May 18, 2018 ▸ People

EPISODE 298: BOBBY FISCHER: TROUBLED GRANDMASTER

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we take an in-depth look at the chess playing prodigy of Brooklyn, Bobby Fischer.

Born to a single Jewish mother in Chicago, Bobby Fischer got his hands on his first chess board at the age of 6. By age 7 he knew that chess was his calling and he took to it like it was the very oxygen his body needed to survive.

Neglecting childhood as well as his own sanity he became obsessed with every aspect of chess, from strategy to the history of it, he took the time to memorize and learn everything he could.

When his mother took him to see a therapist, the therapist simply yawned and said, “Well, there are certainly worse things he could be into.”

By the age of 15 Bobby Fischer became the youngest Grand Master in the USA and as his skills continued to grow, so did the countries hope of defeating the powerhouse of the chess world for 24 years running, the Soviet Union.

In 1972 Bobby Fischer went to Iceland to compete and ultimately won against a formidable opponent in Boris Spassky, but only after Henry Kissinger personally called to encourage Fischer to go.

The 20 years that followed would see Bobby Fischer slide out of the spotlight and into some pretty chaotic personal choices, from becoming a member of the Worldwide Church of God to collecting and obsessing over anti-Semitic literature and beliefs. To the point that he rejected his own Jewish heritage and chased away most of the people around him.

In 1992 he re-emerged from obscurity to battle Boris once more in a chess match in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in spite of a United Nations embargo that included sanctions on commercial activities.

The US Department of the Treasury warned Fischer before the start of the match that his participation was illegal, that it would violate President George H. W. Bush’s Executive Order 12810 imposing United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia. In response, during the first scheduled press conference on September 1, 1992, in front of the international press, Fischer spat on the US order, saying “this is my reply”. His violation of the order led US Federal officials to initiate a warrant for his arrest upon completion of the match.

After the match (which he won) Fischer took up residency in Hungary and settled in the Philippines.

After the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2011 Fischer called in to a radio station in the Philippines and had some not so choice words about his feelings towards the USA and Israel which prompted George H.W. Bush to put out a call to Japan (where Fischer was trying to board a plane back to the Philippines and have him arrested and held.

Fearing extradition to the US, Fischer wrote some desperate letters and called in a favor with Iceland and they ultimately made him a citizen.

He spent his remaining years in Iceland, ranting and raving like a crazy person until ultimately he succumbed to a Urinary tract blockage and died.

Only to be exhumed later for a DNA comparison that only showed that his supposed daughter from a previous marriage was not actually his.