All language subtitles for fico-bobbyfatw

Gonna stick a knight
here. He takes it off.

He takes the bishop.

So, he took it
off this bishop.

And he's threatening his pawn.

Pulling took his right away,
because he played here first.

Now he took the bishop.

Bobby Fischer
is one of the greatest,

perhaps the greatest
chess player in the world.

Bobby Fischer, United
States, World title contender.

Now, uh, black
surprises him with this move.

Bobby Fischer
is an isolated man.

Bobby Fischer's a strange man.

People think that there's something
wrong with the man.

The king moves,
takes the queen.

The great Bobby Fischer
is here tonight.

A child, not a champion.
His social life is a vacuum.

The most arrogant man
you're ever likely to meet.

He takes back,
he gets checked.

Looking
for Bobby Fischer...

What ever happened to
Bobby Fischer? Reclusive.

Threaten his pawn,
and then that's game.

Bobby Fischer
is searching for asylum.

It's really Fischer
against the world.

And here
white resigned.

Bobby
Fischer Interview.

All right.
Try not to tense up.

Bobby, uh, you've given virtually
your entire life to the world of chess.

What about Bobby Fischer,
the Man? What's he like?

I don't know it's pretty, uh,
chess and me, you know, it's like...

It's hard to take
them apart, you know?

It's just like my alter ego,
you know? I don't really...

But there are times when you
get away from that chessboard.

What do you do?

I don't do too much, at the most. I'm
really, you know, tied up in chess.

I intend to expand, but first I've got
to get the title. That's basically...

Bobby, what does it take
to make a good chess player?

Well, talent, skill, patience.
You have to study a lot and work.

What would
your ultimate aim be?

Well, I'd like to be, uh, world
champion and keep it for...

Maybe, 20 years or so.

Twenty years?

Fischer is to chess, what
Muhammad Ali is to boxing.

Bobby! Bobby!

Can Fischer beat the Russian?

Yes, Fischer will
beat the Russian.

Do you honestly think that you probably
are the world's greatest chess player?

Yeah, right.
Yeah.

In the 18-month period, in the run
up to his challenge to Boris Spassky,

Fischer, had beaten,
and in some cases,

destroyed, some of the
best Soviet players.

Fischer was wiping away
his opposition, like flies.

He went on a 20-game
winning streak,

which was unheard of
in championship chess.

Bobby Fischer was exciting, the, not
only the chess world, but the world.

There's trouble
in Northern Ireland.

Henry Kissinger is shuttling
to and from Vietnam,

and against that competition,
the chess dominates.

"In Moscow today,

"the Soviet Chess Federation called
an angry news conference,

"to denounce Bobby Fischer.

"General Motors recalls 500,000
Chevrolet Vegas, and Bobby Fischer...

"Bobby Fischer, true to his
recent erratic behavior...

"Finished off Tigran Petrosian
of the Soviet Union,

"a former world champion...

"It was the best news story
of the day.

"The victory gave Fischer the right
to play the world's champion,

"Boris Spassky,
another Russian, next spring.

We all had hopes. We all wanted
him to be World Chess Champion.

The one person he was yet
to beat, was Boris Spassky.

"You've said it's your title
the Russians are holding.

"You don't like the Russians?

"The Russians have cheated at chess.

"They've tried every way
to avoid me,

"to avoid giving me
a chance for the match.

"And they have slandered my
name, and, uh, you know.

"They just, and they just...

"They're afraid of me
and they have been for years.

"That's the true story.

"And now you're gonna get them?

"Well, now I'm going to try
and get them, yeah...

The Soviets had
been winning these tournaments

and I thought it would be good
for America, for Democracy,

uh, to have an
American winner.

The stakes really couldn't
be much higher, politically,

popularly. In people's minds,
you know, these were two enemies,

who were not fighting
a real war,

but were trying to out-do one
another strategically all the time.

We will not tolerate
being pushed around.

We have the desire and the material
assets to deal with the Soviet Union.

This little thing with me and
Spassky, it's, you know, with...

Bombs, having it
out over the board.

One of the Soviet powers,
the Soviet Union...

Had made chess
it's national sport.

They had spent
unlimited amounts of money.

They had hundreds
of Grand Masters.

They won every tournament,
every Chess Olympiad.

For a Communist Regime,

keeping the crown was very
important, uh, ideologically.

This communist state took over
chess to use it as proof...

of intellectual superiority
over decadent West.

Everybody knew that the crown
has to remain in the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union,
everybody of talent was

cultivated, was given
financial help, coaching.

All the top players were
privileged people.

In the United States, we
didn't have any of that.

Every single one of
us was on his own.

And here came
this lone American,

combating the might of
the Soviet chess machine.

National prestige
was at stake.

Fischer recognized that he was
representing not only him...

But the entire free world.

I think there was just too
much on his shoulders.

Could you tell us how old
you are and where you're from?

I'm 15, and I'm
from Brooklyn.

He is 15 years old and he
is from Brooklyn, all right?

Will you show your headline to
camera three and to Dick Clark?

Because we'll make him
go to work on you.

It says, "Teenager's Strategy
Defeats All Comers!"

This strategy, did it
involve, uh, finances? No.

Did you have any help?
No.

You did it all by yourself.
Did it make people happy?

It made me happy.

This young man's name is
Bobby Fischer, and already

he is the United
States Chess Champion.

He is 15 years old, and he
has defeated the masters.

He is the United States
Champion in chess.

I met Bobby when I was
14, and he was eight,

in one of the chess
clubs in Manhattan.

He was the youngest
kid around. He was unassuming.

He was well-mannered.
He was a nice kid.

His mother, Regina, she was a woman
who had to work two jobs, single mom,

supporting two children,
Bobby and Joan.

Regina was really
the genius of the family.

She spoke quite a number of
languages, including Russian.

She worked as a telegraph
operator, a nurse, a welder.

She actually got a PhD
in Hematology as well.

She was an activist,
she was a Communist.

And the FBI files on
her are quite extensive.

His mother was hounded
by the FBI, because...

They thought she was
possibly a Soviet spy.

This was a period when Jew
and Communist were equated,

so his mother denied
his Jewishness.

His mother told him if he
would be sitting on the stoop

at 560 Lincoln Place,
Apartment 4Q, and

somebody would come up to
him and ask him a question,

he would say, "I have
nothing to say to you."

That was the proper answer
that his mother told him to say.

You're from
Brooklyn originally?

Chicag... Well, born in Chicago,
moved to Brooklyn when I was about six.

So, lived on the coast...
Were you playing chess by then?

No, I learned in
New York, yeah.

At what age?

Six.

When did you start to
get serious about chess?

About when, I was maybe seven.

If you can think back to your
childhood and all the things you did

After school, and on the weekends. And,
imagine just filling all that in with

chess study, chess lessons,
chess practice, chess competition.

