Asri-unix.164
net.chess
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!mclure
Fri Dec 4 13:56:27 1981
Fischer comeback
Most people are sick of hearing about Fischer, but some new information
has come my way (some new, some old). Fischer gets his living money
from two places:
1) His match winnings from 1972
2) His wealthy friends
It seems that #1 has dried up almost completely, and was helped along
that path by Fischer's absurd donation of over $100K a couple years ago
to the Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena (Herbert W. Armstrong's
organization). He learned from that experience.
#2 is also drying up. Fischer's friends are getting quite sick of him.
Particularly his grating personality which wears thin on their nerves
after awhile. It would appear that they will soon decline to give him
any more money.
#2 has been confirmed by my tutor, a Bay Area master, very familiar with
Fischer's situation since 1972. Fischer is paranoid about people using
his chess talent to further their own monetary plans. He has been keeping
up on all current opening theory during his entire absence. Also, he
frequently visits Walter Browne's place up near Berkeley, when other
Grandmasters come over to play with him. He regularly wipes them out.
(Grandmasters aren't used to being wiped out.)
I feel that Fischer will be forced back into competition in order to
make ends meet. I also feel that he will be stronger than he was in
1972. At the end of each of his two prior self-imposed exiles he came
out much stronger than before.
Fischer, like Morphy, was a full Elo class interval ahead of the rest
of the mainstream; he was a half-class interval ahead of his nearest
competitor, also like Morphy (although we're interpolating in Morphy's
case). Very few people have studied Fischer's games, although many people
talk about them. Fischer's style is characterized by the deepest opening
analysis of any master in history. He knows his particular openings much
better than anyone else, having studied them through middle-game and even
sometimes deep into end-game. Of course he is also a superb tactician and
endgame expert. But perhaps more than anyone else, he has the greatest
will to win. In the Candidates just before the 1972 match, he destroyed
Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian (the first two 6-0, unheard of in master chess).
Taimanov and Larsen had to be hospitalized after their losses.
Petrosian says that the best game he ever played was the game he won against
Fischer in that Candidates.
If Fischer is forced back into competition, I feel that he will easily
get back into the World Champion cycle and eventually dispose of Karpov.
A Fischer-Karpov match would probably be the greatest single thing to happen
for American Chess in many decades. A win for Fischer might finally provide
him with enough money to retire permanently (at least $5 million).
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