Re: Fischer's lifestyle
Alex
became world champion?
i hear a lot of modern GMs give lessons and lectures and simuls.
did he do the same thing?
also how much did he earn on average each year?
The Master
> What did Fischer do with his free time during the 50s-70s before he
> became world champion?
One thing young Fischer did before he won the FIDE championship
was attend Erasmus High School. Later, he dropped out and began
to focus on the things that really matter in life: chess and winning.
One night as Bobby was wandering the streets of Passadena, he
was picked up by police and given a friendly tour of the local jail
house. He later wrote a pamphlet about this interesting experience.
Bobby played in tournaments, did a simul tour and even went on TV
gameshows like 'What's My Line?' But he was far less active in
tournament play than his fans would have liked. The reason? Simple:
folks were out to get him.
Take Reshevsky for example. Sammy had deliberately been born
a Jew in order to spite Bobby by refusing to play a key match game
on Saturday -- the Jewish sabbath. Even Reshevsky's parents were
in on the plot (as they must have been when little Sammy was
conceived).
But the worst of the lot of conspirators were the Russians. First
of
all, they held the world championship title. Worse, they kept
passing
it back and forth between them: first Botvinnik, then Smyslov, then
back to Botvinnik. Next a short pass to Tal, then a lateral back to
Botvinnik (the team's quarterback) again. Finally an injury (of the
ego)
took the old man out of the game and the Russians brought in 'Iron
willed' Petrosian, who next handed the ball off to Spassky. There was
that hated name -- Spassky. The one Russian who still gave Bobby
fits in the late 1960s by trapping his queen or bravely sacrificing
pawns.
Free time? What free time. With nearly everyone out to get him,
poor Bobby had little if any time 'free' to pursue normal activities
like
walking the dog or playing frisbee. He had to somehow foil all those
conspirators, remember? They tried to put metal fillings in his
teeth
in order to learn how to bust the King's Gambit, but he outsmarted
them by just letting his teeth rot! Clever.
And they even tried to trick Bobby into (finally) publishing the
book
he co-wrote with Larry Evans, so he would make oodles of money
and then the IRS would have him by the short ones. But again,
Bobby easily outsmarted them. He simply sold his share of the
royalties for a song, and then sat back and watched them squirm!
No sinister IRS men would ever be able to catch Bobby Fischer
with his pants down. Well, not while he was still alive, anyway.
Bobby liked to bowl, to swim and to waddle -- I mean walk. But
he is quite famous for the following quote: 'All I want to do, ever,
is
to playchess.com'. This is one world champion who, rather than
having a wide variety of interests and just happening to have great
chess talent, was literally obsessed with the game. His idea of a
chess lesson was to read an encyclopedia of chess openings --
then read it again. Now THAT'S obsession.
jkh001
> On Jul 6, 11:24 pm, Alex <talltr...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > What did Fischer do with his free time during the 50s-70s before he
> > became world champion?
>
> One thing young Fischer did before he won the FIDE championship
> was attend Erasmus High School. Later, he dropped out and began
> to focus on the things that really matter in life: chess and winning.
>
> One night as Bobby was wandering the streets of Passadena, he
> was picked up by police and given a friendly tour of the local jail
> house. He later wrote a pamphlet about this interesting experience.
Anachronism. That incident took place around 1980.
chiffres
Bobby went on I Got a Secret to get money to go to a tournament in
Moscow. See the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JcwOJADf8
Robert Byrne went on To Tell the Truth. I don't think Bobby was ever on
What's My Line.
Chiffres
In article
<29b40782-2ff7-4b58...@5g2000yqz.googlegroups.com>, The
parrt...@cs.com
It wasn’t until his world championship match with Boris Spassky in
1972 at the height of the Cold War that chess made a big breakthrough
in America. While we were training at Grossinger’s Resort in 1971, he
told me with great pride that he earned $30,000 the previous year, a
pittance compared to star athletes. Yet by now offers were starting to
pour in. His celebrity was assured when Mike Wallace interviewed him
for 60 Minutes, the nation’s most popular TV news program.
