Bobby Fischer on BBC 2 Friday 15th May 2020

[Paul Cooksey]

Team Robert Fischer is defaulting the bottom board

[David Sedgwick]

There was a Robert Fischer playing at Gibraltar this year, USA as well I believe. According to the FIDE list, born in 1960.
https://newratings.fide.com/profile/2008653

Anatoly Karpov gave a simultaneous display. Robert Fischer played him and drew.

[David Sedgwick]

Where

Thank you for making the corrections. Everything seems to be fine now

[MJMcCready]

I would imagine having such a name has certain advantages and drawbacks, who wouldn't want to say they've beaten bobby fischer.

[Geoff Chandler]

"Well I’ve seen the poor reviews by all who have seen the film and I was
expecting the worse. But it’s good. Yes there are loads of factual mistakes
but only chess players would notice or care about anything like that.

I suspect that half of the sad ones were trying to work out Fischer’s
grade during the picture. The other half were just looking for errors."


https://www.redhotpawn.com/chess-blog/t ... d-no-5.281

[John Upham]

But how many Bobby Fischers have there been?

With what date of birth ?

[Ian Thompson]

I'd back team Howell against team Adams (all time, player at their peak, 4 boards). Team Littlewood also has good strength in depth.

Team Petrosian, various spellings, looks like the one to beat with an all GM line up. In fact Team Tigran (various initials) Petrosian is formidable on its own, suggesting chess has greater cultural importance in Armenia than the USA

Team Polgar would be pretty good as well, and probably the best family team if Istvan Polgar is a close relative of the three women.

[JustinHorton]

Among current players Ivanov is the strongest surname I've found so far

[Richard Thursby]

Among current players Ivanov is the strongest surname I've found so far

Does that change if you take into account that a significant proportion of the population can't have that surname and extend it to include Ivanova?

[JustinHorton]

How would that change it from being the strongest

[Richard Thursby]

I'm not saying it would, merely that, given that Mr Ivanov's wife, daughters and sisters will have the surname Ivanova, the two names should be considered together when calculating strength.

[IM Jack Rudd]

There is, by the way, at least one woman with the surname Ivanov: https://ratings.fide.com/profile/427284

[Mike Gunn]

I enjoyed the film too, despite the historical and technical errors (I nearly fell off the sofa with astonishment when one of them said "check"). Anyway my major quibble was portraying Fischer as believing in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy in 1972 - I thought this (and his mental illness) came later?. I guess this was done for dramatic reasons.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Mike,

We have to remember the film had to take into consideration all the majority of non-players out there.
Saying check, tipping over Kings and tossing a chess set across the room (which happens in a lot film
even when chess is not the not theme. The set just happens to be there.) is what they expect.

My only real chess disappointment is Fischer playing 1.h4 h5 from a Russian mag.
Maybe one day I'll convince myself they did that on purpose to highlight that not all this film is true and factual

I expect history teachers have their own wee grumbles on their web sites every time a film about the Tudors comes out.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I enjoyed the film too, despite the historical and technical errors (I nearly fell off the sofa with astonishment when one of them said "check"). Anyway my major quibble was portraying Fischer as believing in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy in 1972 - I thought this (and his mental illness) came later?. I guess this was done for dramatic reasons.

Fischer made "dodgy" comments on Jews well before 1972, though that didn't stop him playing chess in Israel during the 1960s of course.

(something he would surely not have done once his psychosis fully asserted its grip)