Despite his
negative comment on
women there is no question about the important role women played in
Fischer’s life, in every aspect. To begin with his mother.
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In 1961 a
serious rift between mother and eighteen year old son developed. In
that year she
participated in a much publicized peace march from San Francisco to
Moscow.
After that she remained in Europe, where she married her second
husband, Cyril
Pustan, a college English teacher, and resumed her medical studies.
What led
to the battle between her and Bobby no one knows; neither one is in any
way
communicative. But sometime in his adolescence there was a terrible
fight, and
since then the two have allegedly not spoken to one another. Even when
Bobby won
the world championship, his lifelong dream, his mother was not present
to
congratulate him.
Ruben
Fine, Bobby Fischer's Conquest of the World's Chess Championship 1973
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The latest findings on
Regina in the FBI reports learned us much more about
her. It is striking how much she resembled her son, not only in his
honesty and
his fight for justice.
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The
Fbi
report found Regina as intelligent and bright, but also, in the words
of an
informant as “really unbearable”. One source
described her as
‘antagonistic’ and
‘quarrelsome’. All tenants in their flat in
Brooklyn
disliked Regina, and it was said that Regina had a “lawsuit
complex”. The
municipal psychiatric institute gave her the diagnoses of an
‘affected
(paranoid) personality, sickly complaining but not psychotic'.
From
“Bobby Fischer Goes To War”. By David Edmonds and
John Eiidinow"
Eidinow says that he and Edmonds, who are both
Jewish, came to the tentative conclusion that Fischer's future
antisemitism "was part of his rejection of his mother, with whom he had
a very turbulent relationship."
Forward
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Bobby
Fischer
His
mother
Her
relationship with Bobby got so bad that they could not live together.
In 1961,
she moved out, leaving her teenage son alone in a Brooklyn
apartment.
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The
complexity of the
mother-son relationship emerged in the 1962 Harper's interview. At one
point
Bobby displayed the anti-Semitism that would become his fixation in
middle age.
He said chess was peopled with too many Jews, who dressed poorly and
detracted
from the "class of the game." The interviewer asked, "You're
Jewish, aren't you?" "Part Jewish. My mother is Jewish."
From
“Life is not a board”. By Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson
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By
the end of her life, mother and son had
reconciled. Susan Polgar, a Hungarian grandmaster whose family
befriended Bobby
in the early '90s, said at the time that the two were speaking
regularly by phone, which is confirmed by this fragment from Petra
Dautov's book.
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“Moreover
I have to call up my mother,” explained Bobby. “She
had her birthday a few
days ago, and I did not yet reach her. She speaks good German; maybe
you want to
congratulate her too? She would be certainly happy with
that.”
“Very gladly. Which day is her birthday?”
“31 March.”
“The same day as me. Isn’t her first name
Regina?”
“Yes.”
“That’s my second name.”
“That’s magnificent. You have to tell her that. We
might as well visit her
once. She lives near San Francisco. My sister also lives
there.”
“I really would like to do that. You have a good
understanding with your
mother?”
“Oh, yes, very good. She is a little bit unusual. She always
carries plastic
bags along and gathers everything she finds. Then she permanently
searches
around in the bag, to see, what came together.
That sounded interesting.
“How come your mother speaks German?”
“She studied for some years in East-Germany. Actually she
wanted to go to
Cuba, but there she did not get a place. She studied medicine, probably
as the
oldest student in history.” He laughed.
“Where was she born?” I innocently asked.
His face darkened and reluctant he answered:
“in Russia. But she
wasn’t there for long”, he quickly to added. (..)
Petra Dautov, 1995, Ein Jahr
mit dem Schachgenie. P. 42
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More
about Regina Fischer
Joan
Fischer
Fischer's
(half-) sister, Joan
Fischer bought Fischer's first chess-set and took care of him in his
first years because his mother had to work very
hard. She accompanied Bobby in 1957, when he was
14, on his trip to Moscow and she visited him during his
match in 1972 in Reykjavik. It looks like they
had a good relation. In later life
(around 1985) Fischer even lived for a while at her
place. But then she threw him out because of his anti-Semitic views.
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My
interest was aroused, so I asked further: “And your sister?
You can get
along with her?”
“Not anymore. I lived for a while at her place, but then she
threw me out her
house.”
“Why that then?” I asked, shocked.
“She is crazy. She married a Jew, and I have told her the
truth about Jews.
"Isn’t it possible, that she married a Jew, because she
herself is
Jewish?” I knew it was a dangerous question.
“That’s what she and my mother keep up. But
that’s complete nonsense. No,
just he is Jewish, and she was absolutely foolish, to marry him. I have
tried to
open her eyes, time and again. Finally she said she would throw me out,
when I
did not stop. And that’s what happened.” He
laughed, a little bit shy. (..)
