The Myth

A perverse eulogy.

I was very saddened by Bobby Fischer's death. Bobby inspired all the young American players of his day and put American chess on the map. From the beginning, his eccentricities pointed to the existence of serious psychological scars from childhood. Had he not been a famous public figure he might have been lucky enough to find people who would take his erratic behavior as symptomatic of an underlying unhappiness and try to help him, but because he was a celebrity he became a symbol and a fair target for political "enforcers." I have to wonder to what extent his early death was caused by mistreatement at the hands of authorities of various lands, including his native United States. I can understand people being outraged by his political outbursts, but Americans come from a society that prides itself on refusing to jail people for either psychological abnormality or outlandish opinions. To engage in a relentless search for ways to hound him without technically violating our Bill of Rights is cruel and reveals contempt for the Bill of Rights. My impression is that the rival he never faced, Anatoly Karpov, is among the many players who have expressed disapproval at the way Fischer was persecuted at the end of his life. Only the kindness of Icelanders spared this artistic genius from meeting his demise in wretched solitary confinement in an American jail cell.

Political "enforcers" being those people who (naturally!) enforce American and international law, I suppose. Bobby Fischer was not mistreated by anyone, much less the United States. He didn't even arrive here, having been taken in by a shameful Icelandic government that would rather harbor an anti-Semite criminal exploiter of war-torn areas than respect the laws of a civilized nation. And the myth continues - that Bobby Fischer was a political target, hunted down because of things he said in 2001. But of course this is nonsense, as anyone with a mind that isn't deranged can discover very easily. Bobby Fischer was a criminal long before his anti-Semite, anti-American ramblings after 9/11, so the very notion that he was pursued for such speech requires a theory of the space-time continuum that is currently incompatible with known science - i.e., that the United States government, having traveled forward in time and knowing what a racist buffoon Fischer would become, charged him with a crime in the past.

Peter Henderson, what color is the sky in your world?

The idea that the United States was searching for ways to hound Fischer (again, enforcing the law = hounding, for some reason) is absurd. Fischer was a nothing to the government, a common criminal with no respect for his country or its laws. He wasn't hounded and nothing approaching a violation of his rights occured. Stop this nonsense. Bobby Fischer was a criminal for what he did, not for what he said.

Anatoly Karpov? I was going to say something critical of him but some agents have my family and won't release them until I lose a match to him. Oh, Anatoly, you so crazy!

I don't see why Fischer would have been given solitary confinement for tax evasion, but then, I'm not psychotic like Mr. Henderson. Further, it must be rather embarrassing for Mr. Henderson to discover that Bobby Fischer actually refused treatment, and in prison he might actually have been forced to receive treatment, so if anything, his life would have been much better and longer in an American prison. But then, Mr. Henderson probably has no further to sink in his ignominious praise for a crackpot thief.

May Bobby Fischer have found the peace of mind he lacked in life. No more eulogies for the evil. Requiescat in pace.