobby Fischer's mother was Jewish. From what I understand, if your mother is a Jew, then so are you. I suppose it is hopelessly too complicated, psycholigically speaking, to wonder why he developed such a hatred for the Jewish people.
i

There are even people who hate themselves!

falkbeer · Post by **falkbeer** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:48 pm

jsluder wrote:
falkbeer wrote:It´s like listening to a piece of music by Mozart or a painting by Rembrandt.
I love listening to a good painting. (Especially pointillism; it's so percussive.)

Touché!

That sentence could have been better formulated!
But I agree pointillism is a bit percussive - a bit like jazz!

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:50 pm

Flyingcursor wrote:
The Weekenders wrote:Geez, Gonz, yer such a buzzkill....
He just likes to harrass Cranberry.

Yep. Everybody should ignore him (Gonzo) as best and as much as they can.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:55 pm

Well, it put my mind on chess enough that I installed a GNU chess program to my PDA.

chas · Post by **chas** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:19 pm

But what about the big news -- Richard Knerr, inventor of the hula hoop, founder of Wham-O, died yesterday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/01/17/ob ... edition_us

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:20 pm

Doug_Tipple wrote:Bobby Fischer's mother was Jewish. From what I understand, if your mother is a Jew, then so are you. I suppose it is hopelessly too complicated, psycholigically speaking, to wonder why he developed such a hatred for the Jewish people.

I knew a fellow who lived downstairs from Fischer
and his mother in Brooklyn--where I grew up too.
Said Fischer and his mother were constantly
fighting. I reckon that plus the sort of mathematical/
logical genius that borders on madness, pretty
much explains what went wrong with his life.
Brooklyn in those years must have been
one of the craziest places on earth.

I think I know why he had so much hatred for the
Jewish people.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:39 pm

chas wrote:But what about the big news -- Richard Knerr, inventor of the hula hoop, founder of Wham-O, died yesterday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/01/17/ob ... edition_us

A much bigger loss, to my mind.

Redwolf

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:00 pm

Flyingcursor wrote:
susnfx wrote:Ben Kingsley, Laurence Fishburn, and an amazing little boy (can't think of his name) playing the chess prodigy. It's an incredibly sweet movie.

Susan
One of my favorite movies.

Yes it is a good one.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:29 pm

Cranberry wrote:
Flyingcursor wrote:
The Weekenders wrote:Geez, Gonz, yer such a buzzkill....
He just likes to harrass Cranberry.
Yep. Everybody should ignore him (Gonzo) as best and as much as they can.

You know I'm always on your side. Even when I harrass you myself!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:46 pm

I believe the essay I read in the Washington Post mentioned that he had Jewish ancestry on both sides.

Also, that he rarely thought about anything other than chess. That was his interest. Period.

A genius in the chess world, but not a particularly functional human by any other measure, it seems.

But heck, so what? Long as you're not hazardous to other people.

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:58 pm

falkbeer wrote:
Doug_Tipple wrote:Bobby Fischer's mother was Jewish. From what I understand, if your mother is a Jew, then so are you. I suppose it is hopelessly too complicated, psycholigically speaking, to wonder why he developed such a hatred for the Jewish people.
i
There are even people who hate themselves!

His mother was also a communist; Fischer was a so-called "red diaper baby".

As an adult, he developed a fanatical hatred of communism, and it was part of the fire that drove his chess-playing: most of the grandmasters of the day--including Spassky--were russian or from nearby soviet states.

No one called him crazy for hating the Soviet Union or hating communism, but when the same drive turned on his mother's religion (judaism) and citizenship (the US) that was taken as a sign of his insanity.

However, the impetus that drove his anti-communism was what drove his anti-semitism. Fischer's hatred of Judaism and his hatred of communism aren't two things; they're the same thing.

The western world was all too ready to praise Fischer for his hatred of communism, and we were just as quick to dismiss him as a nutbar for his later opinions. It's hypocritical of us, I think.

falkbeer · Post by **falkbeer** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:32 pm

s1m0n wrote:
falkbeer wrote:
Doug_Tipple wrote:Bobby Fischer's mother was Jewish. From what I understand, if your mother is a Jew, then so are you. I suppose it is hopelessly too complicated, psycholigically speaking, to wonder why he developed such a hatred for the Jewish people.
i
There are even people who hate themselves!
His mother was also a communist; Fischer was a so-called "red diaper baby".

As an adult, he developed a fanatical hatred of communism, and it was part of the fire that drove his chess-playing: most of the grandmasters of the day--including Spassky--were russian or from nearby soviet states.

No one called him crazy for hating the Soviet Union or hating communism, but when the same drive turned on his mother's religion (judaism) and citizenship (the US) that was taken as a sign of his insanity.

However, the impetus that drove his anti-communism was what drove his anti-semitism. Fischer's hatred of Judaism and his hatred of communism aren't two things; they're the same thing.

The western world was all too ready to praise Fischer for his hatred of communism, and we were just as quick to dismiss him as a nutbar for his later opinions. It's hypocritical of us, I think.

It seems that he was really revolting against his parents/mother all his life.
And who isn´t? Either that or trying to prove ourselves worthy of our parents love.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:12 pm

Woody Allen was also a product/casualty of the Brooklyn
of Fischer's day. In one of his films his former wife,
played by Merrill Streep, has become a lesbian
and is raising their son in a lesbian relationship.

She says to Allen: 'It isn't so bad for a kid to
have two mothers!'

He responds:

'I barely survived one.'

It's hard to imagine how loony things were.
Just like Buddy Hackett said it wasn't until he
was in the Army that he realized there's food
that doesn't give you heartburn,
I don't think I met a sane person until I
was 23 or so.

The Philip Roth novel 'Portnoy's Complaint'
is about this.

Fischer is no surprise. I know where the anger
comes from.