0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09I'm going to stick a knight here, it takes it off,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11it takes the bishop.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15So we took it off this bishop...
0:00:17 > 0:00:19..and he's threatening this pawn...
0:00:20 > 0:00:23I'm going to do this right away, play here first.
0:00:26 > 0:00:27Now he took the bishop.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31'Bobby Fischer is one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest chess player in the world.'
0:00:31 > 0:00:32Now to the rook.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36'Bobby Fischer, United States, world title contender.'
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Now, er, black surprised him with this move.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48'Bobby Fischer is an isolated man'.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52'Bobby Fischer's a strange man, people think there's something wrong with the man.'
0:00:52 > 0:00:55The king moves, takes the queen...
0:00:55 > 0:00:57'The great Bobby Fischer is here tonight.'
0:00:58 > 0:01:00'Like a child, not a champion.'
0:01:00 > 0:01:02'His social life is a vacuum.'
0:01:02 > 0:01:04'The most arrogant man you're ever likely to meet.'
0:01:04 > 0:01:06He takes back, it's checked.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07'Looking for Bobby Fischer...'
0:01:07 > 0:01:09'Whatever happened to Bobby Fischer?'
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Threaten this pawn and it's a lost game.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15'Bobby Fischer is searching for asylum.'
0:01:15 > 0:01:17'It's Fischer against the world.'
0:01:17 > 0:01:18And here, white resigned.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28Bobby Fischer interview.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32Right.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35Try not to tense up.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42Bobby, you've given virtually your entire life to the world of chess.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45What about Bobby Fischer, the man?
0:01:45 > 0:01:47What's he like?
0:01:47 > 0:01:49I don't know. Er...
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Chess and me, it's hard to take them apart, you know?
0:01:52 > 0:01:55It's just like my alter ego, you know.
0:01:55 > 0:01:56I don't really do anything else.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00But there are times when you get away from that chessboard, what do you do?
0:02:00 > 0:02:03I don't do too much. I'm really tied up with chess.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07I intend to expand but firstly, I get the title, basically.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Bobby, what does it take to make a good chess player?
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Talent, skill, patience, you have to study a lot, work.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32- What would your ultimate aim be? - I'd like to be world champion
0:02:32 > 0:02:38- and keep it for maybe 20 years or so?- 20 years!
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Fischer is to chess what Muhammad Ali is to boxing.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50CHANTING
0:02:53 > 0:02:57- Can Fischer beat the Russian?- Yes, Fischer will beat the Russian.
0:02:57 > 0:03:03- You honestly think that you probably are the world's greatest chess player?- Right.
0:03:03 > 0:03:04LAUGHTER
0:03:04 > 0:03:05In the 18-month period
0:03:05 > 0:03:08in the run-up to his challenge to Boris Spassky,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12Fischer had beaten, and some cases, destroyed,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16some of the best Soviet players.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Fischer was wiping away his opposition like flies.
0:03:21 > 0:03:27He went on a 20-game winning streak which was unheard of
0:03:27 > 0:03:28in championship chess.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Bobby Fischer was exciting not only the chess world, but the world.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37There's trouble in Northern Ireland.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42Henry Kissinger is shuttling to and from Vietnam.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46And, against that competition, the chess dominates.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Moscow today, the Soviet Chess Federation
0:03:49 > 0:03:52called an angry news conference to denounce Bobby Fischer...
0:03:52 > 0:03:55General Motors recalls 500,000 Chevrolet Vegas
0:03:55 > 0:03:56and Bobby Fischer...
0:03:56 > 0:03:58..true to his recent erratic behaviour...
0:03:58 > 0:04:01..finished off Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03a former world champion,
0:04:03 > 0:04:04is the best news story of the day.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08The victory gave Fischer the right to play the world's champion,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Boris Spassky, another Russian, next spring.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17We all had hopes, we all wanted him to be world chess champion.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20The one person he was yet to beat was Boris Spassky.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29You said it's your title the Russians are holding.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31You don't like the Russians?
0:04:31 > 0:04:35The Russians have cheated at chess, they find every way to avoid me,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37to avoid giving me a chance for a match.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41And they have slandered my name, and you know,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44they just get afraid of me, they have been for years.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48- That's the true story.- And now you're going to get them?
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Well, now I'm going to try to get them, yeah!
