A powerful corrective
Article Last Updated: 07/01/2007 01:40:43 PM PDT
IF WE are lucky enough, time is a powerful corrective for arrogance and prejudice.
In 1962, a teenage Bobby Fischer famously proclaimed: “They’re stupid compared to men. They (women) shouldn’t play chess, you know. They’re like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.”
Unfortunately, Fischer grew up in an America that had much to learn. It was suffering from Jim Crow. The women’s movement had not yet been launched. Homophobia was the norm.
The son of a remarkably intelligent and strong woman, Regina Fischer, and younger brother of an equally capable sister, Bobby should have known better. Ironically, several remarkable women were to play a critical role in Fischer’s future.
Among them was a young Hungarian, Zita Raiczanyi, who in 1992 convinced him to emerge from seclusion and poverty to play a multi-million dollar rematch with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia.
Another, Miyoko Watai, spearheaded the 2005 effort to get him safe harbor in Iceland. The alternative was a possible jail sentence for engaging in the 1992 match in defiance of US backed, United Nation sanctions.
Increased participation of women and their growing skills in chess delivered a special historical lesson to Fischer. In 1993, he played a series of offhand, random chess games with Susan Polgar, who later became women’s world champion.
“I don’t think he would want me to let the world know the actual score. All I can say is I am very proud of my score,” she said. “I am quite confident that Bobby changed his mind about women’s chess after that.”
Here is the full story.
I wish Fischer would have had the guts to play a match against you.
Time doesn’t seemed to corrected any of Fischers other predjudices in fact they seem only to have become worse!
Also the comment made about women in chess once again proves the point that you don’t need to be intelligent to play good chess.
>>Unfortunately, Fischer grew up in an America that had much to learn. It was suffering from Jim Crow. The women’s movement had not yet been launched. Homophobia was the norm.>>
Yawn, everything Fischer says or does wrong is somebody else’s fault. One of these days his fans will hold him responsible for one of his own actions and the shock will kill me.
Heh, in that photo Susan has more time left on her clock than Bobby.
First of all, Fischer is a human being. I will leave it at that for people accusing or misleading one another. Resisting the authorities is another matter altogether.
In the future, the current view will become the “old view” to be overthrown. Which one is right, and what view transcends even time?
Chess transcends culture, in a manner of speaking. Consider the chess tactic of interposition, and how it relates to the anguish of well-known real life situations:
A king was once presented with two women claiming a child as their own. Putting love to the test, the child was then ordered put to death by the king. The real mother immediately gave up her claim in order to save her child’s life. The accusing woman remained silent at this point. She would rather see the child dead than to let the mother be with her child. Granted wisdom, the king belayed the killing and then presented the child to the real mother.
I suppose one could care less if Fischer really did say these things; what is important about life is beyond time itself.
Fischer did something about the russians, by beating their monopoly at chess, and becoming the undisputed world champion. This is the one event of patriotic feeling that someone from the USA was allowed to have in that time.
That same person today has now renounced his citizenship, has charges preferred against him, and speaks out against the representative authorities. Real communication and diplomatic finesse with Fischer is now practically non-existent.
Is this a desirable and happy situation for anyone? Does Fischer have a gripe with the UN, or the USA, or both? Why dishonor the law over playing chess in yugoslavia? Why does Fischer’s opponent insist on playing a game in a banned country in the first place?
From the article:
“In 1962, a teenage Bobby Fischer famously proclaimed: “They’re stupid compared to men. They (women) shouldn’t play chess, you know. They’re like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.”
Unfortunately, Fischer grew up in an America that had much to learn. It was suffering from Jim Crow. The women’s movement had not yet been launched. Homophobia was the norm.
The son of a remarkably intelligent and strong woman, Regina Fischer, and younger brother of an equally capable sister, Bobby should have known better.”
Should have known better WHAT? Chess is not based on the opinion of people. People play chess, one wins, one loses, or it is a draw. It is perfectly objective. I am pretty sure if Fischer would have been defeated by scores of women, he wouldn’t have said what he said. Obviously, he was not defeated scores of women.
Later came the Polgar sisters. A generation passed since (24 years is considered a generation) and Judit Polgar is still the only woman chess player among the best 20 in the world. 19 men, 1 woman.
Despite that the success of the Polgar sisters must have been a major boost to girls to come forward with their hidden talents. Yet, there is hardly something we can call equality in chess, as far as male-female division.
Susan Polgar is putting a huge emphasis on girls chess. Which is good. Maybe it is the road toward proving Bobby Fischer totally wrong, but as far as today goes, and reality goes, he may have somewhat overstated his case, but he was more right than wrong.
Gabor
Fischer… Fischer…
do you realise that only americans care about what this Fischer says/said?
the rest of us just see him as a racist. Malist too? Well, that I knew not… who cares?
No, he was more wrong than right. He also said he could beat any woman in the world at knight odds, and then backed down when the Soviets got interested in a Fischer-Gaprindashvili match.
Too bad, he could have been the Bobby Riggs before Bobby Riggs if he’d played his cards right
Teenagers do say silly things, but when you’re a famous teenager people you run the chance of taken serious.
But admit, guys like him however, inspired you. 😉
>>Teenagers do say silly things, but when you’re a famous teenager people you run the chance of taken serious.>>
Except that most people say sillier things when they’re teenagers than they do when they’re grown up.
>>But admit, guys like him however, inspired you. 😉 >>
Judging from the level of discourse on the internet sometimes, I’d say that a LOT of people were inspired by Bobby, yeah.
A few observations:
In 1962 it was the norm to say things like that. Not only about chess, and certainly not only in America. Yet, as much disdain as American culture showed for women’s abilities circa 1962, cultures outside the US very likely displayed even MORE disdain toward women (as Susan can tell us vis-a-vis Hungary).
In 1990 I personally heard Kasparov say something only a little more diplomatic on that subject (viz., that a computer would beat him before a woman would beat him. As it turned out, he was right.)
Soon after that 1992 Fischer-Spassky match in Yugoslavia, it was reported that Fischer and Judit Polgar had agreed on conditions to play a public match. Fischer pulled out before it happened, and Judit played a public match with Spassky instead.
She stomped him by a score that, if my memory serves, was even more lopsided than his loss to Fischer. (Is it possible that Fischer’s non-public contests against Susan contributed to his decision not to play a public match with her sister? Of course the question only makes sense if those games with Susan preceded the aborted match against Judit; I don’t know the timing.)
Kasparov went wrong.
He was beaten by a woman before than by a machine in 1994. He simply cheated.
Well, well… Fischer was just an arrogant teenage when he said it! that’s normal.