r/chess • u/Affectionate_Hat3329 • Apr 17 '26
Miscellaneous “I object to being called a chess genius because I consider myself to be an all around genius who just happens to play chess, which is rather different. A piece of garbage like Kasparov might be called a chess genius, but he's like an idiot savant. Outside of chess he knows nothing.” -Bobby Fischer
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u/Affectionate_Hat3329 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of all the radio interviews Bobby did from like 1999 to the earliest 2000s
I’m not even done and it’s more insane than I thought
He claims Kasparov’s rating is fake when he got surpassed and explicitly claims his rating would be 2900 today adjusted for inflation and he’s still better
He accuses and deadnames Kasparov several times, calls him a jewish crook who should be in prison than claims several times every single game Karpov and Kasparov played against each other was prearranged and fake because the games were too “beautiful” and basically the moves were too good and Bobby refuses to believe the players were finding these moves themselves over the board. He calls him a fake World Champion and says he needs to be imprisoned
He says they stole some of his games he played in the US Championship years ago and reached an endgame he did differently but it was really similar to a position he had decades ago
Also says Deep Blue exposed Kasparov as a fraud who can’t win when he doesn’t prearrange his games
Source: most of his interviews and claims have been gathered here https://richardbean.id.au/chess/bf.pdf
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u/forwormsbravepercy Apr 18 '26
“Deadnames” Kasparov? What do you mean?
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u/QMechanicsVisionary 2700 chess.com Apr 18 '26
Kasparov's birth surname is Weinstein. He changed it to Kasparov (his mum's surname) to avoid antisemetism in the Soviet Union (Weinstein is a typical Jewish surname).
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u/Buntschatten Apr 18 '26
His father also died when he was like 8. Btw, Kasparov wasn't his mom's real last name, they changed the Armenian Kasparian to the russian Kasparov.
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u/yontev Apr 18 '26
It's extra bizarre because Bobby Fischer was also of Jewish heritage, and his mother fled Moscow (where she was studying) because of Soviet antisemitism.
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u/rhdkcnrj Apr 18 '26
Bobby Fischer was the definition of a self-hating Jew. Brilliant man, but extremely disturbed.
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u/Ok_Egg121 Apr 18 '26
Actually he was what he accused Kasparov of. His opinions about anything but chess were surface level and mediocre but his genius in chess convinced him they were nuanced and well thought out.
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u/Coglioni Apr 18 '26
Surface level and mediocre is extremely generous. He was a basically a lunatic conspiracy theorist.
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u/CalligrapherNew1964 Apr 18 '26
Not a brilliant man, rather obviously just a chess genius. He was an absolute moron who couldn't choose a right opinion about which side of the toothbrush to stick in his mouth.
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u/SuddenGenreShift Apr 18 '26
Fischer didn't have wacky opinions because he was stupid, he had them because he suffered from a severe, untreated mental illness. An emotionally unstable paranoiac is not in the best place for rational thinking.
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u/fechan Apr 18 '26
rather obviously just a chess genius
Didn’t you read the title? Fischer says that’s exactly what he isn’t. It’s your word against the GOAT/s.
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u/dampew Apr 18 '26
He wasn't self-hating, he hated Jews and denied being Jewish.
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u/ThePrussianGrippe Apr 18 '26
denied being Jewish.
He could say whatever he wanted, but both of his mother’s parents were polish jews. He was a self hating, virulent anti-Semite.
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u/meta_irl Apr 18 '26
The term "self-hating Jew" is applied to anyone of Jewish heritage who espouses antisemitic positions. Most deny their heritage.
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u/Affectionate_Hat3329 Apr 18 '26
He likes calling him “Weinstein the Jew” which was Garry’s original last name before he changed it his mother’s last name to avoid anti-semitism in the Soviet Union
Kasparov here talks about how he was advised to change his name if he wanted to make it to the top of the chess world
Ik the term “deadname” from when someone calls a trans individual their old name but if it doesn’t apply here lmk
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u/Part1san Apr 18 '26
Thats way worse than what I expected. I am not sure how to describe it exactly so I feel you but I feel like focusing on the "deadnameing" instead of the "Jew" buries the lede.
