Bobby Fisher Against the World

Quote from nitro:

I missed it! Is it on Netflix or is it airing again!!??? :(
More...

It airs next on Tuesday at 3pm central time. It looks like they will be showing it several times. Nitro, I had no idea how crazy he became. And even in the 1960's. I guess the anti-Semitic stuff was well known but I had no idea he was obsessed with Hitler and these grand Jewish conspiracies. But you definitely want to watch this. It was very well done.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

It airs next on Tuesday at 3pm central time. It looks like they will be showing it several times. Nitro, I had no idea how crazy he became. And even in the 1960's. I guess the anti-Semitic stuff was well known but I had no idea he was obsessed with Hitler and these grand Jewish conspiracies. But you definitely want to watch this. It was very well done.
More...
Yeah, Fischer is a real tragedy. Some friends of mine told me that he used to deliver drugs. I have a hard time believing this, but people still don't know how he was able to afford a closet full of Bespoke suits on a chess players winnings.

Most of us have similar pathologies. The difference with Fischer, and probably other mentally ill people, is that they can't distinguish when their mind is playing tricks on them, and not. He spiraled down into his own world of mental illness because he didn't seek help.

It is hard to explain to someone the colossal intellect that it took to do what he did, mostly all on his own. People always ask who the best chess player of all time is/was, but I can tell you in no uncertain terms that if Fischer were playing today, with the scores of 2700 FIDE players around to munch on, and several 2800 players (unheard of until very recently) that Fischer's FIDE rating would be somewhere around 2900. That is head and shoulders better than anyone in history (except computers of course, although chess players that lost to him complained that Fischer was a computer.)

He was tremendous for the game, single handedly making chess popular in this country. Chess clubs sprung up in every city around the world after Fischer won the 1972 world championship. His "60 Memorable Games" is probably the best chess memoir ever written, although as a writer, Kasparov is unparalleled.

I rank Fischers ability to concentrate deeply on par with that of Newton. He could have done whatever he wanted to.

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/I8u1Ps7jnJY?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/I8u1Ps7jnJY?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>
 
BTW, most of us are capable of small bursts of highly concentrated, deep thinking. What separates the Fischers from others is their ability to do this for hours, days, years, non-stop, on an extremely high level, from a very early age.

I read somewhere that this may be a very simple trick of certain brains. Just like a top level athlete is able to get rid of lactic acid very efficiently from their muscles, that certain people are able to convert sugars in their brains etc very efficiently, thereby not getting tired on the level that normal brains do.

This is clearly an oversimplification, but there is a great deal of truth to it. Pierre Deligne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Deligne is said to have read (and understood) the most abstract work of mathematics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck EGA SGA section) by the time he was 15 years old. Obviously, this requires deep concentration on the highest level, but it also requires something even rarer, the capacity to think on extremely abstract levels and keep it all in your head. For a child to do this is out of this world astonishing.
 
Quote from nitro:

BTW, most of us are capable of small bursts of highly concentrated, deep thinking. What separates the Fischers from others is their ability to do this for hours, days, years, non-stop, on an extremely high level, from a very early age.

I read somewhere that this may be a very simple trick of certain brains. Just like a top level athlete is able to get rid of lactic acid very efficiently from their muscles, that certain people are able to convert sugars in their brains etc very efficiently, thereby not getting tired on the level that normal brains do.

This is clearly an oversimplification, but there is a great deal of truth to it. Pierre Deligne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Deligne is said to have read (and understood) the most abstract work of mathematics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck EGA SGA section) by the time he was 15 years old. Obviously, this requires deep concentration on the highest level, but it also requires something even rarer, the capacity to think on extremely abstract levels and keep it all in your head. For a child to do this is out of this world astonishing.
More...

I have always been fascinated by Tesla. He supposedly had an eidetic memory and could memorize full works. He also would "build" his inventions mentally, not relying on notes/drawings.

Apparently he could visualize all dimensions of his projects...
 
Quote from macho grande:

He was a chess prodigy. Other than that Fischer was an idiot.
More...

Fischer stated in the documentary that he believed he was NOT a chess genius but rather a genius who happened to have played chess.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Fischer stated in the documentary that he believed he was NOT a chess genius but rather a genius who happened to have played chess.
More...

That statement is proof he's an idiot. Who calls himself a genius?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top