[Marxism] Chess King Bobby Fischer Dies

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

King Bobby Fischer Dies
by Abel Gonzalez
Cuban News Agency
January 18, 2008

The King is dead! Long live the King! With these words, and a shake of
hands, Enmanuel Lasker, the defending World Champion, graciously
acknowledged his defeat to the great Cuban Maestro Jose Raul Capablanca
in Havana, 1921. Today we paraphrase that immortal statement to say our
grieving farewell to one of the greatest chess players of all times,
Robert "Bobby" Fischer.

Reykjavik, the city that gave Bobby Fischer shelter during his last
years, saw him die Thursday, January 17. His own country, The United
States of America, had outcast him over a decade ago for his political
points of view, when he defied the US embargo against former Yugoslavia.

In 1992, Fischer played his second long awaited match with Boris
Spasski, whom he had defeated 20 years before for the World Chess
Title. The American establishment never forgave him for his continuous
shows of irreverence towards absurd US foreign policies. His attendance
at Havana's 1966 Chess Olympiad, his outspoken critics against the
Vietnam War, his dubbing President George W. Bush "a criminal" gave
him the reputation of a "bad boy" in the eyes of the United
States.
Bobby Fischer was like that, brilliant and irreverent, both in life and
at the chess table.

Capablanca, Alekhine, Kasparov and Fischer are to chess what Pele, Di
Stefano, Cryiff and Maradona are to soccer. Others may play well,
become world champions, beat everybody that face them, but this group
of players are on a higher level, untouchable, impeccable, outstanding.
Fischer earned his position among these elite with his extraordinaire
performance in every tournament he attended.

Havana still remembers this young bearded man, dressed like a rock
star, who could not stand still in his chair and amazed his opponents
with his fast moves, careless sacrifices, his devastating endings, and
his sound strategies. He won the first table in such a way that experts
were left openmouthed. Nineteen straight victories in the same amount
of matches prepared the ground for his challenge to the World Champ,
Russian Boris Spasski. Once more experts were fooled by his looks and
nobody saw what was to come. He did not defeat Spasski, he crushed him
quickly and sent him to an early retirement. And Fischer became the new
King.

In 1975, the new Russian rising star, Anatoli Karpov challenged the
almighty player. And once again, Fischer amazed the world and his fans
by literally disappearing from the face of the Earth. The title had to
be disputed in a tournament and Karpov was the winner.

The world was left with a sense of emptiness. There is even a movie 
titled "Looking for Bobby Fischer", which expresses the longing we=
all felt for the man who was the paradigm of talent and naughtiness, all in
one. Everybody was thrilled when he reappeared and played Spasski in a
match that was followed, move by move, by millions of fans all over the
world. After that we only heard sporadically of him in headlines like
these ones: Fischer caught trying to go to the Philippines,
Fischer calls W. Bush a criminal, Iceland givespolitical
asylum to Bobby Fischer. And just yesterday he died.

It is still hard to believe that the King is dead. Or maybe he is not.
Perhaps it is just another of his never-ending jokes. On behalf of
chess players and fans we tell Fischer: Farewell Bobby, we will always 
love you


====================================
Walter Lippmann
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
====================================

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