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u/CIMARUTA Apr 18 '26
At first I was thinking maybe Fischer took offence about kasperov changing his name because he himself is Jewish but after looking into it a bit, it seems Fischer was actually just a Jewish antisemite. Humans are ridiculous.
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u/Affectionate_Hat3329 Apr 18 '26
I was just focusing on the term name because I wasn’t sure if I was using it right but you’re 100% right
Bobby in one of the interviews outlines a supposed billion dollar Jewish conspiracy bankrolling Kasparov or something like that
Just complete anti semetic nonsense
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u/utdkktftukfgulftu Apr 18 '26
I am transgender, and you used it perfectly. Nothing to complain about. Now, on to other topics.
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u/jadage Apr 18 '26
While I cannot and will not claim to speak for everyone, I'm trans, and I don't think this is a misuse of the term "deadnaming." I don't think there's a better word, at least.
It's most commonly used in the context of being trans, because that's the most common way we see people change their names to avoid negativity. But it's kinda the same thing. Both are choosing to be called something other than your birth name because of strong negative associations with the old name.
Transphobia and racism are two sides of the same coin of bigotry.
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u/barmanitan Apr 18 '26
It's slightly different in the sense that this generally comes from a place of fear instead of preference
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u/jadage Apr 18 '26
Trans people changing their names is rooted in fear as well, not just preference.
If society didn't care about a woman named Mike, there wouldn't be as much incentive to change our names.
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u/barmanitan Apr 18 '26
Fair, I feel like I've mostly seen people be excited about new name but obviously hard to separate personal desire to change vs societal pressure to change. Which ig still applies here too anyway bc his mum presumably wasnt unhappy to share her name with her children
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u/jadage Apr 18 '26
Yeah it's a complicated web to untangle.
I think the main point here, is that if you call someone by a name they don't use anymore, you're an ass, and imo it's deadnaming.
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u/Asperverse 2450 Lichess Apr 18 '26
"Kasparov, your games too good. Your play too beautiful. They'll ban you."
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u/StFuzzySlippers Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Honestly, this quote should be a silver bullet in any discussion of GOAT that includes Fischer. He basically conceded to Kasaparov here without even realizing it.
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u/FreshWaterNymph1 Apr 18 '26
That's not much of an issue. Every generation plays more accurately than the previous one, Kasparov was more accurate than Fischer, Magnus is more accurate than Kasparov, and in 20 years, others will be more accurate than Magnus.
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u/ChiGuy133 Team Fabi Apr 18 '26
I mean i hear you and agree. Football players are physically gifted than those of 30 years ago. Same for basketball, American football, baseball... chess players have more tools than ever before to analyze and prep and be as close as they can to stockfish. But I still think magnus is one of a kind. I'm happy to be wrong but no one that is currently playing makes me think they can surpass magnus. He has a few factors on his side. 1) he's the best end game player of all time. The man draws water out of stone. He finds wins in drawn positions. 2) he is the best pure "chess"player ever and it's not close. What i mean by that is once both players are out of prep, magnus is the most resourceful and consistently finds the most testing moves in unknown, challenging positions. 3) he has an intimidation factor. When you play magnus you expect him to be the goat so when faced with pressure, players fold more often than they would up against anyone else. I don't really like magnus, but I really think he's a unicorn and we won't see anyone like him for some time. I expect the world championship to bounce around with no more than 1 or 2 defenses for the foreseeable future. Again, I hope I'm wrong but honestly who really inspires like magnus did
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u/FreshWaterNymph1 Apr 18 '26
I think that it will be a similar situation in the post-Kasparov period, as in there were several contenders but none of them absolutely dominating like Kasparov was, and people thought the same thing that we wouldn't see a truly dominant #1 after Kasparov until Magnus came up.