And how about your father?” I asked unwary.
Bobby’s expression completely changed.
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
It was the only time I saw him really disturbed and distracted, and I
never
tried to ask about his father again.
Petra Dautov, 1995, Ein Jahr mit dem Schachgenie. P. 42
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More
about Joan Fischer
In
1961, the year a serious rift between mother and
eighteen year old son developed, an incident with Jacqueline
Piatigorsky, wife of
the
well-known cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, took place. She wanted to attend
both the game and her husband’s concert. Mrs.
Piatigorsky asked Bobby to rearrange his game on Sunday. When he
refused he was
forfeited.
Jacqueline
Piatigorsky
A
year later, in his first major interview, Fischer expressed strong
opinions
about women. He withdrew from a chess tournament because a woman, (Lisa
Lane, USA woman
Champion) was playing in the event.
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"They're
all weak,
all women. They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess,
you know.
They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man.
There isn't a
woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."
1962,
Harper's Magazine
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It
seems that Fischer always searched for relations similar to the
relation he had with his mother and
sister. He loved it to
be "mothered" by a woman, even by women who were much younger then
him.
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He's
completely natural.
He plays no roles. He's like a child. Very, very simple.
Zita
Rajcsanyi (17 years old)
"After
the extensive appetizer followed the eagerly awaited spaghetti in Shell
sauce.
With a habitual assumption he pushed his plate towards me. By one of
our earlier
diners I had started, not
completely
unselfish, to cut up his noodle in small parts, because he
could not get
acquainted with the "roll-up" art and was in a constant battle with the
spaghetti.
I was pleasantly surprised, he wasn’t offended, but accepted
my offer
grateful."
Petra
Dautov, 1995, Ein Jahr mit dem
Schachgenie
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There
were several chess-mothers in Fischer's life, like Lina
Grumette, a Los Angeles chess
promoter, who managed
to bring Fischer back to the chessboard in 1970. Also Mrs. Saidy,
mother of Anthony Saidy, played a role in that event. Another
chessmother is Ruth Harring, a chess personality from San
Jose.
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“I
don’t think he’s any stranger then my own husband.
Chess
personalities in general are introverted. They don’t deal
with
social relationships well. But there is nothing wrong
with him, he is certainly not crazy,”
Ruth
Harring, 1983, Los Angeles Times
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But
the most important person in Fischer's life is
perhaps
Claudia
Makarow.
She was, like Fischer, a member of the
WCG and the “Pasadena
matron”, mentioned in the LAT article,
“who
allegedly censors his mail,
pays his rent and is the only person who always knows where he
lives”.
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On
the
way back Bobby called as usual Claudia and as always he ordered the
call on her
costs. She did not like that very much, and after she informed him
there
weren’t any new developments, she wanted to end the
conversation. Bobby cried:
“Wait, wait! I haven't finished yet” But
what exactly he had to discuss, wasn’t all that clear to him
and Claudia
simply put the phone on the hook. Bobby dialed immediately again, once
more
collect. As soon as Claudia heard his voice, she hang up another time.
This process repeated during my stay in Los Angeles in a similar form
almost
every evening. (..) .. She was obviously Bobby’s only
conversation
partner.
Petra Dautov, 1995,
Ein Jahr mit dem Schachgenie
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Fischer is
often portrayed as reluctant to be around women, that they intimidate
him and
that he does not know how to handle himself around them. Jeremy Silman
knew
Bobby Fischer around 1962.
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One
time we were at the beach and Bobby saw a pretty girl sitting by
herself. He
went up to her and said, "I'm Bobby Fischer, the great chess player."
It was a good opening gambit, but she had never heard of him. Her reply
made him
realise she was foreign, so he asked where she was from. She said,
"Holland." Bobby said, "Do you know Max Euwe?" (The Dutch
former World Champion). She'd never heard of him. Now Bobby had run out
of
ideas. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
Jeremy
Silman
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"Sometimes girls
write me. One girl in Yugoslavia sent me a whole slew of love letters.
I don't
know how she got my address. She was in a crowd watching me play. She
says when
I left there the stars fell out of the sky over Yugoslavia, or
something like
that."
1962,
Harper's Magazine
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Fischer
did not seem to be very interested in girls who wanted him for his
status as a brilliant chess
player.
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During
this 1970 stay in California, Fischer would often visit Ron and his
wife Marilyn at their home in Compton. During these visits, Bobby met a
friend of Marilyn's named Cindy who would sometimes give him a ride
back to his LA apartment at the end of an evening of chess and Chinese
food. When Ron asked him if he was interested in going out with her,
Fischer said no.
"Why not? She's really cute."
"Yeah. But she knows I'm Bobby Fischer."
Bobby wouldn't go out with women who knew who he was but he was too shy
to ask out the ones who didn't.