Sure, Bobby Fischer starts
with a very exceptional mind.

But genius is not only about a
particular innate gift for "X".

Genius is about a
desire to do "X".

It's about a willingness
to sacrifice.

It's about an ability to develop
that kind of obsessive interest,

in perfecting one's
ability to do some task.

People who studied expertise have
looked at classical music composers,

and surgeons and
chess players...

Interested in figuring out, what
do high achievers have in common?

They have always,
almost without exception,

put in 10,000 hours of
deliberate practice first.

That love component is such an
enormous part of the achievement,

of any kind of genius...

Because if it's dutiful, there is no
way you can be that obsessive about it.

There was nothing else
he would rather do.

"I started playing, uh,
games with myself.

"I would make the white moves
and the black moves.

"Play through the whole game
and eventually I would

"checkmate the other guy.

"I almost always won.

"Then my mother started to
get worried that, you know,

"it wasn't healthy to be, ya know,
playing chess by myself all the time.

"Now, uh, black surprises him
with this move.

Regina was so worried that she
decided to take him to a psychiatrist.

And the psychiatrist said,

"Don't worry, there are worse
things to be obsessed by then chess."

Everybody said
to him, "What happened?"

And he said, "One
day I just got good."

He was suddenly out of
everyone else's league.

And everybody knew it.

Fischer would open a chess
magazine, okay, like this.

He would open it like this, he
would say, "Hmm, okay here...

"Let's see here...

"Okay here, okay here."

Now, it looks like he's just, like,
looking at the pictures, right?

That's what you
think he's doing.

No, he's not doing that.

He's playing through the entire
game, in his head, in a few seconds.

Every move.

He went from being
my peer in chess.

To being the United States
Chess Champion, a quantum leap.

That's when he first
became famous. This was 1958.

No chess player ever made
much money in those days,

and my father basically arranged
an exhibition tour for him.

In which, he went
from city to city, playing

anywhere from 40 to 80 people
at a time.

And I don't know how much he got
then, maybe $5 dollars a board.

Regina decided that this
was a way to the big time.

She'd call me up and say...

"I want Bobby to go on
Channel Two on Sunday,

"And he won't do it if I ask
him, so I want you to tell him."

He just wanted to learn the game and
she really wanted him to get publicity.

Fame is definitely a mixed
blessing, and almost everybody

would admit that, at some some point in
their life, they've wished they had it.

Once it starts it's fun, and
the fun quickly wears off...

When you want to be alone, private
and public, if that's ever possible.

But also, it's horrendous
on the psyche for the young.

It totally distorts
their world.

He had all these people around
who really wanted a piece of him,

if they only wanted
to be in his glow.

And, people have all kinds of
motives, not always in his favor.

They're trying to make money
out of him.

They're trying to be
associated with him.

They're talking behind his back.

You know, I mean
he couldn't stand any of that.

Particularly,
he couldn't stand the press

because he was such an individual.

He was an ideal object
for caricature.

You
watch television?

No. Not much. Very rarely. Why?

I don't know. I read that you could
get a little radiation from it.

"I don't know.

"I've talked with a few scientist
friends of mine, they say you...

"You do, you do, it's a fact,
you do get a little bit.

"They don't think it's dangerous.

"What kind of magazines
do you like?

"My favorite magazine is Confidential.

"I read that all the time.

"Why do you like that?

"They've got a lot of the inside
stories on things like water pollution.

It's pretty interesting.
I like to read up on that.

"A lot of things that the government
is concealing, you know?

Fischer looked at the
world his own way. I mean,

Bobby was not socialized,
the way the rest of us were.

Every idea he had, virtually, he had
to come to, through his own thinking.

In these days, he was unusual. But,
he hadn't gone off the deep end yet.

Boxing champions have been coming
to the Catskill Mountains of New York

for almost half a century
to get in shape.

"But does a chess champion
need to train physically?

"Take a look behind that window,

"into the training headquarters
of Bobby Fischer.

"Championship chess is a
physically exhausting game.

"More than just a test
of mind and will,

"it is a contest
of physical endurance too.

"Bobby is 29, and he lives
virtually a monastic life.

"He lives alone,

"always in hotel rooms that seem
barely larger than chessboards.

"A lot of the time he won't
even answer his telephone.

"The television set is his window on
the world, exercise is part of it.

I'm a world class
Olympic-level coach.

I'm also a world champion
in the bench press

and I've trained a lot of celebrities.

But no one can match the
fabulous Bobby Fischer.

He was interested in the
human body, how it performed...

and how it could be more productive.

He said "I want you
to work on my grip.

"You see this dynamometer?

"I want to squeeze this thing
all the way to the end."

I said, "The world's strongest man
has not squeezed 100 kilograms."

He said, "I'll squeeze
105." I said, "Why?"

"When I shake that little Russian's
hand, I want him to feel it!"

I started him off
with a little swimming,

racquetball,
which we were quite good at.

A little weight training.

I said, repeat this after me,

"I'm a winner! I'm a champion!
I'm not a loser!"

And he says,

"Why'd you put the loser thing
in there? You know I'm a champion."

Bobby is probably the most interesting
person I've ever photographed.

There he is.
There's Bobby.

"I decided to hold my
breath like this, and... "

You know, it was good
for his training.

He was in training
for Spassky.

He asked me what
other jobs do I do?

And I told him, I'm, I've just
finished one on the New York Jets.

"Jets?" He thought
that was marvelous.

He thought... He wanted
to hear all about it.

How they train, and he said,

"You know, I've got to
train like that as well."

And he didn't
mind anything I did.

But it could have gone either way.
He treated everybody else quite awful.

Bobby Fischer
is a stubborn young man.

Sometimes he fights for principal,
more often just for himself.

He'll refuse to play a match
because his special terms aren't met.

And for the past month...

he's been giving fits
to the International Federation too.

Not enough money for the winner
of the world title, he says.

There was
bidding on the match.

And Iceland got it, I guess
because they put up the highest bid.

And Bobby didn't want to play.
He said the country's too small.

They don't have facilities,
they don't have communication.

"The International Chess Federation

"wants word by tomorrow morning
from Fischer

"on whether he's agreeable
to 24 games in Iceland,

"and Fischer is taking his time
answering.

"You, as President
of the Icelandic Chess Federation.

"Are there times where you have
been tempted to say,

"'Let's forget all about it.'

"As you know, we are
organizing a chess match,

"and our only wish is to enrich
the chess world.

They had all these lawyers

and they were raising demands
all the time.

But at the same time,

it was never clear whether Fischer
would come to Iceland.

The stumbling block, the
principal one was the prize money.

And I said, we have already
settled the money question.

And we will not be
ready to discuss that.

There was a real possibility that
the match wouldn't take place.

One has to remember with Fischer, that
he dropped out of tournaments before.

This was no bluff
necessarily.

