Khariton reaction on �Bobby Fischer�s Pathetic Endgame� and "Files reveal how FBI hounded chess king" -- Flambers Drugstore Archives

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Date Posted: 05:32:22 11/27/02 Wed
Author: Todd
Subject:

Khariton reaction on �Bobby Fischer�s Pathetic Endgame� and "Files reveal how FBI hounded chess king"

200 Words
by Lev Khariton

November 27th, 2002
Stubbornly as ever, the chess world is refusing to hold out a friendly hand to Bobby Fischer, alienating him more and more into the Kingdom of Phantoms! This is what I can gather from reading various mail and postings at different sites. Much attention has been focused on Fischer in the recent weeks owing to extensive publications regarding his FBI files and, more particularly, the on-line publication of the article �Bobby Fischer�s Pathetic Endgame� by Rene Chun at the Atlantic Monthly.

The overwhelming majority of on-line mail centers mainly on Bobby stonewalling Karpov before their un-played match in 1975 � forgetting that the chess world has been stonewalling Bobby since time immemorial until this day! Most of Bobby�s critics, apart from customary hysteria over his radio pronouncements, go into the fuzzy statistics trying to compare the relative strengths of Fischer and Karpov in 1975 and in the later years between Fischer and the Karpov-Kasparov tandem. Alluding to an interview he had taken from Tal in 1988, Mr. John Tomas remarked: �Tal opined that Fischer was stronger than Karpov in 1975. He also said that by 1985 both Karpov and Kasparov were stronger than Fischer had been in 1972�. Correct, Mr. Tomas! Doubtless, the first part of Tal�s statement is 100% right. However, as to the comparison between Fischer vs.Two K�s, I think that Karp & Kasp together, as a team, were probably stronger than Fischer! Most likely, this is what the ever humorous Tal meant!

Out of the host of postings I would like to choose the one I would like to call �a ray of hope� from Mr. Richard Boltuck at www.chesscafe.com (Bulletin Board): ��we should be less offended at the meaningless and isolated ramblings of a disturbed person and more sympathetic to the plight of someone whose early success has sheltered him for decades from the help he really needs. I can only imagine the pain he must live with every day�. Great words, great understanding, great feelings!

Do you remember the wonderful film �The Unbearable Lightness of Being�? As regards Bobby Fischer, I would like to paraphrase it a bit: �The Unbearable Hardness of Being�! All his life he has been living between Scylla and Charybdis of his enemies on both sides of the Atlantic. Oversensitive and fragile, he finally broke down. We owe him a lot � for our indifference and arrogance, superficiality and cruelty.

Tim Krabbe, the noted chess writer, once remarked ( I do not remember the quotation exactly) that if he were caught in the Holocaust, Bobby would be the guy he would hide together, although Bobby would not understand that the Holocaust was on! If Tim could only lend us some of his generosity and humor!

November 22nd, 2002
�He was the ultimate cold warrior, humbling the mighty Soviet chess establishment through his own genius and a pounding ambition to be the greatest player in the world�. HE, the 11th World Champion Robert James Fischer!

This is what �The Philadelphia Inquirer� published on November 17th revealing the bombshell news about the FBI that was keeping secret files for 30 years on Bobby Fischer and his mother Regina.

The irony of fate: the US government that was always accusing other countries, and primarily the Soviets, of spying on their citizens and violating human rights was keeping tabs on the innocent chess player, the glory of the United States!

The chess players, it seems, are an unlucky lot. Mikhail Tal, Fischer�s friend and rival, was barred, at some point, from traveling outside the Soviet Union on account of his messy marriages. Finally, to prove his loyalty to the Soviet leaders, he had to work as Karpov�s aide in the Baguio match against defector Viktor Korchnoi. Although, deep down, his sympathies were with Korchnoi. Back in the 30-s Mikhail Botvinnik, saving his life, signed the letter written on his behalf by KGB agents to Stalin to glorify the �father� and the �teacher�. Paul Keres, the great Estonian player was thwarted by the Soviets for playing chess on the territories occupied by the Germans during the Second World War.

In a country boasting of Justice, the greatest chess genius, who single-handedly submerged the whole Soviet chess machine, was subjected to the most humiliating procedure: FBI files on him were piling up from year to year. �When I won the World Championship in 1972, the U.S. had an image of a football country, a baseball country. No one thought of it as an intellectual country�, said Fischer. Who thinks of it as an intellectual country after the latest revelations?

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