Do not read this post.

Do not read this off-topic post unless you're very interested in chess.

By the way, if you're not very interested in chess there's something seriously wrong with you.

There used to be an empire called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which included Russia and several eastern European countries. They used an inferior economic system called Communism, but they had some things going for them including a strong emphasis on scientific progress. While Americans were learning how to praise the dead Jeebus, Russians were learning math and science. While Americans were learning how to swing a bat to hit a ball, Russians were learning how to play chess.

Chess was extremely popular in the Soviet Union and the government promoted it as one way to show they were superior to stupid Americans. For several decades the world's best chess grandmasters and the World Chess Champion were from the Soviet Union and they were national heros. Then a young boy in New York City learned how to play chess and he became fanatical about it, spending every waking hour playing and studying the game. He learned the Russian language just to be able to understand Russian chess books. In 1958 at age 14 he became the USA chess champion. Fourteen years later in 1972 he became the World Chess Champion by defeating the strongest grandmasters of the world including the previous champion Boris Spassky. At this time there was a Cold War going on between the United States and the Soviet Union and so this was a great victory for America.

Bobby Fischer was brilliant. His chess games were masterpieces and they will be studied for the next several centuries. It's fair to say he was the best chess player in history.

Unfortunately he was a bit eccentric. His future was unlimited, he could have easily made millions of dollars from his fame and his skills but instead he became reclusive and poor. However in 1992 he made a few million dollars in a rematch with Spassky. He didn't much care for paying income taxes and so he couldn't live in America anymore even though he was an American hero. In 2008 he died in Iceland (site of the 1972 chess match) at age 64.

I wrote this post mostly to have place to save an excellent google video (36 minutes) about Bobby Fischer and his defeat of the Soviet Union in 1972.

BBC Documentary with various interviews from well-known chess enthusiasts regarding the 1972 World Chess Champion match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.

The Bobby Fischer Defense by Garry Kasparov

1972: Chess champ Bobby Fischer on 60 Minutes

The chess games of Robert James Fischer

When Bobby Fischer was only 13 years old: After the Fischer-Byrne game, Mikhail Botvinnik, the reigning world champion, reportedly said, "We will have to start keeping an eye on this boy".

I wrote this about Bobby Fischer:

Who is your favourite chessplayer of all time ?

Bobby Fischer. He always played to win, even with the black pieces against grandmasters. And he often won every single game of a match or tournament.

There's something about Mr. Fischer's style of play that makes his games much more interesting than other grandmasters. There's nothing tedious about studying Fischers brilliant games.

In America where I live Fischer made chess more popular than ever imagined possible. And he alone made it possible for grandmasters to make a living from the game. Now World Champions can win more than one million dollars from a championship match which was unheard of before Fischer changed everything.

Bobby Fischer had problems, but those problems are insignificant compared to his brilliant chess games which will still be studied by every serious chess player a thousand years from now.

Please see http://darwinkilledgod.blogspot.com/search/label/chess to read my other posts about chess.