He's going, he's not going, and
then he told me he was going.

He moved quietly, put his
hands on my shoulders, and says,

"I'm going to Iceland,
Harry." You know, it was...

So, and the next thing I would read
in the paper would be, he's not going.

But, Bobby wouldn't sign it.

And then Bobby disappeared.

Boris Spassky,
the world chess champion,

came to Iceland twelve days before
the match, scheduled to start Sunday.

Spassky said he wanted time
to get used to the place,

without, incidentally, being
constantly molested by newsmen.

Bobby Fischer was also sensitive
about being photographed.

Sensitive to the point that
he kept not showing up.

He was sitting in Pasadena,
California and my job,

my personal mission, was to
get Bobby to go to Iceland.

And play the World
Championship Match.

But I didn't see any activity.
I didn't see any plane ticket.

I said, "Bobby, I have to go
to New York. My dad is sick.

"Let's travel together. You'll
be that much closer to Iceland."

He said, "Yeah, I think that's a
good idea, travel with a friend.

"Yeah, okay."

I was getting him closer
to where he had to go.

We took him to
Kennedy airport.

We were headed for the
Icelandic Airlines counter.

Somehow a Daily News
photographer spied him.

And Bobby started running. He wasn't
just running, he was sprinting.

I turned around, and I stopped, and I
put my hands up. I didn't say anything.

And Bobby kept running,
right out of the airport.

To the curbside limousine, and
got in, and left the airport.

Where to? Nobody knew.

It was only three days before
the scheduled start of the match.

Chess history was
in the balance.

I said, you can stay at my parents'
home in Douglaston, Long Island.

I don't think
the bell works.

It works.

Hi,
where are you?

Oh,
I need to know...

Bobby was staying at Saidy's house

and Saidy's father
was dying of cancer at the time.

I don't know whether he told
you that, and they were...

they were trying their best to get
Fischer on that plane to Iceland.

At one point Saidy said, "You
know, uh, my father's dying."

And Bobby says,
"That's okay, I don't mind."

They could not dislodge
him from that house.

This was probably the most
stressful week of my life.

Are you Dr. Saidy? Yes I am.

Mr. Fischer made it clear that he
would try to go to Iceland tonight.

Did he express these thoughts
to you? Made it clear to whom?

We had talked to a few people, and
they had the impression he was going.

Well, everybody can
have impressions,

but the only person who knows
what Bobby Fischer is going to do

is Bobby Fischer.

That's about all
I really want to say.

I see...
I want you to all keep cool.

At one point, during
his stay at our home...

He simply said, "It's
over, I'm not going."

Still no
sign of Bobby Fischer.

Today, the International
Chess Federation

postponed by 48 hours the start
of the match, but it said...

If Fischer is not in Iceland by noon
on Tuesday, he will be disqualified.

Mr. Thorarinsson,
if I may ask, are you worried?

No.

And, I just wondered if
you've ever seen Mr. Fischer,

if you have any proof
that he actually exists?

That's a good question.

Yes, I think, gentlemen, we can agree
on the point that Mr. Fischer exists.

We were losing
the whole thing.

We had to get Fischer
to come to Iceland.

The Soviet Union had the feeling that

the World Chess Champion
was humiliated.

They wanted to call Spassky
back to the Soviet Union.

Boris said to me, "This
is a very severe situation.

"You have to solve this
on a higher level."

Gudmundur Thorarinsson,

I think he asked the Prime Minister
of Iceland to call Kissinger.

Fischer was very reluctant to go

and I placed a call to him
and I said to him... go.

The United States of America

wanted Bobby to go there
and win the world title.

By that time, James Slater,
the British Multi-Millionaire,

had already
doubled the purse.

So, Fischer's answer to Kissinger
was, "Yes, I've decided to play."

What finally did
make you decide to go then?

I feel that the prestige of
this country is at stake.

Some people have suggested
this was psychological warfare,

against Spassky on your part.

Mmm. Did that figure into it?

No, huh-uh.

I don't believe in psychology,
I believe in good moves.

Bobby Fischer
left New York for Iceland,

and what a scene that was on
the morning of July the 4th.

Nothing like this has ever
happened in Iceland before.

You try to describe the impact
on the citizens here at Reykjavik,

is probably about the same as
if the promoters of the next,

Joe Frasier-Muhammad Ali
prize fight,

decided to stage their
international extravaganza

in Butte, Montana.

One observer said the chess match
was turning into the biggest thing,

to hit Iceland,
since Eric the Red.

Though some people were
still mad at Fischer,

others approve of his
hold-out for more money.

Well, he was fighting for all the chess
players of the whole world, I think

He's tedious, he's arrogant,
he's inconsiderate.

Uh, basically, people think that
there's something wrong with the man.

I became
his private bodyguard.

It was a big moment
for me, you know.

I was more of his
friend than a bodyguard.

He was quite a
character, you know.

He could be gentle, but he could
be like a volcano sometimes.

And it was better to know when to
speak and when to keep quiet, actually.

Finally Bobby
showed up in Iceland.

Now is he gonna really play
for the World Championship?

It's been a long
road for Fischer to this game,

and it'll be a long match
at the end of that road.

Both he and Spassky
have to play 24 games.

The match could last up to two
months, each game runs to five hours.

The most intellectually exhausting
battle known to the mind of man.

The World Chess Championship.

We had the Icelandic Government,
the Icelandic President,

the Ambassador of the Soviet Union,
the Ambassador of the United States,

and many foreign guests.

The theatre was full.

Regularly scheduled programs
will not be seen at this time,

so we may bring you the
following sports special.

ABC Sports presents the World
Chess Championship Match,

between Boris Spassky, the defending
champion from the Soviet Union,

and 29-year-old Bobby Fischer, the
challenger from the United States.

It was the Super Bowl.

The audiences were gigantic.
People stayed home from work.

People were lining up in front
of TV sets at department stores.

There were chess groupies.

In Time Square, they were showing
the game live. It was that important.

"Let's find out from you Larry...

"If there are any
late-breaking developments.

"They might fuss around
with the chess pieces

"and the size of the board
and the lighting,

"but I'm fairly confident
the match will start on time.

Boris Spassky, the world chess champion
was there with all his assistants.

But, Fischer was not here.

The clock has now been started. It
was officially 5:00 in Reykjavik.

Spassky is obviously anxious about
the whereabouts of Mr. Fischer.

Bobby was
nowhere to be seen.

And all of us despaired.

If Fischer doesn't show up by
the time one hour has elapsed,

he forfeits the
game automatically.

Oh, there he goes now. He's
just played one pawn to queen 4.

You saw Spassky make his move
then he touched his clock,

which turns his clock off, but
turns his opponent's clock on.

So Fischer's time
is now ticking.

There was no certainty, that even
though this was the biggest match,

of his life, he would
actually show up.

