Bobby Fischer, the tragedy

Actually, Iceland very recently granted him residency, and he's appealed the Japanese government to release him so he can move there, or failing that, for them to deport him to Iceland.

It's quite sad that he's had so much trouble from a mere chess game, but I don't feel too strongly about it, since by most of the reports and interviews I've seen relating to him, he comes across as a right bastard.

 

So if he indeed gets extradited back to the US, what penalty does he face? A nasty fine, jail time, or what...a slap on the hand?

 

Man is he ever in deep **** now...

Imagine the US getting their hands on someone that praised 9/11...

 

Beren, what in your mind is the actual tragedy?

That he's been detained and may face imprisonment, or that he has lost his mind?

Was there a time when he wasn't crazy, or was it just not noticed/focused on while he was on top of his game?

 

Geniuses, and particularly eccentric geniuses such as Fischer, seldom conform to social norms, and often espouse opinions that are often repugnant to reasonable men. Mozart was gauche; Wagner was virulently anti-Semitic (and personally selected a Jew to conduct the premiere of his Christian/mystic music drama Parsifal); D.W. Griffith established the movies as one of the fine arts with a film that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan; Ezra Pound wrote great poetry while spouting Fascist propaganda. Fischer stands at the end of a very long list.

Fischer's genius is in chess and, rather apparently, nowhere else. Nor is it reasonable to demand that he show exceptional awareness in other areas, like a football player who's asked how he feels about God, and whose answer is expected to reveal some special insight. His opinions, however eccentric, have done no paarticular harm. No one has lost a job, or failed an examination, or died on the operating table, because he uttered them. Fischer should be regarded as what he is: arguably the greatest chess player of the 20th century who, away from the table, suffers the same frailties as the rest of us.

The great silent film director, Eric van Stroheim, told a story that went something like this: "When you make a great film that fails at the box office, in Hollywood you are called a failure; but when you walk down the street in Paris, people address you as 'Maitre'." Bobby Fischer is a "Maitre".

 

Male geniuses are often abysmally cruel to women as well.

Shakespeare, the man who describes the human experience perhaps better than any other, completely hated his wife and spent as little time around her as possible. They did have a few children, however, there is much proof that Shakespeare had a homosexual affair with some noble he was working for. That might explain the disdain for his wife...

Albert Einstein, the man who's sad eyes perhaps came the closest to glimpes of the Hand of God, absolutely hated his first wife (treating her very rudely in very public situations), finally divorced her after years of misery, to get this, marry his second cousin.

Umm...hmm...well we all know of Bill Clinton's...trespasses...

Oh...don't forget about Dante...