Robert James Fischer, perhaps the most gifted chess player the world has ever seen, has died in Iceland aged 64.
It won’t escape the chess world that his age corresponds with the number of squares on a chess board. While reverred for his eidetic memory, and towering intellect, the media will also report that Fischer was not perfect. He could claim anti-semitism, racism and anarchism among his many talents. Of course the media will swap out “anarchism” for “fundamentalist sympathism” (or some such other made up words).
The chess world will trumpet the passing of perhaps the most talented player the world has seen, and conveniently forget that Fischer beat Spassky in 1972 cheifly through attempting to disrupt the match as much as possible. The chess pieces were too shiny, the squares on the board were the wrong size. The audience were too close. You could hear the television cameras. The lights were too bright. The temperature in the room was wrong.
Yes, Bobby, you were good - but you were not great. Greatness is measured by the things you do - and you did nothing to endear yourself to future generations beyond giving them some wonderful examples of the game of Chess to study.
At the first game of Fischer’s rematch with Spassky in 1992, after not playing chess in public since 1972, one of the Grandmasters present in the audience remarked “It was terrifying - like watching a machine.”.