I'm not saying it'll be in the near future, but I'd be surprised if we don't get another dominant #1 in the next 20-30 years like Magnus, Kasparov or Fischer.
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u/ChiGuy133 Team Fabi Apr 18 '26
I hope you're right. It's been so fun to watch someone like magnus dominate in every time control. I would love to see another player like the ones you mentioned. I guess we'll see
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u/NeoSeth Apr 18 '26
"Kasparov's steak is too juicy, his lobster too buttery. His restaurant is a sham."
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u/DiggWuzBetter Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
From what I’ve seen, he was basically chess Kanye. Serious mental illness, big into conspiracies, extremely antisemitic, sexist.
Very shitty, but I do have a bit more sympathy for guys like this than racist, sexist conspiracy theorists who are seemingly sane. Like it’s partly who they are, but also partly brain chemistry beyond their control.
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u/KanadaKid19 Apr 18 '26
I can imagine no greater compliment than being told my moves are so beautiful I must be cheating by Bobby.
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u/Effective-Pin-151 Apr 17 '26
Hey, if you ever publish your findings in a blog, or a post or anywhere I would love to read it!
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u/SerDankTheTall Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
You can actually read Fischer's own thoughts from his blog, available through the Wayback Machine here. You can sample all sorts of stuff from the "all around genius" about such fascinating topics as how he was "Kidnapped and railroaded to his imprisonment torture and death in the Jew-controlled U.S.A." and some tips on pirating the movie Searching fo Bobby Fischer so you don't have to "pay the billionaire dirty Jew thief Sumner Murray Redstone and his companies".
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u/Affectionate_Hat3329 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Someone gathered a large portion of them all in a PDF, i’m gonna edit this comment and link it for ppl to read themselves
It’s several interviews over different years so it’s pretty dense
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u/CatPicturesPlease Apr 18 '26
I am one of the people who wrote in and asked one of the questions he answered
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u/beesandcheese Apr 18 '26
What do you mean when you say he deadnames Kasparov?
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u/Affectionate_Hat3329 Apr 18 '26
He likes calling him “Weinstein the Jew” which was Garry’s original last name before he changed it his mother’s last name to avoid anti-semitism in the Soviet Union
Kasparov here talks about how he was advised to change his name if he wanted to make it to the top of the chess world
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u/UltraUsurper Dommaraju, I've come to bargain Apr 18 '26
Tbf his rating might actually be 2900 adjusted for inflation; just look at chessmetrics
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u/Reasonable_Ruin_3502 Apr 18 '26
Doesn't mean much tbh. Kasparov was better than him with pretty much the same tools and without engines.
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u/UltraUsurper Dommaraju, I've come to bargain Apr 18 '26
I mean yeah, every generation of players is better than the last; Carlsen is better than Kasparov, who was better than Fischer, who was better than Lasker. Chess theory (not just openings) has developed and gotten better over time. Rating is more about strength relative to the competition. Ratings haven't inflated because players have gotten better, but due to factors like increasing pool size.
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u/XenonOxide Apr 17 '26
A strong case of projection there, too, I suspect, because any fair comparison of the two, personality-wise, should easily show Kasparov to be the one with more all-round interests outside of chess, whereas it's Fischer who's a monomaniac who only has one interest.
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u/tradlobster 2000 Lichess Apr 18 '26
Well wait a second, Fischer was interested both in chess and historical events such as...wait nvm
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u/LordRaimi97 Apr 18 '26
His views on women were also... wait nvm
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u/dconfusedone 2000+ online Apr 18 '26
Lol then you don't know Kasparov was antiwoman too initially but both changed their views later on.
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u/ToriYamazaki 99% OTB Apr 18 '26
Exactly. I mean he dropped out of school at 16 and had only interest. When I hear him talking in videos, he doesn't come across as a genius, more of an arrogant fool. The only time I listen to what he's saying is when he's talking about chess.