0:04:53 > 0:04:57The Soviets had been winning these tournaments
0:04:57 > 0:05:00and I thought it would be good for America,
0:05:00 > 0:05:05for democracy, to have an American winner.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The stakes really couldn't be much higher, politically,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16popularly, in people's minds.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21These were two enemies, who were not fighting a real war
0:05:21 > 0:05:25but were trying to outdo one another strategically all the time.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27'We will not tolerate being pushed around...'
0:05:27 > 0:05:32'We have a desire and the material assets to deal with the Soviet Union.'
0:05:37 > 0:05:39This little thing with me and Spassky,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43you know, with bombs coming out of the board...
0:05:44 > 0:05:48One of the superpowers, the Soviet Union,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52had made chess its national sport.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57They had spent unlimited amounts of money,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00they had hundreds of grandmasters.
0:06:00 > 0:06:06They won every tournament, every chess olympiad.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12MAN TALKS AND SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:06:15 > 0:06:19For a communist regime, keeping the crown was very important,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21er, ideologically.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25The communist state took over chess to use it
0:06:25 > 0:06:30as proof of intellectual superiority over decadent West.
0:06:30 > 0:06:36Everybody knew that the crown has to remain in the Soviet Union.
0:06:49 > 0:06:50APPLAUSE
0:06:50 > 0:06:56In the Soviet Union, everybody of talent was cultivated,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59was given financial help, coaching.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03All the top players were privileged people.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06In the United States, we didn't have any of that.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Every single one of us was on his own.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14And here came this lone American,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18combating the might of the Soviet chess machine.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21National prestige was at stake.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Officials recognised that he was representing not only him,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27but the entire free world.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31I think there was just too much on his shoulders.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Can you tell us how old you are and where you're from?
0:07:42 > 0:07:45- I'm 15, from Brooklyn.- He's 15 years old and he's from Brooklyn.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47- All right? - AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!
0:07:47 > 0:07:49LAUGHTER
0:07:49 > 0:07:52Will you show your headline to camera three and to Dick Clark
0:07:52 > 0:07:57because we'll make him go to work on you! It says, "Teenager's strategy defeats all comers!"
0:07:57 > 0:08:03- This strategy, did it involve the finances?- No.- Did you have any help?
0:08:03 > 0:08:06- No.- Did it all by yourself. Did it make people happy?
0:08:06 > 0:08:08Made me happy!
0:08:08 > 0:08:10LAUGHTER, BUZZER
0:08:10 > 0:08:13This young man's name is Bobby Fischer
0:08:13 > 0:08:18and already, he is the United States Chess Champion!
0:08:18 > 0:08:20He is 15 years old and he has defeated the masters,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24he is the United States champion in chess.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30I met Bobby when I was 14 and he was 8,
0:08:30 > 0:08:35in one of the chess clubs in Manhattan.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37He was the youngest kid around.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40He was unassuming, he was well-mannered,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42he was a nice kid.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47His mother, Regina, she was a woman who had to work two jobs,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50single mum, supporting two children,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52Bobby and Joan.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Regina was really the genius of the family.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00She spoke quite a number of languages,
0:09:00 > 0:09:05including Russian. She worked as a telegraph operator, a nurse,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10a welder, she actually got a PhD in haematology as well.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15She was an activist, she was a communist.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18The FBI files on her are quite extensive.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22His mother was hounded by the FBI
0:09:22 > 0:09:25because they thought she was possibly a Soviet spy.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30This was a period when few communists were acquitted.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35So, his mother denied his Jewishness.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39His mother told him... He would be sitting on the stoop,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41somebody would come up to him and ask him a question,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43he'd say, "I have nothing to say to you."
0:09:43 > 0:09:47That was the proper answer that his mother told him to say.
0:09:50 > 0:09:51You're from Brooklyn originally?
0:09:52 > 0:09:57Chica... Well, born in Chicago, moved to Brooklyn when I was about six, so lived on the coast...
0:09:57 > 0:09:59Were you playing chess by then?
0:09:59 > 0:10:02I learned in New York.
0:10:02 > 0:10:03At what age?
0:10:05 > 0:10:08- Six.- When did you start to get serious about chess?
0:10:08 > 0:10:10About when I was maybe seven!