Ronnie
Gross, The Man Who Knew Bobby Fischer
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Because
of his well-known antipathy to girls, every time Bobby has a date it
becomes almost front-page news. Larry Evans got him a girl in
Argentina; he got married in Yugoslavia; he danced with a girl in
Iceland; the rumors are both silly and frequent.
Ruben
Fine, Bobby Fischer's Conquest of the World's Chess Championship 1973
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There
is another intriguing relation in Fischer's life. Miyoko
Watai,
president
and secretary general of the Japan Chess Association and a friend of
Fischer's
since 1973.
“He
was like a child,” said Ms. Watai. “Chess had been
his whole life, so he was
sheltered from the world in some ways. Once he made up his mind, he
would never
change it, no matter what anyone said. That didn’t always
make people happy.”
Watai
and Fischer have been living together since 2000, living in Watai's
home in Kamata downtown in Tokyo's Ota Ward. It was the start of their
de facto marriage. After Fischer's arrest the couple wanted to legally
tie the knot but the status of their plans is, since Fischer's release,
unclear.
Miyoko
Watai announcement to marry Bobby Fischer
"I am a
pawn, but in chess there is such a
thing as pawn promotion, where a pawn can become a queen," soft-spoken
Miyoko Watai, 59, said. "He is my king and I want to become his queen
so we can join together and win."
Watai
said she was not worried about a
report by a Philippine newspaper on Monday quoting a local chess
grandmaster as saying Fischer had a Filipino wife and a child living
there. "Bobby has said he has never been married until now, so I don't
think there is a problem," Watai said.
Reuters
Miyoko
Watai, 59, acting president of the
Japan Chess Association, said: "I didn’t know. Bobby has
never told me this. "I have asked him in the past if he had a child and
he never said anything. He told me that he is single."
The Scotsman
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Bobby
opened the door of the washing-machine and pulled out, to my
astonisment,
various things of Fine- to Cook Wash. “Have a look”
he said worried and hold
a perforated piece of material in front of my nose.“I
don’t know why but my
socks always get ruined in the washing-machine.” I took the
miserable remains
in my hand. “they are synthetic or something?” It
wasn’t exactly to
determine. “My acquaintance from Japan send them to me. I
also have shirts and
a nice jacket from her, but most of it is a bit small. You hardly find
my size
in Japan. And in the wash everything even gets smaller”. He
pulled a small
size cotton shirt out of the machine. “You wash everything at
60 degrees?”
“Of course, otherwise the towels don’t get clean.
And many other things”.
He seemed a bit embarresed and I could imagine which other things. “You
should wash a few things not too hot. Above
all the socks and perhaps the shirts not.”
Petra
Dautov, 1995, Ein Jahr mit dem Schachgenie, P47
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Chessbase
interview with Miyoko Watai
Petra
Dautov worked hard for his
come back in 1992. She wrote an interesting book
about her engagement with Fischer. "Merely
about Hitler and food"
does not give credit to the book. The
book is funny, it’s human and it gives an idea "how he really
is" (the subtitle of the book). One thing is peculiar. In her book
Petra
writes critical towards people (Jan Timman, Lothar Schmidt) who talk to
the
press about Fischer. But didn't she gave much more personal details
about Fischer then anybody ever
before?
Journalists were
curious
after the exact nature of the relation she had with Bobby Fischer but
she always
refused to answer "indecent" questions.
Here
you find an episode from "Ein Jahr mit
dem Schachgenie" where Fischer tries to share his interest in women,
from
an illustrated
magazine, with Petra.
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One-day
Bobby surprised me with a theme of a complete different matter. We had
made an
appointment for a “second breakfast”, and Bobby
came, despite the abnormal
early hour, towards me in a very good humor. We had hardly taken our
place, when
he grabbed his plastic bag, which he always took along when the
capacity of his
jacket bags were exhausted, and joyfully explained:
“I have to show you something”
I got anxious.
Unpleasant memories of our time in Los Angeles came back. “A
book?” I asked
carefully?“What? Oh no, just have a look.” He put
an illustrated magazine on
the table, of which the front-page showed in any case a girl one can
designate
as appearing in spare clothes.
That was not at all what I expected and I could just suppress
a laugh.
Anyhow I did not know how to deal with such a magazine. “You
like it, yes?”
he finally asked amused. That was a little bit exaggerated. He started
to page
through the publication, obviously feverishly searching for something
even more
interesting. Filled with enthusiasm he showed me an identical image.
“She looks good, yes?”
“Ah, I believe that I’m not the right person, to
judge something like
that.’
“Why
not?” he asked irritated. Now I really had to laugh.
“You know, maybe
you should have showed me some pictures of attractive
supermen.” His
disconcern amused me.
“Forget it”, he said, “I was just
joking.”
But after a while he seemed at ease and turned again towards the opened
magazine.