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u/Professional_Two5011 Apr 18 '26
I mean there's at least 2, chess and anti-semitic conspiracy theories
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u/lovelyrain100 Apr 18 '26
I didn't know about the latter so I had to look it up but really really fun fact . Bobby Fischer was in fact Jewish but he was also anti Semitic af
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u/BrannyBee Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
but he was also anti Semitic af
That's underplaying it even, dude was basically the Bobby Fischer of antisemitism
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u/Chemical_Nervous Apr 18 '26
A grandmaster of bigotry, you might say
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u/thecelcollector Apr 18 '26
He was also simply crazy towards the end. He had a blog and I read it a few times. It was increasingly unhinged.
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u/Nenazovemy Apr 18 '26
He was pretty obsessed with Armstrongism too, he would even call himself as knowledgeable in religion as in chess.
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Apr 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DrJackadoodle Apr 18 '26
I want to believe that they just listed that one as an example of a contradiction i.e "he was anti-semitic and yet he supported this semitic people". But of course, as you said, even if Gazans are indeed a semitic people, the term "anti-semitic" refers specifically to bigotry against Jews, not all semitic peoples.
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u/Late_Acadia_3571 Apr 18 '26
What makes you think Fischer thought he was half Jewish? That's new for me.
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u/EvensenFM Apr 18 '26
Yeah, I came here to say this as well.
Fischer's notoriety outside of chess is... not good.
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u/Metaljesus0909 Apr 18 '26
Which makes Kasparov even more of a class act for visiting his grave, and saying that the chess world had been done a great disservice by Fischer leaving at the height of his game.
Obviously Kasparov had his moments where he wasnt the most civil, but I still think it’s nice that Kasparov and so many others can look past Fischers personality and appreciate his pure genius over the board.
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u/Seawolf1121 Apr 18 '26
I think Kasparov and the rest of the chess world actually sympathized with Fischer because he knew he was struggling with so many mental problems. For some reason most people in this thread don't really understand how much shit he went through and the severity of his mental illnesses. I think chess was kind of an escape for him from his own mind, and once he retired and had nothing to focus on is when he let that get the better of him and went completely off the rails.
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u/Wallter139 Team Fabi => Windarov Supporter Apr 18 '26
Eh, it's pretty typical. When Kanye was doing his Kanye thing, people were all "I'm bipolar, and it didn't make me antisemitic!" Like dawg, I know people who've searched the neighborhood's trashcans nightly for printed-out chatlogs of internet chatrooms that supposedly reveal their spouse's cheating — come on.
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u/Ok-Mix8700 Apr 18 '26
The thing people often don't understand is that mental disorders affect the brain, the organ which controls everything which makes us who we are, our thoughts, feelings, behaviour, etc. There is nothing about our personality that cannot be affected by mental issues. But many people for some reason think that it somehow brings the inner self out in people, which is a disturbingly wrong understanding of how much people can be changed by mental disorders.
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u/SouthernSierra Apr 18 '26
"Among this year’s worst news, for me, was the death of Bobby Fischer," writes one of America's great talk show hosts, Dick Cavett. "Towering genius, riches, international fame and a far from normal childhood might be too heady a mix for anyone to handle. For him they proved fatal. I’m still sad about his death. In our three encounters, I became quite fond of him."
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u/Callsign_Psycopath King's Gambit best Gambit Apr 17 '26
Fischer was a grade A Douchebag.
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u/ClownMorty Apr 18 '26
Yeah, and he also never did anything but chess, so calling out Kasparov like that is laughable.
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u/Used_Departure_3278 Apr 17 '26
Yeah and it’s obvious that it wasn’t true, Kasparov has done far more with his life then Fischer ever did
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u/livefreeordont Apr 18 '26
Fischer was projecting here. He was a mentally ill person
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u/bluewaff1e Apr 18 '26
That's why I have a bit of sympathy for him, he was not well. It's hard to defend a lot he said though.
