It’s Saturday Open Forum. The big story of course is the passing of Bobby Fischer. But feel free to discuss other issues if you wish. The forum is yours.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Saturday Open Forum
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My hommage to Fischer :
http://bananoriz.blogspot.com/2008/01/fischer.html
Fischer is a like a pawn who took the KNIGHT’s TOUR. He reached h8 and was PROMOTED to heaven.
I just came back from a walk to the building where he used to live in the 1950’s, at 560 Lincoln Pl in Brooklyn. I just felt like going, I keep thinking about him all the time since this news hit me yesterday…I saw a little kid there who obviously was looking for the same building too…somebody had glued a sheet of paper with Bobby’s photocopied picture on the wall of the building and signed it ‘Robert Fischer, Rest in Peace’ . I saw random people stopping and looking at it, trying to figure out what it was about..maybe they knew. In a few days this piece of paper is gonna be blown away by the wind, I think Bobby deserves at least a commemorative plaque to be placed on that wall of the building where he learned to play chess and where he lived as a kid, earning his first US Championship titles. He deserves something like that…so in years to come he will not be forgotten…
All this is so weird. I just purchased a 1st edition harback and 1st edition paperback (never opened) and another Faber version of My 60 mem games. Also purchased a 67 Photo (now framed) and two life magazines as featured in the blog …all this within the past week…and this happens….just a weird feeling. Hope the 60 Mem games now comes back into print for everyone to enjoy.
RIP Bobby,
Fischer said that if had the black pieces against God the result would be a draw. Go God go.
Was it Bobby Fischer who failed us? Or did we fail him? From an article in the Philadelphia Enquirer, February 8, 2003:
At the Marshall Chess Club, no one doubted the teenager’s talent. But his prickly behavior was alienating some of the wealthy sponsors whose support he would need to rise to the top.
“Some of what he did was so outrageous it was decided maybe he had emotional problems,” says Kaufman, who attended the meeting. What to do? Board members talked about finding a psychiatrist. They considered Reuben Fine, himself one of the giants of the game. Then someone raised a question: What if therapy worked? What if treatment sapped Fischer’s drive to win, depriving the United States of its first homegrown world champ?
Meeting adjourned. No one, Kaufman recalls, wanted to tamper with that finely tuned brain.
Of course, there were many others, before and after, who saw a serious problem and could have taken positive action to make a difference but didn’t. So, who is responsible when a child needs help? I don’t know the precise answer for that, but I know I am very sad that no one helped that little boy, Bobby Fischer.
He was a childhood hero, and I longed for him to redeem himself before he died, just as I long to be redeemed. He was a wound which will forever go unhealed. Damn. Me too?
He is The King of Chess but rather tragic, sort of like that of another tortured soul, Vincent Van Gogh. On the board he had passion, iron will, artistic creativity and precision! Off the board he was a shadow of himself, R.I.P. Robert “Bobby” James Fischer.
John Dunajcik
If anyone wants to see a really good Bobby Fischer story check this out:
http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=164
Interzonal in 1958 in Portoroz
Thanks for the story!
Truly amazing!
Fischer springs the same novelty in a key game against Gligoric that was refuted 3 years earlier by the russian team. Gligoric was fully aware of the refutation as he wrote a column for the tournament.
Susan, you should delete the post from the dishonest lawyer. Isn’t he banned from this forum?
Brian (Laffernati), you’ve been quite disingenuous with your posts here… too clever by half though. You’ve repeatedly attacked Paul & Susan with information that only presents one side of this matter. As I’ve pointed out (and you’ve avoided addressing), we all know that experts for one side of an issue will certainly present evidence supporting that side. It’s easy to make any side of an issue quite convincing if you present only your side of it and cherry-pick your evidence though. That’s why reasonable people and courts don’t make decisions on important matters without hearing BOTH sides. It’s why your attempt to sway us by presenting a biased, one-sided view of this matter is so transparent and intellectually distasteful, and is only serving to drive people away from your side of this issue. In the interest of fairness and finding the truth as you claim you want to do, let’s look at a few things.
You’ve called for Truong & Polgar to refute your experts and made a point of how long you’ve been waiting for them to do so and “wondering” why they won’t. However, you & I both know that they’ve been denied access so far to the same IP logs and information the experts you cite had, thus making it impossible for them to do so. If you’re so interested in the truth, why have you not pushed for the USCF to make ALL relevant information publicly available so everyone can see it and determine what’s true and what isn’t, as Susan has repeatedly requested? Don’t even bother answering that. We already know the answer.
In fact, the more important legal issue in all this is the violation of several people’s privacy in obtaining and sharing that private info inappropriately. The USCF board voted unanimously to release the following on this matter:
Recent events have led to charges and counter-charges about false postings on chess websites that may involve USCF members and improper activity by independent contractors working for the USCF. At this time, it must be stressed that none of these claims can be independently substantiated, and the USCF does not support them. The USCF apologizes for any unintended resulting actions.
The USCF takes seriously its need to protect the privacy of its members and is actively investigating the charges of violation of its privacy policies and actions of its members. The individuals who may have violated these policies have agreed, as of today, to suspend their duties with the USCF until these issues are resolved.
The USCF is in the process of hiring an independent subject matter expert to determine the validity of the claims expressed above. After their review of all relevant information, the Executive Board will determine whether further action is warranted.
Your “experts” and those involved are suspended from their duties and may face charges for their conduct. Note that the USCF board insists on the use of an independent expert to determine the validity of these charges and will await such to determine if further action is warranted. Exactly what I’ve pointed out to you numerous times as the only acceptable way to solve this.
You’ve ignored my warning that you were in violation of our rules here concerning conduct towards others and making personal attacks. You’ve been asked to discontinue this, but have refused. Either you don’t understand the rules or you simply choose to ignore them. I’ve been more than fair, but I’ve had enough.
You’ve shown a history of these same tactics before (think Lance Armstrong and the cycling federation), and have publicly stated more than once that your goal is to bankrupt the USCF. What a noble goal and now we have a clearer view of your motives & agenda. I have a VERY low tolerance for intellectual dishonesty and your methods. When a person has to resort to using smear campaigns, personal attacks, innuendo, dishonesty, etc., etc., to advance a particular agenda or point of view, it’s a safe bet that they do so because their case is weak and honest discussion and presentation of the facts will fail to win.
Now, you can wring your hands about what a horrible thing it is for someone to have posted material at another chess forum under a fake name, but guess what I’ve discovered? You yourself got nailed for doing so recently. While not using your hal@2001.com address to pretend to be any specific person, you did use it to represent an anonymous third party in discussions that “agreed” with your points, to make distasteful personal attacks that you didn’t want to be personally associated with, to support your position, and so on & so on. When you got caught with irrefutable proof, you finally admitted to it, so please spare me your moral outrage over the accusations against others. Hypocrisy is not a quality I find attractive in others. http://www.webservertalk.com/message2274313.html.
Anyone interested in the matter of whether Truong posted under Sloan’s name or not should read the following analysis by Robert Bennett. It casts serious doubt on the charges against Truong and strongly suggests that his IP address was spoofed (which is not all that difficult to do by a qualified techie). In fact, the expert suggests that you yourself are likely the guilty party, Mr. Lafferty. It also points out another smear campaign by you against someone you dislike, Kevin Bachler, accusing him of being jailed for child molestation, which isn’t true at all. Nice tactics there, Mr. Lafferty. I’m sure we’re all impressed with your character and methods now. http://www.gamesforum.ca/showthread.php?t=264740)