See, many people think that his
antics were designed to upset Spassky,

to discombobulate
Spassky, which they did.

But I don't think
that was their intent.

I don't think any of this
was directed against Spassky.

It was his own inner
demons that he was fighting.

Unpredictable
Bobby Fischer.

Nobody really knows why Bobby
Fischer does or does not do anything.

The most individualistic,
intransigent, uncommunicative,

solitary chess
master of all time.

He has no permanent home.

Fischer is a nomad.
Speaks to almost no one.

No contact with his
family. Troubled childhood.

He hasn't seen
his mother in over 10 years.

Is your
mother still living?

Yeah. Do you get a chance
to see her very much?

Haven't seen her in
a few years, yeah.

What about your father?
No, I don't see him. No.

Are they living
together? No, her, her...

"I never talk
about my father."

That's what Fischer would say,
"I never talk about my father."

This is what led me to realize

that there was something special
about Fischer's father

that nobody else knew.

Regina Fischer
has a 900-page FBI file.

And, one of the things it reveals
is that Bobby Fischer's father,

was not Gerhardt Fischer
as it had been supposed,

and as the family had
allowed to be known.

In fact, Bobby Fischer's father
was a man named Paul Nemenyi.

Gerhardt Fischer, who is officially
listed on the birth certificate,

never came to America.

Regina and Paul Nemenyi met
at a University near Denver,

and they had an affair.

Regina moved on and took
the baby, Bobby, with her.

Regina, often, because she
was destitute, and needed help,

would go to social service
agencies, and ask for help.

Paul Nemenyi would show up, and
consult with the social workers,

because he was very
concerned about Bobby.

He said that Bobby, even at a very
young age, was a very upset child.

He was afraid that he
wasn't being raised right.

Later, when Bobby
moved to New York City.

Paul would come and take
him out to restaurants,

and would admonish him for
having bad table manners.

And would basically act towards
him in the way that a father would.

One day, Bobby asked
his mother, "Where's Paul?

"Why isn't he coming
around anymore?"

When Nemenyi died, that's when his
mother told him he was his real father.

He learned about it only about
the time he was 9-years-old.

Chess to him
was the ultimate escape,

his single obsession.

Well,
Spassky's waiting.

Right, and it uh, waiting and wondering
whether Bobby will show or not show.

And there is absolutely
dead silence in the hall.

Spassky is pacing,
he's nervous and...

Wait!
Here comes Fischer,

coming onto stage, saying
that he was caught in traffic.

And, uh, I think Spassky
is visibly relieved.

And also
perhaps pained.

It didn't look like this match would
happen, but finally it happened and...

it was phenomenal.

How do you spell
relief, okay?

Now, for the first time, we're
looking at Bobby Fischer, the man that

eight times has won the United
States Open Championship.

I remember saying on TV
at one point during the match,

I said, "You know,
we're really lucky...

"to be alive, at this moment, when
Bobby Fischer's playing Boris Spassky."

There's the first move. One knight
to king bishop 3, very noncommittal.

Now watch, see Fischer
turn around here? Yeah.

He's checking to see
that camera location.

And now, uh, he goes over to
protest those cameras being there.

There's Lothar
Schmid in the background.

Bobby said,

"I feel disturbed.
I cannot have that, please."

Spassky remains serene and
imperturbable throughout all this.

The first game started out with
some minor psychological games,

in the opening, but
then it calmed down.

And the position that we reached
after 28 moves,

seemed like a complete draw...

It seemed like they were gonna
agree to a draw shortly

and move onto the next game.

All the pieces were traded.

They got into an endgame. Each side
had a bishop and a bunch of pawns.

It was a very easy...
It was a dead draw.

The position reached very even
position, virtually symmetrical.

And Fischer went haywire.

He did something that hardly anyone
would do except a rank amateur.

He grabbed a pawn, allowing
his bishop to be trapped.

He made a colossal
beginner's blunder.

He took a pawn which allowed
Spassky to trap his bishop.

We couldn't believe it.

This looks like an error, but
this is Fischer playing the move.

There must be more
to it than that.

There must be an explanation.

There must be some deep
combination that we've missed.

Bobby saw six moves ahead
here, when he made the move.

He just didn't see
seven moves ahead.

White can interpolate a move.
You can play bishop to queen 2.

Notice that that cuts
off the escape square.

"And then all that white has to do on
the next move is play king to knight 2,

and the bishop is lost.

That was the shot
heard around the world.

It was inexplicable.

I still don't know
how that happened.

Spassky
won the first game.

You had to get to 12.5
points, the best of 24.

A win is one, a loss is zero,
and a draw is one half.

He had an agreement that the cameras be
quiet and Bobby said they aren't quiet.

And, uh, they disturb me.

He claimed that the noise
from the machines...

was so high that he couldn't, you
see, he couldn't think or concentrate.

I believe that, by the way.

I think that he
had hyperacusis,

a medical condition characterized
by excessive sensitivity to noise.

Fischer said he would
boycott the match,

until hidden movie cameras were
removed from the playing hall.

The promoters said the entire
financial structure of the match

depends on recording
and exhibiting the play.

He asked to put
the camera away.

He wanted me to clear the
cameras out of the hall.

And I said, "No."

You have
to start in time.

If a player is not present, you have
to, as the arbiter, press his clock.

Fischer had been known to
quit matches over trivia...

So, we were afraid that, uh,
he would just, you know,

run back home, and that
would be the end of it.

Bobby did not show up.

I had, as the arbiter,
to forfeit him.

And, for a moment, I thought,
"Did I make the right decision?

"Was it fair? Was it correct?"
But it was necessary.

There was no other way.

This, uh, night I remember that I
had been woken up by tears in my eyes.

That I, as an arbiter,
had to destroy a genius.

He was now
trailing two nothing.

It's very hard to make
that up in a 24-game match.

Half the world thought,
"That's it, the match is over."

"He'll never come back."

"Why would he even
bother trying...

to come back from such
a difficult situation?"

During the match, he would
knock on my door about...

One or two in the morning, and
we would just walk and walk.

And we would sit, and
look at the animals.

He loved animals.

And he would talk, but he didn't
like to talk about his childhood.

It was a bad subject.

He did tell me that, like, from the
age of 2 or 3 he was left alone...

all day with his sister.

The loneliness.

Regina, for all of her gifts,
was not a traditional mother.

She was a person who moved her
kids around from place to place,

ya know, even every few months
when they were really little.

There was obvious conflict between
Regina and Bobby from an early age.

He didn't like to
have his mother around.

She would end up having
to send his sister, Joan,

abroad with him on tournaments,

He wouldn't play
if his mother was along.

Regina moved out of the apartment
that he shared with her...

in Brooklyn when he
was only 16 years old.

He told his mom to leave, I don't
know how politely, and she left.

In a way, he rejected her
because she was so like him.

