English Chess Forum

Greetings all, as is almost always the case I am abroad and averse to lugging hundreds of books around with me all the time, and so the books I have on Fischer I do not have access too. There is something I need help with as I have looked on-line many times thus to no avail. If someone could provide any answers too anything below with quotes and citation, I will be very grateful indeed.

1) Was Bobby Fischer ever portrayed as or described as a believer in or product of' The American Dream'? If so by who, where and when?

2) Did Fischer ever concur himself? If so please quote him directly. On film, or alternatively, on paper is of course fine.

3) Did Fischer ever critique the concept of 'The American Dream' publicly or say anything about it at all? Again I don't have materials myself so citation is appreciated.

Please don't give generic answers like he was too interested in chess too care about the ethos of his home nation. It is his specific thoughts that I have almost given up trying to find. I do need to reiterate that it is, primarily, his usage of the term 'The American Dream' which is sought after although this of course rests upon the presupposition that it has been mentioned/referred to by him. Should that not be the case, then any comments upon the ethos of his home nation will just have to do I guess .

Many thanks for any help given. It will be gratefully received I assure you.

Mark

Robert J Fischer gave up attending school at 12 years of age. His mission in life was to defeat the Russians at chess.
You need a copy of " Bobby Fischer Uncensored ", by David de Lucia. He has scanned and printed many of his letters.
You will discover that he was only semi-literate.

Thanks, I'll look into that.

Could you please explain a little further by what yo mean when you say 'semi-literate'? Spelling badly off?

Yes, his spelling made him unemployable.
Just a few of the spelling errors in his letters.
Chess peices (sic). His opponent in the Candidates Match was Mark Tiamanov (sic). Dr. Euve (sic). If the Russians refuse, they should be forfieted (sic). Commitee (sic). Gennerally (sic). Phycology (sic). Beleive (sic). Reccomendation (sic).
He gave up trying to spell Manoeuvre; just left a squiggly line.

MJMcCready wrote:I do need to reiterate that it is, primarily, his usage of the term 'The American Dream' which is sought after although this of course rests upon the presupposition that it has been mentioned/referred to by him.

Nothing springs to mind other than the concept of "cheating Commies".

Presumably most of his published material was either ghosted or like MSMG transcribed from verbal comments.

Okay thanks, I will keep looking.

Gordon Cadden wrote:Robert J Fischer gave up attending school at 12 years of age. His mission in life was to defeat the Russians at chess.
You need a copy of " Bobby Fischer Uncensored ", by David de Lucia. He has scanned and printed many of his letters.
You will discover that he was only semi-literate.

Thanks, although I do wonder, given how heavily reliant we all are on spell-checkers these days, whether the current generation are any better than he was.

I'm sure I once saw something about him voting for Goldwater in 1964? (who was then seen as a lunatic rightist, of course)

Most of the current generation do not drop out of school at 12 & the government has extended compulsory education to 18 even though they cut the education maintenance allowance that was paid to 16 & 17 year olds a few years ago to get them until 18.

Can they spell without a spell-checker?

"I'm sure I once saw something about him voting for Goldwater in 1964? (who was then seen as a lunatic rightist, of course)"

He was on a loser there, nobody will vote for someone like that.

As for education, I know some teachers and they bemoan the fact that a lot of pupils actually write essays in "text speak". Surely Fischer could have used the American "maneuver"?

It easily misspelled but you'd have thought must have written it many times over thus wanted to be sure of its spelling at some point, oh well...

It's a common word in chess, but not really one a player usually needs to write much.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:It's a common word in chess, but not really one a player usually needs to write much.

I wrote a chess column for many years. My spelling has always been quite confident, but I know that I looked this one up a few times to be sure. Words with triple vowels are always tricky.