Mark Houlsby
You should know by now that Greg never allows facts to hinder his
insane babbling.
parrt...@cs.com
by Bobby Fischer, the world chess champion. Copyright
1982.
"About 2:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, May 26, 1981, as I was peacefully
and lawfully walking towards Lake Street in Pasadena across from the
Kaiser Permanente medical offices, a policeman in a car suddenly
pulled up alongside the curb and said he wanted to talk to me because
I fitted perfectly the description of a man who had just committed a
bank robbery...The policeman then proceeded to ask me a number of
questions regarding my name, residence, age, etc. I answered all of
these questions politely and truthfully. He then began to repeat the
questions over and over again. I answered them over and over again. He
asked for my identification and I showed it to him. He asked how long
I'd lived in the area, and where I was from originally. I told him. He
asked what I did for a living and I told him. Suddenly a second police
car pulled alongside and I was soon surrounded by at least three or
four policemen...."
THIS CRAzY WORLD OF CHESS by GM Larry Evans
In 1974 Playboy asked me to do a feature interview with Bobby.I told
them he wouldn’t do it unless he got paid. They offered to send the
two of us to a resort of our choice and indicated they were willing to
donate money to his favorite charity. I contacted Bobby who demanded
$50,000 for his favorite charity—himself. Alas, the
interview fell through.
In 1976 Bobby rejected another fabulous offer in the millions to play
Brazilian prodigy Henrique Mecking in Manila. "I’m too busy with my
lawsuits to concentrate on chess," he explained.
After that we kept in touch by phone and mail until he went off the
deep end in 1982 by writing a pamphlet about being tortured in the
Pasadena jailhouse which he signed as "Robert D. James (professionally
known as Robert J. Fischer or Bobby Fischer, The World Chess
Champion)." Okay, there may be something to his claims about being ill-
treated by the police, yet his life was falling apart. After 15 years
he broke with his Church in 1977 and wrote a scathing essay blasting
his own stupidity: "Once I quit tithing, my mind started to clear up.
I’m not interested in getting my money back. I just want to make sure
that nobody gets ripped off mentally."
He lived in flophouses, grew an unkempt beard, handed out anti-Semitic
leaflets on the street and became a recluse. Diehard Fischer-watchers
call this period his "wilderness years."
One reporter said, "There was this growing dilemma in looking for
Fischer. The more you knew about him, the less you actually wanted to
find him." If a friend talked about him to a reporter or wrote about
him, Bobby would have nothing more to do with that person....
Most champions have a period when they are virtually invincible and
Fischer’s reign was brief, almost meteoric. He burned out when he
reached his peak, whereas Kasparov kept improving. I think all we can
say with certainty is that the gap between Fischer and his rivals in
1972 was greater than the gap that exists now between the
world champion and his rivals.
Taylor Kingston
> became world champion?
I would suggest reading "Profile of a Prodigy" by Frank Brady, which
unlike most books on Fischer has a good deal of personal information.
> i hear a lot of modern GMs give lessons and lectures and simuls.
>
> did he do the same thing?
Lectures and simuls have long been a major source of income for top
players. World Champions such as Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine
would often go on long worldwide simul tours. Fischer probably did not
do quite as much of that as they, but he still did some, for example
his nationwide US tour of 1964, described in "A Legend on the Road" by
IM John Donaldson.
As for giving lessons, i.e. private tutoring, I don't recall that
Fischer did much if any of that. My general (though admittedly not at
all authoritative) impression is that World Champions have done little
of that; it seems to be more the province of lesser players, e.g. IM
Jeremy Silman and NM Bruce Pandolfini. An exception was Botvinnik, but
of course his chess school had state support.
Mark Houlsby
wrote:
Clearly, Kasparov is another exception. On a different level,
admittedly.
jeremy.p...@vanderbilt.edu
wrote:
Lipschutz is sometimes referred to as a pupil of Steinitz, in a manner
indicating this was more than just following his style; Steinitz once
offered to tutor Mackenzie who decined.