So pushy, so self-centered,
so goal-directed.

Maybe he was splitting
off part of himself.

In 1960, Regina went to
Europe to get her M.D. Degree.

And Bobby would have still been living
on Lincoln Place in Brooklyn then.

I went to his apartment a couple
of times, and it was roach-ridden.

It was a walk-up tenement.

He had chess books
all over the place,

and it was just in a
complete state of disarray.

The fact is,
his mother left him.

Think about yourself. If,
suddenly, your father wasn't there,

and your mother disappeared,
said, "Goodbye."

How would you feel? What
would have happened to you?

Bobby is all chess.

I don't play chess, and I don't
pretend to speak for Bobby.

But I feel that
whatever I do here,

whatever I say, to help make the
Vietnam come to an end more quickly,

will help every son, every
daughter in the whole world.

One, two, three, four,
sign the treaty, end the war!

One, two, three, four, sign
the treaty end the war!

One, two, three, four, sign
the treaty end the war...

Well, you're not gonna believe this,
Sir, but I'm inside of a wind tunnel.

Fischer said, "Well, I'll
continue but the third game,

"has got to be away from the
auditorium inside a sealed room."

There's a little ping-pong
room at the back of the stage.

And Spassky agreed.

You can't change the location
without both sides' permission

once the match has started.

He could have claimed
the match on a forfeit.

He didn't have to
play in that back room.

If he hadn't...

Fischer would have not played

and the match
would not have continued.

Bobby started
again to quarrel.

"No! Not this one and
not that," etcetera.

And Boris said
in this moment...

"So, I retire, I do not want
this. This is too much for me. I...

"If so, we end
the match."

The two boys were standing
together at the table.

And I took them here, both, and
pressed them down in the stools.

Now, will you play?

Boris automatically
made his first move.

The game could still be watched
by a close-circuit TV camera.

The audience was in the hall and they
could follow the game move by move.

In game three, Bobby played an opening,
a defense he had never played before.

The Benoni, which
means "Son of Sorrow."

It is so risky, so
fraught with danger,

that whenever you play
that, you're simply saying,

"We're not gonna make a draw.

This is win or lose.
This is a fight to the death."

Bobby moved his knight
to the edge of the board.

There's a saying in chess...

"Ein springer am
rand bringt kummer am shand,"

"A knight on the side,
I will not abide."

It was against principle.

It's not considered a good idea

because the center of the board,
typically,

is the most important
battle ground.

And that's where we want
to position our pieces

or at least in a way that our pieces
attack the middle of the board.

Not only did he move the knight
to the side of the board,

but also it could have
been captured by a bishop,

and he would have had
a very ugly-looking...

double pawn way over on
the side of the board, which,

it was very
unaesthetic, let's say.

Uh, Frank, I can see Spassky.

Uh, more tense than
you've seen him? Yes.

He may be... what?

I see.

Spassky did not find
the best continuation,

and was consistently
outplayed...

Until Fischer won his first
game of his life against Spassky.

He was on the scoreboard.

What do you think
of Bobby Fischer?

I like him.
I like his style.

Are you following the games? Yes I am.

The American chess players
are behind Bobby 100%,

and they're all anxious to see him
get in there, and win the championship.

"Do you think that Fischer

"will win for the first time
over the Russian champion?

"I think Fischer will win,
because he's playing for $200,000,

"but if Spassky wins

"most of the money will go
to the Russian government.

People sat in bars betting on what
the next move was going to be...

the way people bet on whether there is
going to be a hit in a baseball game.

That's when chess really exploded.

Tell me what, what, you know what
turns you on about chess. What?

Do you hope to be as good
as Bobby Fischer one day?

Well, I'd hope to, but I
doubt if I would be. Why?

Well, I just think Fischer's just
about the best player in the world,

and not very many people can
get to be as good as he is.

We're watching the looming presence
of Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer,

as sketched by Leroy Neiman, noted
artist and familiar face to Wide World.

"Leroy is here with me
at the Wide World studio in New York

"and he's going to be

"sharing some of his artistic
impressions with us, in just a minute.

"Larry,

"I thought going up there
to that chess match

"would be like watching
the grass grow,

but it was far more exciting
than I ever expected it to be.

Well, I thought it was
pretty exciting too.

It was just like the
Ali-Frasier fight all over again.

This is Bobby Fischer leaving
the hotel for the fight,

like a matador leaving the
Palace hotel in Madrid.

On stage, the tension is
developing, it's a real "prizefight."

That's when Fischer...
That's when he's a fighter.

This right hand is, like it
struck and drew blood on Spassky.

The score was even. Two
and a half, two and a half.

Spassky
was not himself.

All these shenanigans had
affected him adversely.

He was not playing
his true game.

They believed that
the chairs had been wired,

and the lighting fixture, to
destabilize Boris' concentration.

That's when Boris cracked.

Spassky complained that
there was some radiation...

which was affecting him.

During the match I felt myself
quite unusually like before.

So, that was reason to be for
myself... I'm not a suspicious man...

to become suspicious.

There might be something
in the chair.

There might be something
on the surface of the chair.

There might be
something in the light.

They inspected the
chairs and the lights to see,

whether the Americans were up
to some kind of "Hanky Panky."

They found two dead
flies, and that was it.

Games 6 is very celebrated.

It is probably the most reprinted
game of the entire match.

It was like... a symphony
of placid beauty.

Right on
the first move...

Bobby Fischer came up with a
major surprise to the entire world.

He almost always starts
the game, with moving

the pawn in front of his
king, two pawns up, with E4.

And in this game,
everybody's shocked.

He started with the English
opening by playing C4.

Spassky's preparation
was out the window.

I'm sure he prepared for
many things, but not this.

Fischer did not
play his usual game.

He played a different kind of game,

a placid, positional,
slowly building up game,

where he deprived
Spassky of mobility.

Pushed him back where his
pieces could not do anything.

It was just a, just
a beautiful game...

I don't know what more
can be said about it.

It's just a model of precision.

It was such a beautiful game,

that when the crowd applauded
at the end of the game,

Spassky, himself, stood up
and applauded Fischer.

On his way back to
the hotel, Fischer said,

"Did you see what
Spassky did?"

He said "That's a sportsman.
He's a real sportsman."

Game 21
reached move 40,

the move at which the game
was adjourned,

for the two players to go
and study it.

"This is NBC nightly
news, Friday September 1st.

"Good Evening.

"We'll have more on the developments
in the Watergate Bugging case.

"We'll hear George McGovern

"talking about tightening up
his campaign organization.

"And we'll have a look at the new
unemployment figures,

"but first Bobby Fischer.

"Today was the day when Fischer and
the Russian champion, Boris Spassky,

"were to have finished the 21st
game of the World Championship,

"a game they started yesterday.

"But Spassky, after what must
have been an agonizing night

"spent analyzing his position,
didn't even show up to play.

