Am I a chess player–no. Was I in ’72, ’73′ 74– yeah, I’d say I was an extremely mediocre one! I remember playing a game by postcard with a kid from England once!

I might have been a bit hasty and unfair with the “can’t say RIP’ opening– I think if his nonsense was truly born of his mental illness, I guess Rest in Peace is appropriate after all.

Yeah, I’ve wanted to see that movie, or better yet, read the book. It’s hard to blame Fischer for being nuts… More disturbing is the thought that his obvious borderline insanity was somehow connected to his peculiar genius for chess; this seems somehow probable, though obviously hard to prove.

FWIW, I read the print NYT obituary today, and it did mention that he was disappointed in the appearance of superhumanly strong chess programs: “He began railing to other chess players that computers had ruined the mystery of chess. …”.

But also a miserable, tortured human being.

We can’t help who impacts our lives, and when those that did pass on, I guess it’s reasonable to reflect.

I had a lot of fun that summer of ’72; a lot of Americans did. It opened a new world to many of us, and it loomed large as a bloodless Cold War victory until it was surpassed by the “Miracle On Ice” in 1980.

I thought the tone of “Searching For Bobby Fischer”, a really nice movie, hit it about right– Fischer after 1972 was so despicable, but so clearly mentally ill, that it was just….sad.