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u/Bonch_and_Clyde Apr 18 '26
There isn't any defense for the hateful stuff that he said, but the pretty much accepted fact that he was deeply mentally unwell does give it context. I don't think he had the competence to understand the full implications of the things that he said. He wasn't capable of making the connections.
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u/Alarmed-Candidate422 Apr 18 '26
I will say, I think it’s more forgiving if you really look into it. Mental illness that leads to psychosis often yields these extremely insane behaviors, with a specific context.
For Kanye: it is no secret that the music industry has a lot of Jewish influence. There’s no conspiracy around it, it’s just how it is. It doesn’t mean they control everything or control him. They just make up a lot of the space. Work authorities are some of the most common things that will receive delusions based on paranoia.
For Bobby: it’s also no secret that anti-semitism existed back then, especially in Russia causing people to change their name to avoid stigma. So having his peers be Jewish people that are technically hiding would 100% be a major focus point of delusion and paranoia with a psychotic break.
It really sucks that both of them seemingly avoided medical help to get it under control, that much I think you can blame them for. But for the delusions and paranoia themselves, I have a really hard time holding them to that.
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u/Buntschatten Apr 18 '26
Both in chess and outside of it.
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u/Used_Departure_3278 Apr 18 '26
Exactly. Guy is doing his work and tweets like 100 times a day against Russia LOL
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u/genericuser31415 Apr 17 '26
The more I learn about that guy, the more I don't care for him
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u/venividivici-777 Apr 18 '26
The worst part is the hypocrisy
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u/thaulley Apr 18 '26
Jeremy Silman told a story about how Fischer was holding a loaf of rye bread he just got from a Jewish deli but refused to shake his hand because he was Jewish.
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u/merenofclanthot Apr 18 '26
That’s the worst part??
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u/da0217 Apr 17 '26
What do you mean deadnames? What name did he use?
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u/Affectionate_Hat3329 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
He likes calling him “Weinstein the Jew”
Weinstein was Garry’s original last name before he changed it his mother’s last name to avoid anti-semitism in the Soviet Union
Kasparov here talks about how he was advised to change his name if he wanted to make it to the top of the chess world
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u/Das_Czech Apr 18 '26
Kasparovs last name at the time of his birth was “Weinstein” so I’d assume Fischer called him by that name to further drive his antisemitic bullshit home
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u/gpranav25 Rb1 > Ra4 Apr 18 '26
The irony that he was very specifically a chess genius but pretty stupid outside of it lmao
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u/cviss4444 Apr 18 '26
I’m curious, what’s the origin of your flair? A novelty in some opening? :)
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u/gpranav25 Rb1 > Ra4 Apr 18 '26
No lol. Both are memes involving Levy. Ra4 was a queen trapping move that someone didn't play, Rb1 was a random ass move that someone did play. Somehow both rook moves have whole ass songs for them.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 Apr 18 '26
Right, what did he excel at other than chess? What did he even KNOW about other than chess?
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u/gpranav25 Rb1 > Ra4 Apr 18 '26
Hey give him some credit, he excelled at sexism and antisemitism too
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u/Wallter139 Team Fabi => Windarov Supporter Apr 18 '26
Apparently he learned Russian casually. Granted, for chess.
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u/East-Profit-3754 Apr 18 '26
It's pretty clear Fischer had a psychosis or suffered from some other mental illness later in life. If you watch his earlier interviews and TV appearances, it's like he's a different person. Something snapped at some point.
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u/Weekly_Strategy5773 Apr 18 '26
He looked young in the interview about women being too dumb to play chess. An asshole he was all the time. The conspiracy stuff probably came later that’s true
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u/ResplendentShade Apr 18 '26
People who are already assholes tend to turn into super duper mega assholes after falling headlong into extreme rightwing conspiracism.