I was going to photograph
Spassky in the morning.

He comes straight over to
me, shook my hand, and said,

"There is another
world champion.

"His name is Robert
James Fischer."

I went back to the loft
later to Bobby's room,

and I told him
Spassky just retired.

And I want to be the
first to congratulate you.

Congratulations, how you feel,
babe? Tell us how you feel about it!

You said you were gonna do it.

Listen would you
talk to us, Bobby?

Bobby, roll the window down!

Bobby wanted
to get away...

'Cause they're all banging
on the door and all that,

just to beat it
out into the hills.

Someone brings up The New York Post,
and it says, "Bobby is the Champ."

His mother had said to him,

when she saw she couldn't
separate him from chess.

She said, "Okay, go play chess.

"When that's over, you
can start your life.

"You can do something important."

"NBC news correspondent Dick
Schapp was in Iceland today...

"and here's what Fischer said.

"How does it feel now, you
have the World Championship.

"You're the best in the world at
what you've devoted your life to.

"How does that feel inside?

"It feels pretty good, yeah. I mean,
my goal now is play a lot more chess.

"I feel I haven't played
enough chess.

"How did it feel... all this
between the mayor and all...

"Did you ever thought
of anything like that?

"No, I never, you know, thought
this was gonna happen...

"You know, with Chess. I just
hope, uh, this keeps on.

I just had a premonition that something
awful was going to happen to him.

I didn't know what it would be,

but I didn't feel
good about it.

One of Fischer's problems
was that after the match,

he was, supposedly, better known
by the population of the world,

than anyone, except for Jesus Christ.

And, he was a guy who
treasured his privacy.

He had a problem.

The entire world knows the
name Bobby Fischer by now.

Was it a letdown after it
was all over Bobby? I mean...

Well, there must have
been a tremendous, uh...

There was. I woke up the day
after the thing was over and...

I just felt different. Like...

Something had been
taken out of me.

He didn't really, after he won, know
what he wanted to do with his life.

He, uh, he reached an end
point, when he was 29.

He's 29 years old, and
he hadn't had a childhood.

Is it not true that, um, the
Chess masters are always young men,

and that they...
they don't last?

Uh, that's been true, generally
speaking, but there are exceptions.

Steinitz, he was 63 when
he was world champion.

But, you're in a fortunate
position, because...

Most of us in life, no matter
how successful we think we are.

We still have to do what other people
want us to do, just to hold jobs.

But, you don't have to hold a job...
You're on your own. That's right.

It's a unique position.

That's right, you can't say
"Well, if Fischer won't come,"

"We'll get some other chess genius,
uh, who's the best in the world."

Bobby Fischer, the world champion
chess player,

has until midnight tonight

to decide whether to abide
by the international rules of chess,

or give up his title.

If Fischer defaults, the title
would go to the challenger,

Soviet grandmaster,
Anatoly Karpov.

He wanted probably to play
the kid from Russia, Karpov,

and beat him. I mean, it
would be an easy task.

On the other hand, part
of him knew he could lose.

And, that's death to Bobby.
He didn't want to risk that.

So, what came out was a series
of new demands on the rules.

First of all, I like to
play matches without draws.

And, uh, they're gonna have to increase
the prizes, if they want me to play...

Well, if I get a title... They want
me to play a match for the title.

I'm not gonna just play for
what their minimum prizes are.

Accepting all of Fischer's
demands, was unacceptable

politically for the
Soviet Chess Federation.

Barring a very unlikely last-minute
change of heart by Fischer,

Anatoly Karpov becomes the
new champion by default.

The world chess body gave him
about 95% of what he wanted,

but that was it. He
didn't defend his title.

I think he was unable to cope
with his own invincibility.

He got more or less
scared to sit down again,

in front of the board,
and risk losing.

But only he who never
plays, never loses.

We all felt disappointed
that he let chess down,

he'd let the American
masters down.

Yeah, we all felt
kind of a betrayal.

Whereas others
could suffer from a...

Depression after such debacle.

I went out to California
on a job, phoned Bobby,

picked him up in Pasadena,

where he was staying,
some cult place he was staying.

"I've had so many bad experiences...

And, he would talk
about nuclear disarmament,

our capabilities, ICBMs, and that.

You know? And that would go on
for about an hour and a half.

Just what is, the
Worldwide Church of God?

Bobby had been involved with
the Church of God, since 1962.

And after he won the Championship, the
church was providing him with a place.

The Worldwide Church
of God was a...

A group of people that believed in
fundamental principles of the Bible.

Some people would probably
call us fundamentalists.

That will bring on
the great tribulation!

And that will end in the
second coming of Christ,

the end of this
present civilization!

Basically, a sense that there
was an impending coming Christ,

and we need to prepare for
that particular second coming.

I told him,
"It's all a bunch of hooey."

But, uh, that's what he chose to do.

"I've warned you may be living
in the time in which you will see...

I went to his apartment
in Pasadena.

It seemed to me pretty hopeless.

He was extremely depressed.

We would get into these long
discussions about the Bible.

"Why are we here?"

"What are we doing
here? What is life?"

That's when he
started to go haywire.

He, uh, felt that he was being
influenced by these Russians,

and he also was scared of the
Mossad, Israeli Secret Police.

He felt that he could be easily
spied upon through radioactivity.

And through other
means, fillings...

He thought maybe the Russians
could send signals there.

Phones...

Tinfoil, over
the windows...

Media... Radioactive...
This is paranoia.

We tried as church members to bring him
in to a little more of a normal life.

I think he turned against
the Worldwide Church of God,

when one of its prophecies
patently did not come to pass.

But in the last days,
that these times

right now, in which we are
living, perilous times shall come!

Fischer felt betrayed.

He wrote a pamphlet attacking the
church and Armstrong, its leader,

saying that, "Nobody should
ever control your mind."

I was never a member
of the Church of God,

absolutely not
true, it's a lie.

As he denied
God, he began to get worse.

He started
to go astray.

He started reading, The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Which he mentioned to me

and I said "That book is a forgery,
and it's a hoax.

And it's a bit of anti-Semitic
propaganda that even Hitler used."

Protocol Number 1. What has
restrained the wild beast we call men?

He got into
all these doctrines.

What has influenced them
heretofore? The Illuminati...

All these different people that
were gonna take over the world.

Protocol Number 9, Merciless
revenge and bitter hatred.

From us emanates an
all-embracing terror.

We began to see less of Bobby because
we didn't want to expose our children,

to the famous uncle who had
become a fulminating anti-Semite.

Hitler said in Mein Kampf, that
the Jews are not the victims,

but they're the victimizers!

We could be having dinner and he
would suddenly start thinking about,

"The Jews did this,
and the Jews did that."

And in our house it
was just unacceptable.

They're actually making things
happen, and causing revolutions,

and killing people
all over the world...

