Bobby Fischer: genius needing psychiatric help

As I wrote in an earlier post, American Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) played world championship mat­ches in 1970–1 when he won 20 consecutive games before losing once and drawing 3 times to ex-world champion Russian Tigran Petros­yan. In 1972 Fischer was the first American-born Jewish man to hold the World Champion tit­­le when he defeated Russian Boris Spassky in a mat­ch held in Reykjavík Iceland. Russia had dominated chess since the end of WW2, so the tournament was highly publicised; the Fisc­h­er-Spassky match thus became a metaphorical battle in the Cold War

Spassky and Fischer, 1972

Pinterest

In 1975 when Fischer was to defend his title against Anatoly Kar­pov, he had certain set guidelines that were non-negotiable. International Chess Federation-FIDE could ag­ree to the first 2 guidelines, but couldn't agree to the third. After sending out a letter to both Karpov and Fischer, Fischer refused to play, and forfeited his title in high dudgeon.

In 1992 he re-emerged to win a rematch against Spass­ky which was held in Yugoslavia, then under a United Nations emb­ar­go. His part­icipation led to a conflict with the US go­vernment, warn­ing Fisch­er that his partic­ipation in the ma­t­­ch would violate an ex­ecutive order imposing US sanctions on Yugo­sl­av­ia. The US gov­ern­ment is­sued a warrant for his arrest; so Fis­cher lived in semi-hiding.

He joined a Californian church whose leader had apocalyptic visions for World’s End. But that made Fischer even more is­olated. He began to read and dist­r­ib­ute anti-Semitic literat­ure and frequent­ly spoke angrily about Jews & Americans. Bobby re­jected everything that he’d come fr­om. He appl­auded the 3,000 massacres in his infam­ous 9/11 speech and stopped playing  ­profess­ional chess. Fis­cher was an example of a very skilled man with a very high IQ who fell from grace, brought about by his own dodgy moral be­h­av­iour.

Fischer's angry talking points never varied: He was per­secuted by world Jewry. The U.S government was a bru­t­al, evil dictatorship that falsely accused Bobby Fischer of a cr­ime and forced him to live in exile. Fischer was swindled out of a vast fortune in royalties by book publishers, movie stud­ios and clock manufacturers, who had brazenly pilfered his brand name, patents and copyrights. The Jews are a filthy, lying bastard people bent on world domination thr­ou­gh such insidious schemes as the Holocaust which was a money-making invention, the mass murder of Christian children (their blood used for black-magic) and junk food (William Rosenberg, founder of Dunkin Donuts, was the main culprit).

Bobby Fischer Rediscovered, 

by Andrew Soltis, 2020

Later he lived in Japan where he met and married a chess off­ic­ial, Miyoko Wat­ai. In Jul 2004, act­ing in response to a tip-off from US officials, Japanese imm­ig­r­ation authorities arr­es­ted Fischer for us­ing a revoked US pass­port while boarding a fl­ight to Manila. Naturally he resisted arrest and claimed to have sus­tained bruises and broken teeth in the process. He was held for 16 days before being moved to a different facility.

Fischer applied for citizenship in Germany be­cause he hoped his father had been German, but his application failed. Bobby was so determined to renounce his US cit­iz­en­ship, he as­k­ed US Sec of State Colin Powell for help, which also failed. In the fin­al request, Japanese Justice Minister also rej­ect­ed his asylum request and ordered his deportation.

Desperate to evade deportation to the USA, Fischer wrote to Iceland in Jan 2005 requesting citizenship. Symp­a­t­h­etic but un­willing to grant full citizenship, Iceland gave him an al­ien's passport. Then their Parliament unanim­ous­ly ag­reed to grant Fischer full citizenship for humanitar­ian reas­ons.

Fischer arrived in Iceland in 2005

The Guardian

Being a sociable egalitarian people, Icelanders felt that he was being treated unjustly by the American and Japanese gov­er­n­men­ts in 1972 and wanted to help put Iceland on the map. Af­ter landing in Reykjavík, Fischer gave a long press confer­en­ce in which he claimed that America was out to get him. He then liv­ed out his life as a virtual recluse in Iceland. 

Laugardælir Church,

Fischer's resting place, Wiki

Bobby Fischer's lonely grave, Reykjavik

Duskbeforethedawn

 

In Jan 2008, Fischer (64) died from kidney failure in Reyk­jav­ík. He left no will and was buried next to the Christian Laug­ardælir church near Reykjavík. But then Fischer's $2 mill­ion estate became the subject of a 4-way legal batt­le. Mrs Marilyn Young claimed that Fischer was Jinky's father, prov­id­ing bapt­ismal certificates, photos and Jin­ky's DNA. The legit­im­­acy of Miyoko Watai's marriage to Fischer was also challenged. The 4 part­ies in conflict were a] Fischer's wife; b] Jinky Young and her mo­t­h­er Marilyn; c] his 2 American nephews, Alexander & Nic­­­h­­­­ol­as­ Targ, and d] their father. (The US government also claim­ed unpaid taxes)

In June 2010 Iceland’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of Jinky Young's petit­ion to have his body exhumed, alongside a doctor and priest. Two years after he was buried in a frozen Iceland­ic grave­yard, Fischer’s body was dug up to det­erm­ine if a 9-year-old Fil­ipino girl was his child and heir to his $2 mill fortune. DNA res­ul­ts ruled out Fischer as Jinky’s fat­h­er. In Mar 2011, an Icelandic court ruled that Miyoko Wat­ai and Fis­ch­er had legally married in Sept 2004 and that she’d inh­erit Fischer's estate as his widow. Perhaps in revenge, Fisch­er's nephews had to pay Watai's $57,000 legal costs.

Fischer was known for his in­ten­se personality. This perfect­ion­ist was fiercely competitive, but that only seemed to cont­ribute to his poor behaviour. Fischer's mental health deteriorated over time and he was diagnosed with various mental health conditions. His co­n­­trovers­ial statements and behaviour led to him being ostracised in the chess world, and increasingly isolated from society in gen­eral, reinforcing his feelings of paranoia. 

Bobby Fischer Centre,

Visit South Iceland

 

The Bobby Fischer Centre, which opened in 2013 in Selfoss Southern Iceland, displays Spas­sky´s and Fischer´s score sheets, a replica of their chessboard and items related to Bobby Fischer’s life in Iceland eg his furniture. There is a chess library, and in summer they use the chess classrooms.