0:10:11 > 0:10:16If you can think back to your childhood and all the things you did
0:10:16 > 0:10:17after school and on the weekends,
0:10:17 > 0:10:21and imagine just filling all that in with chess study, chess lessons,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24chess practice, chess competition.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33Sure, Bobby Fischer starts with a very exceptional mind.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38But genius is not only about a particular innate gift for X,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40genius is about a desire to do X.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43It's about a willingness to sacrifice.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48It's about an ability to develop that kind of obsessive interest
0:10:48 > 0:10:50in perfecting one's ability to do some task.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55People who've studied expertise have looked at classical music composers,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58at surgeons, at chess players,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02interested in figuring out what do high achievers have in common.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05They have always, almost without exception,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09put in 10,000 hours of deliver of practice first.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28That love component is such an enormous part of the achievement
0:11:28 > 0:11:29of any kind of genius
0:11:29 > 0:11:34because if it's dutiful, there's no way you can be that obsessive about it.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36There was nothing else he would rather do.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44I started playing games with myself.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46'I would make the white moves and the black moves...'
0:11:46 > 0:11:47Threaten this pawn...
0:11:47 > 0:11:52'..play through the whole game and eventually I'd checkmate the other guy.'
0:11:52 > 0:11:54I almost always won!
0:11:54 > 0:11:55'..white comes out with the knight...'
0:11:55 > 0:12:00Then my mother started to get worried that it wasn't healthy,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02playing chess by myself all the time.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05'Now, black surprise with this...'
0:12:05 > 0:12:10Regina was so worried that she decided to take him to a psychiatrist
0:12:10 > 0:12:15and the psychiatrist said, "Don't worry, there are worse things to be obsessed by than chess."
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Everybody said to him, "What happened?"
0:12:25 > 0:12:27He said, "One day, I just got good."
0:12:27 > 0:12:30He was suddenly out of everyone else's league
0:12:30 > 0:12:32and everybody knew it.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Fischer would open a chess magazine, like this...
0:12:35 > 0:12:39He would open it like this, "Hmmm, OK, here...
0:12:39 > 0:12:43"here...OK, here...
0:12:43 > 0:12:46"OK, here..."
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Now, it looks like he's just looking at the pictures, that's what you think he's doing.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55No, he's not doing that. He's playing through the entire game in his head
0:12:55 > 0:12:58in a few seconds, every move.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02He went from being my peer in chess
0:13:02 > 0:13:05to being the United States Chess Champion.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07A quantum leap.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13That's when he first became famous. This is 1958.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21No chess player ever made much money in those days.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23My father basically arranged an exhibition tour for him,
0:13:23 > 0:13:25in which he went from city to city,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30playing anywhere from 40 to 80 people at a time.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33I don't know how much he got, maybe 5 a board.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54Regina decided that this was a way to the big time.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59She'd call me up and say, "I want Bobby to go on Channel Two
0:13:59 > 0:14:04"on Sunday, and he won't do it if I ask him, so I want you to tell him!"
0:14:04 > 0:14:09He just wanted to learn the game and she really wanted him to get publicity.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14Fame is definitely a mixed blessing.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19Almost everybody would admit that at some point in their life, they'd wished they had it.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24Once it starts, it's fun, and the fun quickly wears off
0:14:24 > 0:14:28when you want to be alone, in private and public, if that's ever possible.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31But also, it's horrendous on the psyche for the young,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33because it totally destroys their world.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39He had all these people around who wanted a piece of him,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43if they only wanted to be in his glow.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48And people have all kinds of motives, not always in his favour.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53They're trying to make money out of him, be associated with him, they're talking behind his back.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56He couldn't stand that, particularly he couldn't stand the press
0:14:56 > 0:14:59because he was such an individual,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02he was an ideal object for caricature.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13- Do you watch television? - No, not much.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17- Why?- I don't know, I read that you get a little radiation from them.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21I don't know, I've talked with a few scientist friends of mine,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25they say you do, you get a little bit. They don't think it's dangerous.
0:15:25 > 0:15:26What kind of magazines do you like?
0:15:26 > 0:15:29My favourite magazine is Confidential,
0:15:29 > 0:15:30I read that all the time.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32Why do you like that?
0:15:32 > 0:15:35They've got a lot of the inside stories
0:15:35 > 0:15:39on things like water pollution, it's pretty interesting.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43I like, read up on that, a lot of things the government is concealing.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48'Fischer looked at the world his own way.'
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Bobby was not socialised the way the rest of us were.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57Every idea he had virtually had to come to him through his own thinking.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01In these days, he was unusual
0:16:01 > 0:16:04but he hadn't gone off the deep end yet.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Boxing champions have been coming to the Catskill Mountains of New York
0:16:12 > 0:16:14for almost half a century to get in shape.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18But does a chess champion need to train physically?
