And what you say now? -- Flambers Drugstore Archives

[ 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, 8, 9 ]

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

Date Posted: 01:46:18 12/15/02 Sun
Author: Todd
Subject:

And what you say now?

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/4692424.htm

Posted on Sat, Dec. 07, 2002

Publicity puzzles Bobby Fischer relatives
RECENT STORIES FOCUS ON CHESS ACE, HIS LATE MOTHER
By Truong Phuoc Kh�nh
Mercury News

Though one is in exile and one is dead, chess king Bobby Fischer and his mother, Regina Fischer Pustan, are back in the media glare.

And their relatives, who by and large try to lead quiet, normal lives on the Peninsula, are left answering questions about communist ties, espionage, paranoia and paternity.

Last month, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that FBI files reveal that during the Cold War, U.S. intelligence agencies suspected Pustan was a Soviet spy and that Moscow might have tried to recruit young Bobby. The government concluded that neither was involved in espionage. This month, the Atlantic Monthly profiles Fischer in a piece titled: ``Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame -- Paranoia, hubris, and hatred -- the unraveling of the greatest chess player ever.''

The family is puzzled by the recent barrage of stories.

``To the best of my knowledge,'' said Russell Targ, Fischer's brother-in-law who lives in Palo Alto, ``there is no story.''

Nonetheless, it's clear that 30 years after America's favorite chess son defeated Soviet Boris Spassky in a world chess championship match, the obsession with Fischer hasn't waned.

Fischer, who played his last public match a decade ago, lives in Japan.

This summer, an amateur would-be chronicler of Bobby Fischer wrote a purely speculative piece theorizing, essentially, that Pustan's leftist political ideology damaged her young son. Frank Dudley Berry Jr., a deputy district attorney in Santa Clara County, posted his musings on the Internet and titled it: ``Was Fischer's Mother a Communist Spy?''

``It was provocatively titled,'' Berry said, a bit sheepishly. ``It has caused a little stir; someone in Czechoslovakia e-mailed me.''

The long piece, submitted in a chess chat room, concluded: ``His mental illness may have had its roots in an upbringing in a genuinely paranoid environment.''

From its investigations, the FBI, according to the Inquirer, concluded Pustan was paranoid but not involved in espionage. The files show that perhaps she had reason to feel paranoid: Agents hounded Pustan, read her mail, quizzed her neighbors and studied her canceled checks.

``I'm just her grandson. She's been dead for a number of years,'' Alexander Targ said. ``I knew her well; I never heard anything about her spying.''

He recalled his grandmother as eccentric but also a selfless humanitarian. Contrary to the FBI report, Targ said, ``She was not paranoid.''

In the 1930s, the teenage Pustan left the United States for the Soviet Union, where she attended medical school. She would return later for a peace march in Red Square in 1961, where she was pictured on Page 1 of the New York Times chatting with Nikita Khrushchev's wife, Nina.

A peace activist, Pustan was a pediatrician and spoke eight languages. She spent time on American Indian reservations as a doctor and helped run U.N. refugee camps in Honduras. She died in 1997 at the age of 84 in Palo Alto, where she had lived since the '70s.

Defying U.S. orders not to go to Yugoslavia, which was under U.N. sanctions in 1992, Fischer agreed to a rematch with Spassky. Fischer faces arrest should he ever return to the United States.

Family members dismisses the government's assertion that Pustan's first husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, may not be Bobby Fischer's father.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Truong Phuoc Kh�nh at tkhanh@sjmercury.com or (650) 688-7505.

email this | print this

Employment:

� Find a Job
� Post a R�sum�
� Post a Job

Automotive:
� Find a Car
� Sell a Car
� Weekly Specials from the Times

Real Estate:
� Find a Home
� Find an Apartment

Local Shopper:
� Search Classifieds
� See This Week's Sales from the Times
� Online Coupons
� Place an Ad

Featured Services:
� Find a Date
� Find a Hotel

Search Yellow Pages

SELECT A CATEGORY

OR type one in:

Business name or category

City

State
Choose a stateAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareWash DCFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisiannaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingAlabama

Get Maps & Directions
White Pages Search
Email Search

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

Replies:

Re: And what you say now? -- Peter van der Hoog, 11:58:43 12/15/02 Sun
- Re: And what you say now? -- Todd, 03:04:53 12/16/02 Mon
Re: And what you say now? -- Margaret, 15:25:52 12/15/02 Sun
- Never refer to Solzhenitzer, Rita, he is a fuckin Joo -- Todd, 04:02:06 12/16/02 Mon