“Just have a look”, he requested me and pointed at
a next image. I did not
find it so amusing anymore. “Not my taste”, I said
therefore. That did not annoy
him. “Translate for me, what it says.”
I did him that pleasure and explained him a few lines, although it did
not make
much fun.
“The text is really not interesting.” That was even
very benevolently
formulated.
“But it says from which town she comes.” Apparently
he had a diligent
attempt to understand the German text.
“I hope you don’t believe everything, what is
printed in such a magazine? I
asked him, in unbelieve.
“But of course” Read on.”
“No really, for that you have to find yourself somebody
else.”
He teased me for quite sometime, but I did not let myself persuade,
because I
was convinced that when I gave in this time, it would not be the only
time. In fact
Bobby explained me at the end of our little discussion:
“You know, I buy this magazine every Friday. I get up extra
early and get it
right away at nine o’clock, when the shop opens…
You must be joking, I said. “But no, it’s true. I
get up at eight o’clock,
so I can have breakfast and be at nine at the shop.
Petra Dautov, 1995,
Ein Jahr mit dem Schachgenie
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More
about Petra Dautov
When
Petra Dautov left the scene Zita Raiczanyi, a
17-year-old fan
and Hungarian
junior, took over. She talked
Fischer, like Lina
Grumette in 1970, into playing the rematch in 1992. It is
said that Zita
Raiczanyi was the love of Fischer's life. Unfortunately for Fischer he
wasn't
the love of Zita's life. She truly must be a classy and very special
woman,
especially since she does not exactly resembles the beautiful woman
Fischer
seems so fond of. Or maybe she does?
 
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Pablo:
Why have you decided to live in Budapest, where you are right now?
Fischer: I like the mineral
bathes very much. It is really fantastic, and if you
come here, you should see the women, they got the most beautiful women
in the world. I
am not exaggerating, you see more beautiful women in Budapest in five
minutes,
then you see in a week in LA.
Pablo: Hahahahaha, really.
Fischer: When I say LA, I am
including Holywood and Beverly Hills, I am not
exaggerating , you got really sexy beautiful women with beautiful asses.
Pablo: We envy you.
Fischer: You look in
American movies, they always trying to take the camera's
away from the women asses, they have tiny asses, because of the
steroids they
put in the meat, because of the artificial pumpkin doughnuts and all
this
garbage. They have real food here.
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More about
Zita Raiczanyi
This
is what Yvette's husband had to say about Fischer's supposed
shyness with women:
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Bobby has a good eye for the ladies. We were at
a closing
ceremony (1992 match PvdH) and there were a lot of ladies swirling
around him and Bobby was
enjoying every second of it. I said to him, "How is it Bobby every time
I
see you, you are with a beautiful woman?" He looks at me and in a
nanosecond says, "I'm lucky here." He was having a really good time.
When he was around my lady friend Yvette, Yvette and he engaged in deep
discussions, she kissed him on the cheek good night and Bobby was just
very
happy, thankful and said how very pleased he was to meet her.
Schakend
Nederland, 1998
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Yvette Seirawan
Anchor:
He (Spassky) said that
if you had done something wrong he had done the same and should be put
into your cell with you. Fischer: I don't want him in my
cell. I want a chick. How about that Russian chick, what's her name,
Kosteniuk?
Anchor:
When you where in
highschool is it true that one of your classmates was Barbara Streisand?
Fischer: I heard this! I remember some mousy looking girl, maybe that
was her, I don't know.
Anchor: She was your best friend, according to the report.
Fischer: This I don't believe at all, no, no, no, not at all.
Fischer's
involvement with a Chinese woman: Justine Ong from the Philippines. A
remarkable story, confirmed by Tim Krabbe and Rene Chun. Fischer
selected Ong from several candidates, who were willing to carry his
child. The child, Jinky Ong, was born in the spring of 2001. Fischer
supports mother and child and it was said that he visited them every
two month.
Latest
news on Fischer's daughter
The
next conversation took place during one of the radio interviews,
September, 2000.
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Dagupan, September 8, 2000
Female caller: I have a question, not about chess. Sir, have you been
married first?
Fischer: No, I've never been married
Female caller: Has it perhaps?
Fischer: No.
Female caller: Would you like to get married? Ha, ha, ha ,ha.
Fischer: Yes, that would be very nice
Female caller: Do you have children?
Fischer: No. No, I don't have children.
Manila, September 26, 2000
Radio presenter: We have a question here from a female caller, a female
fan,
from the land of romantics: You never got married. You have someone
special today or not?
Fischer: Ha, ha, ha. I want to keep all the doors open here, if you
want to
confession me. (Big laughter)
Radio-presenter: Well, he is still handsome, ladies and gentlemen. You
saw him in the old pictures? He is still good-looking.
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