You start mixing fish with
humans, and anything is possible.

His mother was Jewish.
His real father was Jewish.

It's complete madness.

The question is how could a
Jewish kid become an anti-Semite?

Paranoid psychosis.

He had false fixed ideas of a very
widening conspiracy against him.

It was as if he were
at war with himself.

He became a recluse. Fischer watchers
refer to it as the "wilderness years."

Where's Bobby these
days? Oh, Bobby's at home.

Where, in New York?
Well, I...

I don't think that I want to
get on the subject of Bobby.

You know how Bobby feels
about it. Yeah.

The last conversation
we had, enraged him.

"If you don't play chess...

"There will soon come a time when
no one will ask you to play chess."

He thought that was unacceptable

and that was the end
of our relationship.

If you look
throughout history,

there have been a disproportionate
number,

of extremely talented
chess players,

who have also had serious
psychological issues.

You are putting yourself
in a world that is infinite.

It's abstract.

You are, in essence,
reshaping your mind.

If you understand that in the
first move of a chess game...

Each player has 20
possible moves.

If you multiply 20 by 20,
that means there are 400

different possible chess
positions, after the first move.

The tree becomes with a
lot of branches, you know.

That, you start with one move and that
one move there are several options...

Then all of the sudden
it becomes a jungle.

The number of all positions that

theoretically can occur
in the game of chess...

is something like
ten with 45 zeros.

It's like the number of atoms
in the solar system.

You're trying to anticipate
what your opponent might do,

and you don't know
what he might do.

So, you are thinking of all
the different possibilities.

A good chess player is
paranoid on the board.

But then, if you take that paranoia
to real life, it doesn't play so well.

You end up seeing your real world,
according to the confines of chess.

There were some
that came to a sad end.

I mean, we like to think that chess
didn't cause that, but maybe it did.

An individual with
an unbalanced tendency,

by becoming a chess monomaniac,
will throw himself over the brink.

Yeah, we have some examples where
people of, um... exceptional abilities,

were infected by this,
uh, mental illness.

Victor Korchnoi claimed to have
played a match with a dead man.

He even provided the
moves. Rubenstein...

Rubenstein jumped out the window,
because the fly was after him.

Wilhelm Steinitz.

Steinitz was in an institution.

Steinitz, in late life,

thought he was playing chess
by wireless with God Almighty.

And, had the better
of God Almighty.

Carlos Torre took all
his clothes off on a bus.

And, the probably greatest name, the
greatest impact on the game of chess.

Uh, in the 19th century, belonged
to an American player, Paul Morphy.

Unfortunately, there is some
resemblance with Fischer.

Paul Morphy was an American player who
stunned the world with his chess play.

And then at age 26 he wandered
the streets aimlessly.

He muttered to himself. He
became a paranoid schizophrenic.

His tour in Europe in 1858, 1859 was
one of the most unforgettable events,

in the history of chess, and
then Morphy stopped playing chess.

There are many similarities
between Morphy and Fischer.

People are always gonna, uh,
equate their names together.

They both gave up the game
at the height of their powers.

And disappeared into a...

world of neurosis, of psychosis.

"Where did Bobby Fischer go?

"What happened to Bobby Fischer?

"We spent countless hours
prowling the streets,

"where he's been known to roam.

"Looking for him at chess clubs
where he's been known to play.

"Ultimately the, now investigation was
successful. We found Bobby Fischer.

"The quest paid off.

In 1990, he shows up in Pasadena,
little on the heavy side.

He hands me this letter.

"Mr. Fischer, you are the
Mozart of the chess world.

"I want you to get
back into Chess."

Her name was Zita.

"I wonder what she
looks like Harry."

All of a sudden, he's
romantically entwined.

She got him off all
of his rationalizations,

why he couldn't play chess
anymore.

And... and she set
up the tournament.

After many false alarms, it was a
19-year-old Hungarian Chess player,

Zita Raycsanyi who brought
Fischer back to chess.

Do you think he's
still as handsome now?

What do you think?

As a result of their meeting, Zita
rushed off to arrange Bobby's comeback.

The chess world was shaken today
with news that an old legend lives,

apparently ready to risk
himself in public again.

Headlines around the world
announced he'd signed a contract,

to play a rematch, with his old Russian
rival form Iceland, Boris Spassky.

I was in the chess world. Everybody is
waiting for him to play for 20 years.

I mean, month after month, year
after year, there were these stories.

He's negotiating this. Ya know,
someone's trying to raise this for him.

He wouldn't play,
finally he plays!

He was playing, uh, uh, in
Yugoslavia against Spassky.

It was trumpeted as a return
World Championship Match.

This is a typical question, uh, from
Mr. Roger Cohen of The New York Times.

"If you
beat Spassky...

"Will you go on to challenge
Kasparov for the World Championship?"

Well... can he read what
it says behind here?

The match took place in Yugoslavia
during the middle of the Yugoslav war.

And by participating, Fischer
broke a U.N. backed embargo.

The U.S. government sent
him a letter, and said...

"Don't play, if you do
you're going to go to jail."

This is my reply to their order
not to defend my title here.

That's my answer...

The match of '92, in my
view, had no chess relevance.

They played very decent chess,
but it was chess of 1972.

It's like watching two old boxers come
back into the ring for one last payday.

A slightly sad affair where both
players are clearly past their best.

Both Fischer and Spassky are
shadows of their former selves.

He won, and won several
million dollars,

but was declared a criminal for
having taken part in the match.

Today a federal
grand jury here in Washington,

charged Robert James "Bobby"
Fischer with a criminal violation,

of the United States imposed sanctions
on the federal republic of Yugoslavia.

Fischer faces up to 10 years in
prison, and the millions of dollars

of proceeds of the chess match, are
forfeitable to the United States.

Bobby Fischer, like anyone else, should
be held accountable for his actions.

The cost was very high.

I mean, he lost his country. He
couldn't come back. He was indicted.

A lot of people questioned the validity
of this indictment, but it was a law.

So, Fischer broke the law.

He couldn't come back into the
country. They were out to arrest him.

So, he became
an expatriate.

I saw him in Yugoslavia,
but it was pointless.

You know, he was gone,
it was no longer a story.

I knew Zita. I knew her
personally, and she was a nice girl.

But, who knows
what he did there?

Joan had
gone to Hungary,

in 1995, to visit Bobby, when
he was staying in Budapest.

That's the last of our
family who had seen him.

Regina died in '96.

And my wife, Joan,
died in 1998,

from a cerebral hemorrhage,
no forewarning at all...

Died... within
a half a day.

It was a tragedy. His mother
dies, his sister dies.

Bobby was stripped of any family
support that he could hope for.

And when he was a man without a
country, he got worse and worse.

This is all wonderful news.

"It's time for the fucking U.S.
to get their heads kicked in.

