O/T: Bobby Fischer RIP

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Posted By: Mike

I'm a strong tournament chess player, and was actually called by our local newspaper for my reaction to his death. I was born about the time he became World Champion, so I could only comment from a limited perspective. Fischer suffered from an untreated mental illness that only got worse as he got older. What was unfortunate is if he would have stayed retired and stayed out of the media, he would have died a living legend. His hate and bitterness towards the Russians was applauded by the public in the 60's and 70's. As his hate grew (probably attributed to his mental illness), his hate towards Jews and American's wasn't as popular with the media in the 90's and 00's. Simply a sad ending to the Fischer story.

My biggest suprise is how much media attention Fischer's death has received. Seeing a Fischer thread on this forum is very interesting. Seeing the Yugaslov Attack discussed is even more interesting.