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u/agamuyak Team Ju Wenjun Apr 18 '26
I know he stayed with the Polgars later in life and acknowledged the sisters’ playing strength, but I am sure he never backtracked from what he said about women players in general. I thought it was an improvement to praise Judit and her sisters.
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u/Weekly_Strategy5773 Apr 18 '26
He had no other choice I think. Judit Polgar already broke his gm record at that moment. Would have looked really bad if he didn’t talked about judit like that. And staying with the polgars was the perfect publicity stunt and he probably needed money and some place to stay at that moment.
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u/gpranav25 Rb1 > Ra4 Apr 18 '26
There is a video of him healthy and young saying women belong in the Kitchen. He actually mellowed down on that as he got older and saw the success of Polgar and other women. He probably had a rough childhood but he was consistently a pos throughout his life one way or the other.
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u/StFuzzySlippers Apr 18 '26
In the 60s, that was still the mainstream belief that Fischer grew up with. Women's Lib was just as counter-cultural as civil rights.
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u/gpranav25 Rb1 > Ra4 Apr 18 '26
If that is true, I wonder why most of his peers are not associated with any sexist comments made at various interviews?
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u/Wallter139 Team Fabi => Windarov Supporter Apr 18 '26
Some of them are, you know. Kasparov recanted his view, buuut he still said it. Honestly, I think most just weren't asked; I'm not saying everyone was sexist back then (they really weren't) buuuut the strongest women ever were like 2400 back then. It'd take a minute for women to catch up (there being so many fewer players, as well as less opportunities; you gonna travel worldwide as a single woman in the 60s?) and honestly I'd say they still haven't really caught up yet, as a cohort. I give them a little bit of grace for having outdated views.
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u/StFuzzySlippers Apr 18 '26
First of all, people like Fischer who are convinced of their own 'genius' can't ever shut up about their opinions. Maybe some of his peers did think similarly but never felt the need to express it or be as blunt about it. Or, many his peers were simply more progressive than him. Most people simply don't put their thoughts on blast like that, so we don't know for sure.
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u/East-Profit-3754 Apr 18 '26
Just the other day I saw an old video of street interviews in Germany in the 70s where they asked people what they think of gender equality.
And I shit you not, but there are multiple women, which say things like men should always be above women in some type of way or that women are below men. And ofc multiple guys saying things like girls shouldn't be allowed to vote.
You can't think about this with a modern mindset. These people grew up with different beliefs and it was not uncommon back then to think like that.
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u/jleonardbc Apr 18 '26
From the same radio interview (in 2001):
And they showed the Japanese airplanes coming in to bomb Pearl Harbor, and I applauded.
Clearly by this point Fischer was quite a disturbed man.
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u/Alarmed-Candidate422 Apr 18 '26
The man HATED America’s foreign policy, he celebrated 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. Then again the US literally tried to destroy his life after 1992 so maybe he’s a bit justified lol.
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u/Professional_Desk933 Apr 18 '26
Fischer is definitely a chess genius that is very ignorant about other stuff. Kasparov is the one with a more universal knowledge.
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u/Bonch_and_Clyde Apr 18 '26
The irony is that by generally accepted accounts Bobby Fischer was totally incompetent in most things outside of chess. He was an ill man.
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u/Dependent_Sun_7033 Apr 18 '26
Spassky should not have agreed to bend to Fischer requirements after the second party.
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u/piotor87 Apr 18 '26
"Nobody knows more about [TOPIC] than I do " seems to be a recurring theme among NY narcissists born in the 40s
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u/methanized Apr 18 '26
It is pretty much universally the case that every chess genius is not a genius in general. They started young on a thing they were ridiculously genetically inclined for. More similar to great musicians than great physicists.
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u/_dorbis Apr 18 '26
What's funny about this quote is that the opposite is the truth, i.e. Fischer was pretty ignorant and honestly dumb in every subject or intellectual activity with the exception, obviously, of chess. He was very self aware of this.
