VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4], 5, 6, 7 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Sun, December 21 2003, 6:46:49
Author: Katerina
Subject: Translation(the second edition)
In reply to: Peter van der Hoog 's message, "Re: Idea!" on Sat, December 20 2003, 9:12:14

Eugeny Bebchuck, chess master
Both FBI and CIA have sat in a pool, or, how Bobby Fischer did not become a spy

On the Internet, and later in the number of foreign and our domestic newspapers the sensation appeared: it turned out that legendary Bobby Fischer and his mother were suspected of spying for the benefit of the Soviet Union for many years!

The facts from ostensibly disclosed files are following. First, the mother of Fischer, Regina, lived in our country from 1933 till 1938 and graduated from the medical institute. In Moscow she ostensibly has married to a German biophysics, and they together in 1939 (four years prior to birth of the son Bobby) have emigrated to the USA. And, naturally, it is implied, that the Fischers were send there by the powerful Russian KGB. Secondly, in opinion of the authors of the reports, Regina very much insisted on Bobby’s trip to Moscow for chess tournament in 1958 not occasionally: the son and his mother, as affirms, "were spiritually very close", and the FBI suspected Regina to be a Russian spy and wanted her son to come in Moscow, to fulfil some task for Russians. The FBI files, of almost 800 pages on Bobby’s mother, reveal that her son in Mosou "was interested in nothing, except for playing chess”. In the telephone conversations with his mother he did not say anything good about USSR. The report affirms also, that the FBI, after Fischer became the champion of the world, was finally convinced, he is not an agent of the KGB, and his file was closed.
”Fischer experts" added to the sensational news, that " 59-year-old Fischer almost does not play chess, lives outside USA - in Yugoslavia. His mother died from cancer in 1997 ". The level of knowledge of these experts is immediately clear.

To tell, that Bobby " almost does not play ", is even not ridiculous: for 27 years, past since the American genius of a chess became the champion of the world, it(he) has played in Yugoslavia companionable (but behind five millions dollars prize-winning) match with Boris Spassky in 1992 - and that is all! And categorically refuses to play even easy games. For last 20 years Bobby contacted a very few people. It was Spassky, Yugoslavian Gligorich, Hungarian Andre Liliental, Pal Benko and Portish. After the match with Spassky Bobby lived in Yugoslavia only for two - three months, then left for Budapest, having refused to deduct to America the tax from a prize. This is large crime, and the federal court has offered to the legendary champion to return home and " to execute the debt ". Bobby lived in the capital of Hungary for many years, where almost daily was on a visit at oldest grandmaster of the world Liliental. He analyzed with many positions, collected chess magazines, willingly spoke about game of wise men, but categorically refused to play chess!

Three years ago I was in the capital of Hungary, visited Liliental and had dinner with Fischer and him. We knew each other as early as back into the thirties, but Fischer approached me nevertheless extremely cautious and immediately questioned me whether I worked for the KGB. My senior friend has calmed him down, having told, that he knew me for forty years, and then Bobby changed his attitude to me. On my question, whether it is true, he was condemned in America for non-payment of taxes, he said unhappily:

- I had a difficult road in life myself, nobody helped me. America did nothing for me, and I brought glory to it. Hence I don’t have to pay anything. I was told that the president of USA is ready to forgive me, but I don’t need it and I’ll never come back there. All my life I was hated and pursued by the CIA, the FBI and the KGB.

- But they never acted together, - I tried to object.
- Sorry, but you have no idea of what it is all about. They have always worked together when it was in their interest. Even during "cold war ", - Fischer cut off.
As a whole highly estimating game Soviet chess players, Fischer said, that they frequently order itself " poorly, being united against me ". From those whom it(he) most of all respects, called Spassky, Keres and Tal, having added about the last one: "Despite he is Jewish... "
- And that, - I have asked innocently, pretending, what I do not know about Fischer’s alterations last years on the Jewish theme, - all the Jewish grandmasters are so bad?
- The depressing majority, -Fischer answered somberly. – They love themselves too much and do not love others...
- But, excuse me, you are friends with Andre Arnoldovich, for example?!
- He and Tal and a couple of others are exceptions. Both on talent, and on sincerity, and by the kindness, - Bobby said a bit softer.
And here I allowed an error, then my dialogue with the great champion was finished and hardly sometime will renew. I said:
- Excuse me, Bobby, but they say that your mum, Regina was a Jewess too...
Fischer stood up, made an arm gesture, as at lack of air, and cried out to Liliental something in German (as was found out, "You understand your friends badly, grandmaster"), and escaped! I stayed in Budapest three days more, but didn’t see Fischer. Moreover, later I knew that Fischer, having taken offence towards the veteran and did not visit the Lilientals for some weeks until he forgave his friend... The incident also affected my friend- famous trainer Nikitin. A year later he visited the Lilientals and also had dinner together with Bobby. He asked Nikitin about me. Nikitin answered unsuspectingly, that we are old friends, then Fischer stood up from the table and left.
And soon my other friend - Vasukov - also visited Budapest, but we warned him about everything, and consequently the supper with Liliental and Fischer passed quietly. But their conversation was similar: "the CIA, the KGB... Now they want me to kill... "
And two years back, having learned that Hungary enters NATO, Fischer told Liliental: " I need to run, they will get me... " And soon he disappeared and made phone calls to his friends from... Japan: " Only here I can be rescued from their prosecutions ". He didn’t give them his phone numbers but promised "to call frequently".

But let us return to the other "facts". So, the mother of Fischer lived in our country for 6 years and even graduated from the medical institute... I doubt that. And here is why. When Bobby arrived to Moscow for a few days as a tourist( in 1958 indeed, but not for a tournament but , that, as he said it himself, " to play blitz with the champion of the world Botwinnik"), he was not alone, but with the sister Joana. She was 3 years older than Fischer and gave me a small interview. A fragment from it is here:
- Have you or your family ever been to our country?
- Bobby and me never been here, and my mum told me, that many years before our birth, early in her youth, lived in Ukraine for almost a year: there was a hunger at the time, and she, being a nurse, with a team of German medical experts helped to treat ill children.
- Then this your trip must be especially interesting to her...
- I do not know why, but she was for some reason against it. Bobby hardly managed to convince her. He only because he never saw Botwinnik and wanted to play with him.
- But Botwinnik never plays blitz!
- The brother it did not know. However, you see, he in the whole afternoon plays and with other chess masters.
That is true! Bobby palyed blitz with others all days long!

So the speculation that it was his mum that sent the son in Moscow, is rather doubtful. And in general it is known, that Bobby has always had a warm relation with his sister. She taught him to play chess. And the mother of the champion never came up anywhere and nobody saw her. American chess players many times said that Bobby had uneasy relations with her and that he never mentioned her... Alas, the beautiful legend about the mum Regina - agent of Kremlin and the son, spiritually close to her, does not work out.
So, it looks like that the mum really lived in our country for some time in her youth, but never studied at the medical institute, remaining a nurse up to the end of her life. It is also known Bobby never came back to the USA, and when the mother and daughter Carolina died soon after eachother, Bobby did not attend either of the funerals.

There is only one thing I want to add. There, in the West, and here we have enough "connoisseurs", cooking up any crazy stories for the sake of sensation. They forget, however, that many of us, the witnesses of near past are still alive and know and remember the true events. Fischer is an utterly complicated and controversial man, he has his own shortcomings. But to write about "dullness" of the real chess genius, the man who single-handedly studied four languages (including Russian, by the way), and who reached very high knowledge in many ranges by self-education, is at least not serious.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Post a message:
This forum requires an account to post.
[ Create Account ]
[ Login ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.