"It's time to finish off
the U.S. once and for all.

"This just shows you that
what goes around comes around.

"Even for the United States.

He felt that he was above politics,

and could say whatever
he wanted to say.

And George Bush says, "No, you're
not. I can grab you, wherever you are."

United States citizen,
Robert, "Bobby" Fischer,

has been detained
by Japanese authorities

on alleged immigration law violations.

I got a collect phone
call from Japan.

"From who?" I said, or
he said, "Bobby Fischer."

Twenty-two years I haven't
heard from him, not anything.

But, he must have kept me
in the drawer or something.

So, I was not completely
forgotten when he needed me.

And, I went to Japan to
get this man out of jail.

When I saw him there,
it was on his birthday.

He asked me if I could
help him out, you know.

I said "I will see
what I can do."

Iceland has stood up and
offered him residency.

Iceland has stood up
and given him passport.

At the end, we, this small
nation of 300,000 people

intervened, and went against
the United States and Japan,

the two strongest
economies in the world.

And got him to Iceland.

Bobby Fischer!

Welcome to Iceland, Mr. Fischer,
how does it feel to be home?

Great, Great.

You're getting quite a hero's
welcome, did you expect this?

No I didn't. We've got
a car waiting for you.

This is your, uh, first time in
Iceland in quite a few years...

You weren't that thrilled
the first time around.

Think it will be better this time?

That is not true, I never...
You mean...

You mean, I didn't want
to play here originally?

Well... Yeah.

I explained all that. That was all a
CIA setup. I'll explain that someday.

We look forward to that.

Bobby Fischer, welcome to Iceland,
and thanks for talking to us.

Have a good night.

Sorry for
keeping you waiting.

How does it
feel to be a free person?

Oh, it feels great.

You got a wonderful country,
wonderful fresh air, very fine people.

Um, excellent food,
uh, plenty of room...

What's next Bobby?

I still want to do a
book showing how the...

1984-85 Karpov-Kasparov match
was pre-arranged, move by move.

They all say, "Oh, Fischer...

didn't write the book he said
he was going to write."

Yeah! But they don't say that
they stole all my file on it.

They don't say that they stole
several big moving boxes full of books,

that took me years
to accumulate.

What is your name?
Jeremy.

Jeremy, what?
Schapp.

Your father was Dick Schapp,
you were telling me last night?

Yes, exactly.
Yeah, I knew him yeah.

He rapped me very hard.

He said that, I don't have
a sane bone in my body.

I didn't forget that.

His father many, many
years ago befriended me.

Took me out to see I
don't remember what...

Knicks games.
Knicks games, and...

You were 12. Acted kind
of like a father figure...

And then later, like a
typical Jewish snake,

he had the most vicious
things to say about me.

I have to object, Bobby.
Okay. Go ahead.

Did you read the article where he said,
I don't have a sane bone in my body?

Honestly, I'm not sure if I read
it, but I know that he said it.

Yeah. And, and, honestly...

I don't know that you've done
much here today, really,

to disprove anything he said.

I met Bobby
after he came to Iceland.

His existence was
a very lonely one.

He gradually, in Iceland,
like everywhere else,

he alienated people with his behavior.

I had two...
I had one huge safe...

We just walked around the pond,
downtown Reykjavik, and we talked...

and we had coffee
together, and...

Then, I met him a few times when I
ran into him in restaurants, etcetera.

The U.S. didn't give a damn
what their opinions were anymore.

Their role was over.

Now the bomb belongs to the
government, you understand?

This is... This is...
And, and they were...

And they were shocked.
They didn't believe it.

Listen to me, if we are going to
have a fucking conversation Okay...

All right? Then this cannot
be a monologue. Yeah, okay.

He, uh, could not...

tear himself from the topic
of the evil nature of the Jews,

and the evil nature
of the United States

or the evil nature of Nuclear power.

He talked about this relentlessly.

And, you couldn't... really couldn't
pull him out of that discussion.

It was not just that he
was talking about it.

It was also the obsessive-compulsive
nature of the discussion,

the relentless nature of it.

You don't see how fucked up the
world is, that's a form of insanity.

The last
time I ran into him...

I turned him away from my table,
because I had gotten enough of him.

Most of us, think within
relatively narrow boundaries.

But, an occasional individual
manages to get outside of the box.

Those are the people
who make new discoveries.

Those are the creative people.

But, occasionally, it is
difficult to get back into the box.

The king moves,
takes the queen...

His genius and his illness
are joined at the hip.

I don't think that Bobby could have
been as creative, as extraordinary,

without being extraordinary
in other aspects.

And that aspect,
we call a disease.

I don't consider
myself to be...

A genius at chess.

I consider myself
more to be, uh...

A genius who just happens to
play chess, you understand?

So, I could be doing any...

I could have done, and I can do any
number of other things, you know?

You know I always wanted
to write some songs.

I was telling Evans, uh, Larry Evans.
This was back in the 60's, I remember.

I said, you know, I listen to all these
songs. I wish I could write them...

But, I try to write something.
I try to think of something,

and, I guess,
nothing comes out.

And, he says, "Yeah, because
you haven't lived... "

And I started
thinking about it, he's right.

My chess library, all my
other regular library...

All my personal correspondence,
all my chess sets...

All kind of stuff, everything
just stolen. Everything...

He died from his
psychiatric illness.

He did not want to accept treatment
for benign prostatic hypertrophy.

He refused dialysis,
I understand.

Probably could have prolonged
his life, if he had taken it.

I was able to get him a photograph
of Regina and Joan to have with him,

which is what he had with him
in the hospital when he died.

Reportedly, Fischer's
last words were...

"Nothing is so healing
as the human touch."

The Former World Champion of
Chess, Bobby Fischer has died.

His career reached its height
during matches with his

nemesis, Boris
Spassky, back in 1972.

American chess superstar,
Bobby Fischer, has just died.

Former World Chess Champion
Bobby Fischer has died.

Considered by many as the
greatest chess player of all time.

Bobby Fischer dead
at the age of 64.

Just his games,
that's his monument.

His games.

If you love an art...

Let's say, you love painting.

Imagine if Picasso had died
after only five years of work,

and all the rest of his
works had never appeared.

This was a tragedy for
the whole chess world.

He did it all by himself.

He penetrated the secrets of chess,
in this shabby Brooklyn apartment.

He was the best player
who ever lived.

Bobby Fischer.
Sound Roll 3.

Right.

Speed.

Bobby, uh...

You've been playing this game
since you were 6 years old.

And, playing it very seriously
since shortly after the age of six.

Did all this concentration, to the
exclusion of other activities...

Did this bother you? Do you think this
deprived you of anything growing up?

Maybe, yeah, yeah,
to some extent, yeah.

Like what?

Well, it would have been better,
you know, a little more balanced...

Yeah, maybe, you know, a little
more rounded, but what can you do?