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Recently
a Dutch TV documentary on Fischer was broadcasted (February, 2003 NOS
Studio Sport, “Bobby
Fischer, de dolende koning” (The wandering king). It was done
well and I
couldn’t spot any factual mistakes, which is quite unusual
for TV
documentaries on chess, or probably on anything. How nice to see these
old
images of Fischer and the other greats. I was particularly touched by a
short
scene at a Yugoslavian Tournament (Candidates’ 1959? Bled
1961?) where Fischer
was shaking hands with Tal,
...
who was splendidly young and
energetic, the
brilliant Magician of Riga, at the start of the game. The makers of the
documentary tried to find the origin of Fischer’s current
anger with the world
and with Jewry in his youth. One of the examples they came up with was
his match
against Reshevsky in 1961, which was sponsored by Jacqueline
Piatigorsky, wife
of the well-known cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. With the score at
5½-5½, the 12th game was scheduled to start on Saturday,
not at the usual 7.30 PM, but at 9 PM, because Reshevsky wouldn’t
play on the Sabbath. Then, when people realized that the game might end
quit late, it was rescheduled to 1.30 on Sunday afternoon. But at the
instigation of Mrs. Platigorsky, who didn’t want to miss either
the game or a concert of her husband’s scheduled to take place at
that time; it was changed again to 11 AM.
To this last change, Fischer did not agree. He protested, failed to
show up, forfeited the game, and then refused to continue the match.
Later Fischer took Reshevsky and the American Chess Foundation to
court, but nothing came of it and a few years later the case was
dropped.
I don’t believe an incident like this can really explain
Fischer’s present state, but it serves to remind us that he was
indeed often treated badly. I think Fischer was completely in the right
there. For someone who is used to getting up late, 11 AM is an awful
time to start a chess game. It was not in his contract and the reason
given - Mrs. Platigorsky wish to attend both the game and
her husband’s concert – was trivial.
But according to Brady, the entire American chess establishment was
against Fischer at the time. With radio, television and newspapers
almost universally condemning him as a spoiled brat. After this, it
really seems uncharacteristically for Fischer to agree to play in the
Piatigorsky Cup tournament of Santa Monica 1966.
(..)
Sofia
Polgar spoke about the time when Fischer often stayed with the Polgar
family in
Budapest, and this touched on a strange riddle: how does he reconcile
his rabid
anti-Semitism with his personal relations with the Jews?
Long ago there was the story, told by Larry Christiansen, about Bobby
sitting in
the car next to his old friend Bernard Zuckerman and pontificating on
the Jewish
conspiracy. Zuckerman, who looks as Jewish as an anti-Semitic Nazi
poster,
humoured him by saying ‘Yes, bobby, right Bobby, the Jews are
terrible.
And in Budapest his friends were Lilienthal and the Polgar family. In
the
TV-film Sofia told us how the relationship ended. It was not that
Fischer,
having finally recognized that the Polgars were Jews, recoiled in
horror, or
that the Polgar family became fed up with his ant-Semitism. The reason
for the
break was a simul that Sofia gave at the American club in Budapest.
Playing for
America, that was the really unforgivable sin.
Hans
Ree, New in Chess, 2003 Nr 2.
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