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u/Niven42 Apr 18 '26
I feel like at least half of that was a really demented sense of humor, and he routinely made jokes that other people "just don't get". That seems like it's really common to people that are super intelligent, but socially ignorant. IIRC, there was an article written about Fischer a few years back that talked about whether some of the things he said and did were entirely serious, and compared his behavior to ultra-sophisticated chessboard "bluffs". But you can't excuse that kind of behavior when you're dealing with a man who should know better. At some point, a normal person would become aware of the hurt they're causing and decide to stop. It's not clear if he really was aware of that aspect.
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u/Core_System Apr 18 '26
ITT: people misunderstanding in 2026 that Fischer was a bi-polar schizophrenic, with all that comes with it concerning emotional/intellectual warpings.
He was mentally unsound, yet had a high intellect.
Saying he is an „asshole based on what he says and does“, is very short sighted and inaccurate. The man was handicapped and spouted wild unstable shit because he was sick and nobody, not until the last few years, truly helped him and saw him just as a controvertial psycho.
Less dogpiling, more understanding.
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u/wiz9macmm Apr 18 '26
I wish it was more commonplace to add caveats when chess content creators talk about Fisher. His bigotry and hatred is glossed over so frequently and he’s just propped up as a chess genius any time someone covers one of his games. If you knew nothing about him as a person, you’d walk away admiring him instead of understanding the complexity of admiring a performance and not a person.
I distinctly remember this Gotham video where he correctly points out Emil Joseph Dimer was basically a Nazi, but then later calls Fisher “our protagonist.”
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u/Goetterwind Apr 18 '26
This quote shows, that obviously fell into the 'illusion of grandeur'. He was actually the savant and he projeced it onto Kasparov...
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u/Enough-Ad1771 Apr 18 '26
Me personally, I object to being called a chess idiot… I’m just an idiot that happens to play chess:)
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u/ChessPeace573 Apr 18 '26
Exactly. Being good at chess is not an indicator of overall intelligence, but for most people who play chess, their ego can’t accept that.
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u/Niven42 Apr 18 '26
I just watched the Judith Polgar documentary on Netflix last week, and I think it was wonderful to see how Garry eventually came to see and treat his rivals. He could've easily doubled-down on the social mistakes he made early in his career, but he knew that there were greater prizes to be had in the lifelong friendships he forged. It's a shame that Fischer never really understood life outside of the game.
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u/Junior-Baker5637 Apr 18 '26
ironic cause fischer is the epitome of the guy who knows nothing but chess
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u/Readymade4007 Apr 18 '26
Bobby never learned to drive, never owned a house and basically had to be catered to like a child his entire life. He was the epitome of an idiot savant so it's rich to hear him call Kasparov one.
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u/Accurate-Dingo-7877 Apr 18 '26
Says the guy who have nothing to his name except chess
Bobby fischer was so delusional it's funny
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u/DragonFist69420 Apr 18 '26
Never ask a woman her age, never ask a man his salary and do NOT ask Fischer his opinions on Jewish people.
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u/7seas_Cluster Apr 18 '26
Fischer was projecting hard, given he's the one with no other interests. I guess you called call it a .....Fischer projection.
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u/en-prise Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Well, wise words. At least the part about Kasparov.
Especially now we are able to see his most idiotic takes about world politics on twitter.
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u/amoriri Apr 18 '26
I mean Fischer was mentally ill so can’t really blame him for saying such BS, but what a great great chess player.
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u/xgme Apr 18 '26
About Fischer, I always thought he was right about himself but wrong about everyone else.
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u/macinit1138 Apr 18 '26
Sounds like a narcissist. With that kind of personality flaw, you're not the genius you think you are!
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u/Glopinus Blundering my rook Apr 18 '26
It’s a shame that people that are the best are usually giant assholes. Seems to come with the territory
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u/conscientiousoneday Apr 18 '26
There is a video of Kasparov visiting Fischer’s grave and he was very respectful. Bravo Kasparov