![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
: the 64th square
.
Bobby Fischer, dead at 64. In recent years, he's been an isolated anti-semitic nut (his mother was Jewish, by the way), but for a time he was our champion; the Van Cliburn of chess. I knew him from a column that ran under his name in Boy's Life, which was most likely ghost-written. Years later, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess came out and was one of the few chess books that made a swift and material difference in my playing. It uses programmed instruction to hammer a few key facts in. I picked it up while visiting my cousin, and immediately started beating him. He insisted on reading the book as well, and the balance was restored.
It's also said that as a child, he beat Ajeeb the Arab, a chess-playing pseudo-automaton (operated by a hidden player who was a former champion fallen on bad times, according to a possibly accurate report by cartoonist Kim Deitch) and brought home a box of cigars.
One day I was at David Mattingly's house, and we were playing chess. He told me he wanted to play Fischer and said he'd show me how he was going to do it. Two moves later, the game was over: Dave had put himself into the classic Fool's Mate. He seemed so surprised by this outcome that it never occurred to me that Dave, an accomplished actor, might have been pulling my leg.
.
.
Bobby Fischer, dead at 64. In recent years, he's been an isolated anti-semitic nut (his mother was Jewish, by the way), but for a time he was our champion; the Van Cliburn of chess. I knew him from a column that ran under his name in Boy's Life, which was most likely ghost-written. Years later, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess came out and was one of the few chess books that made a swift and material difference in my playing. It uses programmed instruction to hammer a few key facts in. I picked it up while visiting my cousin, and immediately started beating him. He insisted on reading the book as well, and the balance was restored.
It's also said that as a child, he beat Ajeeb the Arab, a chess-playing pseudo-automaton (operated by a hidden player who was a former champion fallen on bad times, according to a possibly accurate report by cartoonist Kim Deitch) and brought home a box of cigars.
One day I was at David Mattingly's house, and we were playing chess. He told me he wanted to play Fischer and said he'd show me how he was going to do it. Two moves later, the game was over: Dave had put himself into the classic Fool's Mate. He seemed so surprised by this outcome that it never occurred to me that Dave, an accomplished actor, might have been pulling my leg.
.