My guess is that after Steinitz, world champions could make enough
money by other forms of chess which did not require constant time
commitments that they would not be likely to teach.
Jerry Spinrad
Taylor Kingston
You mean his recent work with Magnus Carlsen? Yes, definitely a
different level. I was thinking more in terms of lessons for average
players as a source of income.
Mark Houlsby
jkh001
No argument.
None
Where does he say it took place at some time other than 1980 or 1982?
Your reading comprehension seems to be on the fritz again.
Keep banging those rocks together.
Mark Houlsby
Stan, you really are a fuckwit.
Read CAREFULLY what the OP asked:
"What did Fischer do with his free time during the 50s-70s before he
became world champion?"
Notice that: "....during the 50s-70s..."
It's in this post, here:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.games.chess.misc/msg/7d703921e6481726?hl=en
Now, do try to keep up. If necessary, move your lips while reading.
In his reply to the above post, Greg Kennedy *specifically quoted*
that portion
of the original post in the thread. The clue that this is what
happened is that
at the beginning of each line of quoted text, there is a "greater
than" sign (>)
like this:
"
On Jul 6, 11:24 pm, Alex <talltr...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> What did Fischer do with his free time during the 50s-70s before he
> became world champion?
"
That is *inside* Greg Kennedy's post, here, look:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.games.chess.misc/msg/fcdb377d341386e5?hl=end703921e6481726
So [keep those lips moving] Greg Kennedy is *specifically* addressing
*only* "What Fischer [did]...*during the
50s-70s* *before he became world champion*."
However, in the *middle* of describing what Fischer did, indeed, do
during that period, the insane Greg
Kennedy described an incident which occurred AT LEAST more than SEVEN
YEARS ***after*** Fischer
became world champion.
Mr. Hillery noticed this anachronism, and pointed it out in this post:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.games.chess.misc/msg/01c2c85f5fd0eea4?hl=end703921e6481726
So the issue is not (as the shit which you call your brain surmised)
WHEN the incident occurred, only
THAT IT OCCURRED AFTER THE PERIOD ABOUT WHICH THE OP WAS ENQUIRING.
So, clearly then, if the accuracy of ANYONE'S "reading comprehension"
is in doubt, then it would
be YOURS.
Fuck off, you piece of shit.
Taylor Kingston
The original question was about Fischer "during the 50s-70s before
he became world champion." The 1981 Pasadena incident was outside that
time period, and thus is irrelevant to the question. To present it in
answer to the question gives the misleading impression that it
occurred "during the 50s-70s."
Mark Houlsby
wrote:
Thanks, Taylor, he's just trolling me. I got it.
None
wrote:
> The original question was about Fischer "during the 50s-70s before
> he became world champion." The 1981 Pasadena incident was outside that
> time period, and thus is irrelevant to the question. To present it in
> answer to the question gives the misleading impression that it
> occurred "during the 50s-70s."-
I took it to mean an expression of His personality not a continuation
of the essay. Why did you assume otherwise? Your basis is
circumstantial. Seriously, is this nit worth picking? Picky, picky.
None
>
> Thanks, Taylor, he's just trolling me. I got it
When you're done rimming Kingston you can go back to banging those
rocks together.
Mark Houlsby
Seriously, no. Just shut the fuck up.
Mark Houlsby
"He immatures with age."
--Harold Wilson
None
>
> > I took it to mean an expression of His personality not a continuation
> > of the essay. Why did you assume otherwise? Your basis is
> > circumstantial. Seriously, is this nit worth picking? Picky, picky.
>
> Seriously, no. Just shut the fuck up.
"He immatures with age."
--Harold Wilson
Mark Houlsby
Who are you trying to impress?
None
Why do you assume I'm trying to impress anyone?
Keep banging them rocks together.
Mark Houlsby
Ok, that's clear.
Took you a while to figure it out, but you got there eventually....