Why did Fischer hate Jews?

@greenpawn34 said

Regarding v Karpov, the general consensus among players who knew him and
players since seem to think that Fischer would have won in 1975 but not 1978.
A lot of it is based on the format of a 24 game match and how Karpov had a
mini collapse during his 1978 match v Korchnoi when the pressure got to him.
In 1975 the pressure would have been applied 10 fold by Fischer ...[text shortened]... lly to face Fischer and at his peak.
Fischer would have been older. The great unplayed match. Pity.

Ah yes, the greatest match never played. Objective playing strength equivalent; the match would have been decided on psychology, in my opinion. Karpov would have been under intense pressure, both from the man opposite the chess board, and from his Soviet minders. People who played Fischer said that playing him felt like taking a psychological beating, not only a beating over the board; Fischer was relentlessly aggressive. Furthermore, the Soviet system would have put great pressure on Karpov to re-assert Soviet dominance. My money would have been on Fischer in 1975.

My money would have been on Fischer in 1975.




I agree, though I believe Karpov was a bit stronger than Spassky by 1975, I think Fischer would still have won.

What I don't understand though is why when I asked here why Fischer hated Jews, 4 thumbs down appeared almost immediately. I was not trying to offend anyone here. I was just curious.

@mchill said


What I don't understand though is why when I asked here why Fischer hated Jews, 4 thumbs down appeared almost immediately. I was not trying to offend anyone here. I was just curious.

Fischer's legacy is hallowed ground, for some people.

@mchill said
What I don't understand though is why when I asked here why Fischer hated Jews, 4 thumbs down appeared almost immediately. I was not trying to offend anyone here. I was just curious.

It's not really a chess topic. And no... one wasn't mine.

@thaughbaer

I did give it a "thumbs down", precisely because it is not an "only chess" topic. I tried to add a Fischer game with the pgn viewer to add some actual chess to the thread to rehabilitate it, but got an error message. This thread should be in the general forum or the spirituality forum, not here.

Never bothered with these thumbs up/down things.

But out curiosity I gave it a thumbs down. Then tried to undo it.
Found I could not, so turned my T/D. into a T.U.

It does of course belong in a chess forum as Fischer was one of the
greatest players that the game has known. Sadly the game does have
a history of exacting a severe mental strain on some of it's great players.
Morphy, Steinitz and Rubinstein are other well known cases.

Of course we cannot ignore Fischer's ravings but we must understand
he was not a well man. That is the trouble with mental health troubles.
It is a disability that you cannot see.

@greenpawn34 said
Never bothered with these thumbs up/down things.

But out curiosity I gave it a thumbs down. Then tried to undo it.
Found I could not, so turned my T/D. into a T.U.

It does of course belong in a chess forum as Fischer was one of the
greatest players that the game has known. Sadly the game does have
a history of exacting a severe mental strain on some of it's grea ...[text shortened]... ell man. That is the trouble with mental health troubles.
It is a disability that you cannot see.

The Darren Aronovski movie, "Pi", about math-obsessed people losing their minds, comes to mind. It could just as easily be about chess players.

@nomorechess said
Karpov was going to crush booby Fischer in 1975 so booby ran away and it drove him crazy. 😉

No, there is a fine line between genius and schizophrenia and the schizophrenia he was fighting won. It is rare for a genius to have stable mind, especially playing a game where your opponent is out to get you.
I'm sure there are geniuses out there that seem very stable and are good at hiding their paranoia...... and let's face it, there is a lot to be paranoid about in this crazy world.

Paranoia.

Andrew Soltis on his book (page 9)
"Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Chess Champion."

Botvinnik was also extraordinarily suspicious.

"On the whole he seemed to me to a misanthrope.' said Averbach,
who became a his sparring partner in secret training games in the 1950's.

Botvinnik didn't expect anything good of people he met, he said.

He recalled visiting Botvinnik's 'dacha' (house) on a Sunday. Averbach's wife came
with a fresh cake from Moscow's Cafe National which was famed for it's confections. Everyone admired the cake when it appeared on the lunch table.

"But only at supper, when the cake again appeared on the table, did Botvinnik allow himself to eat it." Averbach said by that time he had convinced himself
that everyone who ate it at lunch was all right.