Talk:Bobby Fischer

Authoritarian Wingnuttery or Moonbattery or neither (some other form of crazy, but just "Batshit Crazy" sounds like not enough info)?--Arisboch (talk) 16:33, 8 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Where would wingnuttery or moonbattery come into play? He didn't really seem to subscribe to either ideology, but rather, to his own unique one. QuantumDude (talk) 17:12, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

What happened to the picture on the page?
What happened? It no longer shows.
 * Technical difficulties on our end. Our MediaWiki software somehow isn't able to insert the pics from Wikicommoms anymore >:( --Arisboch ☞✍☜☞✉☜ ∈)☼(∋ 05:07, 6 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Ugh. Well that's annoying. On my very first article which I'm so proud of too. :/
 * Let's cut the bullshit, we all know the JEWS did it, right Bobby? Bobby? BOBBY!?!PeeBay (talk) 12:12, 29 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, I mean, obviously!

QuantumDudeI am beyond your understanding 16:06, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

Possible causes of Fischer's descent into semi-madness that might be worth looking into
Possible causes of Fisher's semi-madness:

1. I found this at chess.com, but no source was given: "Fischer went crazy due to dabbling in serious blindfold-chess training. Its been documented that >3-4 blindfold games per week, given a high level of concentration, will cause mental strain great enough to cause hallucinations, paranoia and anxiety attacks, and then cascade effect from there. Same thing happened to Pillsbury."

2. Genius-level intelligence is associated with going crazy.

3. He joined the Worldwide Church of God which I think was a bit of a doomsday cult when Fischer joined it. Berek (talk) 02:17, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * The blindfold chess causing mental problems seems to be anecdotal, so unless you can find a scientific article it's probably not worth bringing up. There was an early interview in 1962 by Ralph Ginzburg in Harper's Magazine when he was around age 19 The interview shows:
 * his misogyny, expressed variously
 * his anti-semitism ("Yeh, there are too many Jews in chess.")
 * his lack of talent in just about anything not chess-related and
 * his overwhelming egotism.
 * Bongolian (talk) 02:38, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I watched a documentary on Fischer and I don't think the charge of being talentless in non-chess endeavors is fair. He just loved chess and became super focused on chess. Chess is an easy game to get very interested in if you are a person of high intelligence like Fischer. And come to think of it, chess combined with love/romance helped him become a little less mad. His chess-playing pen pal Zita Rajcsanyi got him out of his reclusion so he played his chess game in Iceland against Boris Spassky for the 1972 World Chess Championship. Berek (talk) 02:50, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Fischer and madness
I went looking for videos of Fischer's supposed lunatic years and he appeared quite lucid and stable, even including the last years of his life. He was able to create and maintain romantic relationships, stay out of mental hospitals, and avoid a psychiatric diagnosis. His anti-Semitism was obviously concerning, but that combined with financial instability does not equal pathological lunacy per se, lest we diagnose many more millions with mental illness. The other thing the media uses as 'proof' of pathological lunacy is the fact he grew a beard, which is odd. Additionally, his paranoia of the Bushes seems possibly warranted given HW Bush signed the Yugoslavia order, and he was only arrested during the GW Bush term. Not that the Bushes created the executive order to punish chess people, but there could have been resentment among the Bush family of Fischer for the way his comments on both administrations and the US at large as a worldwide public figure. 2600:4040:403C:F300:66CD:763D:DEDC:5BAD (talk) 14:11, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Had Fischer been put on antipsychotics we may have seen a much more severe decline, such as in Daniel Johnston's case. Where Daniel was consantly re-addmitted to hospitals, could hardly hold conversations, and suffered tremors and other offputting tics from the meds, as well as a premature death. 2600:4040:403C:F300:66CD:763D:DEDC:5BAD (talk) 14:17, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
 * crazy is not a medical diagnosis nor was it meant as one in the article. it use does not nor does its use here imply an actual mental health condition AMassiveGay (talk) 15:24, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
 * and aside from anythiong, his mental health has been questioned by people who knew him not least Magnús Skúlason, who knew him towards his end. lucidity or appearing 'stable' does not mean there us no issue. AMassiveGay (talk) 15:34, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

To the extent he was a lunatic it would have been from the early 1960s as that is when his unfortunate Hitler admiration began as well as his anti-semitism, according to sources. Before, this article tried to present his anti-semitism as emerging after his championship win but every comprehensive source contradicts that and said it started during the early 1960s, and might have even been more intense during the 1960s. I don't buy much of the 'he went into profound and personally unusual descent (beyond narcissism) in the 1980s/1990s specifically' narrative, as his Soviet Union paranoia was not enough to keep him from functioning as he was able to survive off celebrity, just as before his alleged descent. People were "surprised" he could present as functioning for the Yugoslavia tournament. But this isn't surprising at all if you don't buy the descent narrative, which seems a post-hoc (partially) imperialist narrative. His ability to function and avoid hospitalization in multiple countries during political exile as well as during Iceland adds to this. Many people once they become celebrities develop delusional narcissism, which Fischer did develop, but it seems that resolved quite a bit with time, and was the worst in the 1990s.2600:4040:403C:F300:66CD:763D:DEDC:5BAD (talk) 16:20, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

AMassive, avoiding talk page and reverting 2 mainstream sources because of 1 non-mainstream source is not productive 2600:4040:403C:F300:66CD:763D:DEDC:5BAD (talk) 16:49, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Wa Post and JapanTimes are good sources 2600:4040:403C:F300:66CD:763D:DEDC:5BAD (talk) 16:51, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

You also included his christian identity and paranoia of the Soviet Union as antisemitism which is nonsensical considering his tournament was seen as a proxy for Cold War tensions. 2600:4040:403C:F300:66CD:763D:DEDC:5BAD (talk) 16:53, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
 * avoiding tal;k page? fuck off and get over yourself. secondly i did not revert 2 mainstream sources i moved them. i note in your petulance that you removed an egregioius case antisemitism i put in and referenced - didnt fit your suggestion hes hard done by the us? i removed one claim from some internet rando because it was a shit source. thirdly, i forgot to neglected tp split out a copule lines from the antisemtism section? big whoop, seconds to correct that oversite . fourthly, learn to play well others neilson, you are fucking transparent. if you dont like people editing your work dont fucking edit. AMassiveGay (talk) 20:20, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
 * be warned i will be come back to article. political exile? fuck off, he left the us because he faced prosecution for sanctions not for saying mean things about the us. AMassiveGay (talk) 20:22, 15 January 2023 (UTC)