Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

[Alex Toolsie]

Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

Leave chess out of it. An innocent person experienced breach of trust. He was tortured by police. The police act illegally. His determined efforts to use the justice system to provide justice failed. Post-traumatic stress disorder is predictable. Disillusion is a normal reaction. The racist babbling is just a symptom. It was the cops and the system that broke him.

I believe this is the experience to which you are referring. Its quite a tale, and probably true given the level of emotion he writes with.

[Jason Lohner]

Re: Re : Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

Karpov and especially Petrosian are two of my chess "idols" :) especially the soft Tiger.
It would be nice if you could tell us more about "Petrosian vs the Elite". I've never heard about this book before.

JPR

http://astore.amazon.ca/chesfedeofca...ail/0713490497

My only complaint is that (like a lot of chess books) the binding fell apart.

An interesting historical sideline in the introduction goes into the 1962 Curacao Candidates tournament where Petrosian won the right to face Botvinnik for the world crown. Fischer did poorly and then (in typical fischer a$$hole fashion) went on a tirade in Sports Illustrated. 'Petrosian himself never quite dispelled the Fischer-induced cloud of suspicion which surrounded his victory in Curacao' (quote from p9).

[Jean-Pierre Rhéaume]

Re : Re: Re : Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

http://astore.amazon.ca/chesfedeofca...ail/0713490497

My only complaint is that (like a lot of chess books) the binding fell apart.

An interesting historical sideline in the introduction goes into the 1962 Curacao Candidates tournament where Petrosian won the right to face Botvinnik for the world crown. Fischer did poorly and then (in typical fischer a$$hole fashion) went on a tirade in Sports Illustrated. 'Petrosian himself never quite dispelled the Fischer-induced cloud of suspicion which surrounded his victory in Curacao' (quote from p9).

This book is certainly a must read-study marvel :)

I will get that book ASAP.

Thank you for the link.

And happy New Year.



JPR

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Re : Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

in Sports Illustrated.

This magazine wrote the farewell to Bobby with the full-page photo ;)

[Jim Foster]

Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

"Fischer only got the press because he was American." Not so. You obviously aren't old enough to remember the Cold War, which was going strong in 1972. Had the Soviets not been the enemy, and had their superiority in chess not been so important to them, what Fischer did would not have meant a fraction as much. And if Fischer had come from Canada, England, West Germany, or any other developed country in the free world, his victory over Spassky would have still been the biggest thing ever in chess.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

His candidate match against Taimanov was held in Vancouver. I found only one photo (on internet) with both players linking to this match;
http://www.bobby-fischer.net/bobby-f...k-taimanov.jpg

Who is the third person? Any idea where was the photo made? (The book on the table should be about "Match of the Century". The table looks damaged).

Russians vs Fischer mentions that about 200 spectaculars were in the playing hall.

[Jason Lohner]

Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

"Fischer only got the press because he was American." Not so. You obviously aren't old enough to remember the Cold War, which was going strong in 1972. Had the Soviets not been the enemy, and had their superiority in chess not been so important to them, what Fischer did would not have meant a fraction as much. And if Fischer had come from Canada, England, West Germany, or any other developed country in the free world, his victory over Spassky would have still been the biggest thing ever in chess.

I'm old enough to remember the tail end of the cold war and I still stand by my statement that If Fischer wasn't American then there would have been very little press.

[Vlad Dobrich]

Re: Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

Let me say this about that!

When I was covering the Fischer - Spassky match
for the Toronto Star, I was often asked who was the better player.
I always gave the following answer:
"Here we are standing at the foot of a 200 foot cliff and as we look up we see two men standing overhead. One is six feet tall the other is 6 feet 1 inch. You tell me who is taller."
Now I see someone 500 feet below the top of the cliff saying Fischer was nothing special! :D
You've got to be kidding!!

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

Leave chess out of it. An innocent person experienced breach of trust. He was tortured by police. The police act illegally. His determined efforts to use the justice system to provide justice failed. Post-traumatic stress disorder is predictable. Disillusion is a normal reaction. The racist babbling is just a symptom. It was the cops and the system that broke him.

This type of police behaviour goes on every day in virtually every city in North America as does corruption and miscarriages of justice in the justice system. In other parts of the world it can be much worse. Kasparov was arrested and beaten by the police as part of a crackdown on Putin's political rivals. His sanity seems intact.

Fischer was psychologically fragile and probably mentally ill before the Pasadena police got a hold of him. Such fragility and mental illness probably made him a target in the first place.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

After reading the full Fischer account of what happened at the Pasadena police station, he could have short circuited things by asking to see a lawyer, even a court-appointed one.

[Lawrence Day]

Re: Re : Kasparov's tribute to Bobby Fischer from 'TIME' magazine

This type of police behaviour goes on every day in virtually every city in North America as does corruption and miscarriages of justice in the justice system. In other parts of the world it can be much worse. Kasparov was arrested and beaten by the police as part of a crackdown on Putin's political rivals. His sanity seems intact.

Fischer was psychologically fragile and probably mentally ill before the Pasadena police got a hold of him. Such fragility and mental illness probably made him a target in the first place.

If you are going to make comparisons you have to realize that in 1981 Fischer believed in the American justice system. He thought he was one of the "good guys" and was surprised by his so-called arrest. To call a lawyer and fight the charges was the way it was supposed to work, but before the charges were laid this option was not available. No doubt he could have told the cops that he was the chess champion and would be writing about the incident and he would have received much different treatment than he did. But he would also have had to change addresses to avoid paparazzi and real, not imaginary Soviet spies. Besides that, one is not supposed to have to be a celebrity to obtain justice. Nowadays, after so much has gone wrong with the U.S.A., it is easy to say people shouldn't have had faith in the system, but that process took a lot of time and in Fischer's case, actual physical duress.

If you have no illusions then you can not be disilliusioned. Certainly Kasparov had no illusions about the modern Russian system. Nor was he hiding his chess identity; he was flaunting it. His protesting-without-a-permit act was more like civil disobedience and being arrested was not a surprise. In fact it looks like a publicity stunt in furtherance of the political objectives of George Soros, neoconservative Americans and the Wall Street Journal. Most Russians think Kasparov's politics are goofy. Gangster capitalism is not a synonym for democracy and post-Yeltsin they elected Putin to protect themselves from it.