0:16:18 > 0:16:24Take a look behind that window, into the training headquarters of Bobby Fischer.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Championship chess is a physically exhausting game.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34More than just a test of mind and will,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36it is a contest of physical endurance too.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39VOICE ON TV: Stretch! And rest...
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Bobby is 29 and he lives virtually a monastic life.
0:16:42 > 0:16:48He lives alone, always in hotel rooms that seem barely larger than chessboards.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51A lot of the time, he won't even answer his telephone.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53The television set is his window on the world.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56Exercise is part of it.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59I'm a world-class, Olympic-level coach.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02I'm also a world champion in the bench press
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and I've trained a lot of celebrities
0:17:04 > 0:17:08but no-one can match the fabulous Bobby Fischer.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11He was interested in the human body,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15how it performed and how it could be more productive.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20He said, "I want you to work on my grip.
0:17:20 > 0:17:21"See this dynamometer?
0:17:21 > 0:17:25"I want to squeeze this thing all the way to the end."
0:17:25 > 0:17:29I said, "The world's strongest man has not squeezed 100kg."
0:17:29 > 0:17:32He said, "I'll squeeze 105."
0:17:32 > 0:17:33I said, "Why?"
0:17:33 > 0:17:36"When I shake that little Russian's hand, I want him to feel it!"
0:17:39 > 0:17:43I started him off with a little swimming, racquetball which we were quite good at,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46a little weight training.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49I said, "Repeat this after me...
0:17:49 > 0:17:55"I'm a winner! I'm a champion! I'm not a loser!"
0:17:55 > 0:17:59He says, "Why did you put the loser in there? You know I'm a champion!"
0:18:01 > 0:18:06Bobby is probably the most interesting person I've ever photographed.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09There he is, there's Bobby.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13And he said, "I need to hold my breath like this,
0:18:13 > 0:18:19"and it's..." You know, it was good for his training.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21He was in training for Spassky.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25He asked me what other jobs do I do.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30I told him, "I've just finished one on the New York Jets."
0:18:30 > 0:18:33The Jets, he thought that was marvellous.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35He wanted to hear about all it,
0:18:35 > 0:18:41how they train, and he said, "I've got to train like that as well."
0:18:41 > 0:18:43MUSIC: "Get It On" by Marc Bolan and T-Rex
0:18:47 > 0:18:50And he didn't mind anything I did.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52But it could have gone either way.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56He treated everybody else...quite awful.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59'Bobby Fischer is a stubborn young man.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03'Sometimes he fights for principle, more often just for himself.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08'He'll refuse to play a match because his special terms aren't met
0:19:08 > 0:19:13'and for the past month, he's been giving fits to the International Federation too -
0:19:13 > 0:19:16'not enough money for the winner of the world title, he says.'
0:19:16 > 0:19:19There was bidding on the match.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22And Iceland got it, I guess, because they put up the highest bid.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Bobby didn't want to play, he said, "The country is too small,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29"they don't have the facilities, they don't have communication."
0:19:29 > 0:19:32The International Chess Federation wants word by tomorrow morning
0:19:32 > 0:19:34from Fischer on whether he's agreeable to 24 games in Iceland.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36Fischer is taking his time answering.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39You, as president of the Icelandic Chess Federation,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43are there times you've been tempted to say, "Let's forget all about it"?
0:19:43 > 0:19:46As you know, we are organising a chess match
0:19:46 > 0:19:52and our only wish is to enrich the chess world.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55'They had all these lawyers'
0:19:55 > 0:19:59and they were raising demands all the time.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01But at the same time,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05it was never clear whether Fischer would come to Iceland.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10The principle one was the prize money.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13And I said, "We have already settled the money question
0:20:13 > 0:20:17"and we will not be ready to discuss that."
0:20:20 > 0:20:25There was a real possibility that the match wouldn't take place.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30One has to remember with Fischer that he'd dropped out of tournaments before.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33This was no bluff necessarily.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38He's going, he's not going, then he told me he was going.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41He moved quietly, he put his hands on my shoulders and says,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43"I'm going to Iceland, Harry."
0:20:43 > 0:20:49You know, it was... And the next thing I would read in the paper would be...he's not going!
