The Tragic Story of the World's Greatest Chess Player

Newsthink is produced and presented by Cindy Pom

Thank you to our Patrons, including Igli Laci, Ronil Patel, Tom Eng

Many of the images featured in this video were sourced from Alamy.

Interviews featured in video:

Interviews featured in this video are meant to be used for news reporting and educational purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use.

Sources:
2:25 Chess game on right: Morn, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Image on left: @FIDE_chess on Twitter
4:24 Image on left: Verhoeff, Bert / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
5:17 Bert Verhoeff / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
7:08 Image of Fischer: Punt / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
9:47 Broers, F.N. / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
10:42 Image on left: Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
12:25 Bert Verhoeff / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
12:32 Punt / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

[Newsthink]

*How strong of a player would Bobby Fischer be in modern times?*

[vangoghsseveredear]

"He was paranoid the FBI was watching him"
"So anyways in the FBI's secret files on his mother..."

[henrymethorst]

Its hard to call him paranoid while then admitting that his family was being spied upon for years.

[aligaming]

the people who you cannot criticise, he criticised and then was called insane

[sb]

He didn't go insane. He just knows more than you.

[Farinata]

"With talent, study and a positive attitude there is no limit to how far you can go" - Bobby Fischer

[pariable]

Bobby was not mad. His pattern recognition eventually laid out the world for what it was to him. It's an unfortunate place.

[johnweathers]

this should be called the gaslighting of bobby fischer

[pavlos]

He didn't go insane. His last interviews did not manifest any sign of insanity, and he rather always displays logical arguments.

[darkrooster]

So the middle portion of the video goes on about how paranoid Bobby Fischer was and how he believed he was being targeted and spied on. Then the video casually goes on to admit that the FBI had secret files on his mother and himself.

[Mooseman]

Fischer did not "go insane." The world that accuses him of that IS insane. And as Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, ""It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

[jayjay]

"Nothing is as healing as the human touch" Bobby Fischer.
That gave me chills

[lukeves]

Dr. Skulason said that when they first met, Fischer, knowing of his profession, joked that “he was so normal that he was almost boring.” After getting to know Fischer a bit, Skulason said, “He was not crazy. Not at all. He was very hurt about being outlaw from his own country.”

[tarrasch_]

- Fischer never met his father or even had someone to display a figure for him

- His relationship with his mother from the very beginning was really cold and distant, the level he was pratically moving away from home at age 13

- At age 29 living almost 16 years of complete loneliness he became WC and started to be noticed, so much he couldn't handle

- After years he disappeared, Bobby lost potentials wifes (due his own behaviour), got banned from his own country and dismissed by everyone, painting him as a coward for leaving the WC, and for his comments about 09/11

Basically in the last years of his life Bobby died alone in a country he didn't belong, with no wife, no kids, no lifelong friends, and not even the proper respect from his own country about what he did, the only legacy he left and dedicated his entire life to it, just tell me how you don't go insane?

[toddubow]

"Failed to live up to his own words." World Champion against the entire solviet system. Most influential player ever. His legend continues to grow despite vids like this.

[judhudon]

Fischer didn't go insane. Read the two books written by his two best Icelandic friends who chronicle the end of his life. Neither calls him insane although both admit that he could be "very difficult" at times. Well, I hate to clue you in, folks, but most humans have their "very difficult" moments. When one takes in how Fischer was treated by the US government and was imprisioned in Japan for months, it is a miracle that Fischer survived, let alone kept his sanity.

[beebbeeb]

He did not fail in the end. His chess score has never been beaten hes a legend that wont be forgotten

[noone]

Just because you don't like his opinions it doesn't mean he is insane

[thelordofgifts]

He named the Jews crimes against humanity and said chess is dumb and about memorization… zero insanity

[signsfrombeyond]

This is an incredibly smart human being and he is probably more sane than most would be able to realize.