Bobby Fischer’s High School

[Wayne Komer]

Frank Brady says in Endgame:

Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn was one of the largest in New York and one of the oldest in the nation. With more than five thousand students, it was a factory of learning. Entering in the fall of 1956, Bobby felt comfortable there, although much less so than at Community Woodward.

C.W., the latter, was a progressive grade school in Brooklyn with approximately 150 children. He was accepted on a scholarship with the understanding that he’d teach the other students to play chess, and also as a result of his astronomically high IQ test score of 180.

John Collins’ home was only a few blocks from Erasmus High School, and Bobby would dash from the school during lunch hour and free periods, play a few games with Collins while eating his sandwich taken from home, then hurry back to school. At 3 p.m. he’d return and spend the rest of the day over the board, eventually having dinner with Jack and Ethel.

Elliott Renzies, on the Australian Chess Forum, in September of 2012, posted a link to pictures taken in Brooklyn, the Marshall Club surroundings and so forth, in a thread entitled Searching for Bobby Fischer’s School. They are posted on

https://picasaweb.google.com/117579133234979286240/NYCSEARCHINGFORBOBBYSSCHOOL?authkey=Gv1sRgCOK9uLXmkf322AE

Just double-click on the first photo to enlarge and go through the 43-photo Brooklyn chess travelogue.

Ref:

http://www.chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=14039

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Bobby Fischer’s High School

That was great! Thanks for posting.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Bobby Fischer’s High School

Fischer dropped out of Erasmus when he turned 16, the minimum age for leaving at that time.

He was quoted in an unfortunate interview with Ralph Ginsburg, a few years later, as not having a particularly high opinion of school and teachers, in general. That is putting it diplomatically!

Erasmus did award Fischer a gold medal for his chess achievements, after he had already won a couple of U.S. titles, and achieved grandmastership at an earlier age than anyone else had ever done, to that point (since broken). While there, he was U.S. champion in 1958 and 1959, Interzonalist in 1958, and Candidate in 1959, when he left Erasmus (earlier that year).

Barbra Streisand, later to achieve superstardom as a singer, was at Erasmus at the same time as Fischer, but the two didn't know each other, apparently.

However, Frank Brady's most recent book on Fischer noted that he was an avid learner and reader on a wide variety of topics, later in life, once he left competitive chess. :)

People mature at different rates and times. In Fischer's case, he may have spent more time on chess in his early years than anyone in history; almost certainly more than anyone up to that stage. That didn't leave him much time for anything else, and he regretted that later, according to Brady's book, which is really good. :)