Comments on: Searching for Bobby Fisher

Searching for Bobby Fisher

hughbot — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:03:01 -0800

"Bobby Fisher's Pathetic Endgame." An interesting account of Bobby Fisher's decline from greatness to absolutelycrazyness. I used to really like Searching for Bobby Fisher when I was younger, but for some reason I always thought he had disappeared or something mysterious. The truth makes me sad. (Via Plastic.com)

By: adamgreenfield

adamgreenfield — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:14:42 -0800

Yeah, very very sad. But, as I said earlier this week about Wacko Jacko, I reserve my true sympathy for those who have done more to deserve it. One quibble: Chess analysts, a decidedly reserved lot not given to spasms of hyperbole, peppered their dry annotations with exclamation marks ("Be6!"). Isn't this standard chess notation indicating a capture? Shouldn't the Atlantic's copy editors/fact checkers know better? Or am I missing something?

By: pizzasub

pizzasub — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:20:49 -0800

Actually, a capture is notated with an 'x': Bxe6. However, the ! is standard notation, for what I can't remember.

By: eastlakestandard

eastlakestandard — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:23:37 -0800

Chess notation for a capture is an "x." An exclamation point is standard notation for a good move...

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:28:46 -0800

Heh, I was actually planning on doing the 'Bobby Fischer' Mefi post at some point, hughbot. Oh well, good post. For a more tangible (and hi-larious) feeling for the madness that this former chess genius has sunk into, listen to these, somewhat recently recorded radio interviews with him with these Mp3 recordings from a Philippine talk show. Listen as wails away on how the nefarious Jewish cabal conspired to bring him down.

By: jmd82

jmd82 — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:32:39 -0800

Off track, but, on looking at the uschess website, maybe I was missing something, but do you not write where your piece came from? I always thought it was like "pawn:E4-E5"...In their notation, only way to know where piece came from is looking at previous moves which can get obnoxious.

By: vito90

vito90 — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:34:45 -0800

Read this yesterday. Very good article. Thought it was interesting how many Russian players that Fischer accused of rigging tournaments in the seventies admitted that they did just that. Also - if you haven't seen Searching For Bobby Fischer - it is an excellent movie. Anybody here want to play a game of chess over the net? Shoot me an email.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 07:54:28 -0800

jmd82: There are different types of chess notation, and some of them do indicate the square where the piece came from. However, algebraic notation is the most common. Perhaps I don't have perspective because I've been playing for so long, but I don't see how this is obnoxious. If you know the position on the board, you know where the piece came from. (In cases where just the type of piece and the destination square are not enough to uniquely specify the move, then you do indicate the file (or rank, if on the same file) of the starting piece. For example, if you have a knight on g1 and one on d2 and the former moves to f3, this is written as "Ngf3.") If you don't know the position on the board, then the move is meaningless anyway. This page [PDF] goes into more detail about algebraic notation, explaining some of the specifics which weren't covered on the page linked by eastlakestandard, as well as describing some of the other forms of notation.

By: teg

teg — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 10:20:49 -0800

Bobby seemed pretty wacky even in 1962. It's amusing that his favourite actor at the time was future eccentric Marlon Brando.

By: onegoodmove

onegoodmove — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 13:37:25 -0800

! an excellent move

By: gyc

gyc — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 17:05:26 -0800

The site that teg's article came from bobbyfischer.net, has an excellent collection of articles, including Fischer's pamphlet "I was tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!"

By: meech

meech — Fri, 22 Nov 2002 04:10:02 -0800

Excuse me posting this again, but could this be Bobby's website?

By: timyang

timyang — Fri, 22 Nov 2002 09:53:55 -0800

Isn't it obvious to everyone after reading the article that Fischer isn't anti-semite, but his ravings are an attack on his mother who didn't give him enough attention as a child? < /reads too much into things>