0:20:59 > 0:21:02But Bobby wouldn't sign it.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05And then Bobby disappeared.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14'Boris Spassky, the World Chess Champion, came to Iceland
0:21:14 > 0:21:17'12 days before the match, scheduled to start Sunday.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20'Spassky said he wanted time to get used to the place,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25'without, incidentally, being constantly molested by newsmen.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28'Bobby Fischer was also sensitive about being photographed,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32'sensitive to the point that he kept not showing up.'
0:21:37 > 0:21:42He was sitting in Pasadena, California,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46and my job, my personal mission,
0:21:46 > 0:21:51was to get Bobby to go to Iceland and play the World Championship match.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57But I didn't see any activity, I didn't see any plane ticket.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02I said, "Bobby, I have to go to New York,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05"my dad is sick, let's travel together.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08"You'll be that much closer to Iceland."
0:22:08 > 0:22:13He said, "Yeah, I think that's a good idea, travel with a friend,
0:22:13 > 0:22:14"yeah, OK."
0:22:15 > 0:22:20I was getting him closer to where he had to go.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24We took him to Kennedy airport,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28we were headed for the Icelandic airline's counter.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33Somehow, a Daily News photographer spied him.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36And Bobby started running.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38He wasn't just running, he was sprinting.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45I turned around and I stopped, I put my hands up. I didn't say anything.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49And Bobby kept running, right out of the airport
0:22:49 > 0:22:53to the kerbside limousine and got in and left the airport.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Where to? Nobody knew.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03It was only three days before the scheduled start of the match.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Chess history was in the balance...
0:23:08 > 0:23:12I said, "You could stay at my parents' home in Douglaston, Long Island."
0:23:12 > 0:23:14MAN SHOUTS
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Don't think the bell works.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27BELL RINGS
0:23:27 > 0:23:28It works.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Hi, where are you?
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Bobby was staying at Saidy's house.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57And Saidy's father was dying of cancer at the time,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59I don't know whether he told you that.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03They were trying their best to get Fischer on that plane to Iceland.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08At one point, Saidy said, "You know, er, my father's dying."
0:24:08 > 0:24:11And Bobby said, "That's OK, I don't mind."
0:24:11 > 0:24:14They could not dislodge him from that house.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17This was probably the most stressful week of my life.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19- REPORTER:- 'Are you Dr Saidy?' - 'Yes, I am.'
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Mr Fischer made it clear he would try to go to Iceland tonight,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26- did he express these thoughts to you?- Made it clear to whom?
0:24:26 > 0:24:29We talked to a few people, they had the impression he was going.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34Everybody can have impressions but the only person who knows what Bobby Fischer is going to do
0:24:34 > 0:24:37is Bobby Fischer. That's about all I really want to say.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40- Er...- I want you to all keep cool.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44'At one point, during his stay at our home,'
0:24:44 > 0:24:48he simply said, "It's over, I'm not going."
0:24:50 > 0:24:52'Still no sign of Bobby Fischer.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56'Today, the International Chess Federation postponed by 48 hours'
0:24:56 > 0:24:59the start of the match, but it said if Fischer is not in Iceland
0:24:59 > 0:25:01by noon on Tuesday, he will be disqualified.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03Mr Thorarinsson,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05if I may ask, are you worried?
0:25:08 > 0:25:10No...
0:25:10 > 0:25:14I just wondered if you've ever seen Mr Fischer, if you have any proof he actually exists?
0:25:14 > 0:25:17LAUGHTER
0:25:17 > 0:25:18That's a good question!
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Yes, I think, gentlemen, we can agree on the point
0:25:23 > 0:25:25that Mr Fischer exists.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28We were losing the whole thing.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33We had to get Fischer to come to Iceland.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36The Soviet Union had the feeling
0:25:36 > 0:25:40that the World Chess Champion was humiliated.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46They wanted to call Spassky back to the Soviet Union.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51Boris said to me, "This is a very serious situation.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55"You have to solve this on a higher level."
0:25:55 > 0:26:01Gudmunder Thorarinsson, he asked the prime minister of Iceland
0:26:01 > 0:26:03to call Kissinger.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09Fischer was very reluctant to go and I placed a call to him and said,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12"Go."
0:26:12 > 0:26:16The United States of America wanted Bobby to go there
0:26:16 > 0:26:18and win the world title.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23By that time, James Slater, the British multimillionaire,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28had already doubled the purse, so Fischer's answer to Kissinger
0:26:28 > 0:26:32was "Yes, I've decided to play."
0:26:33 > 0:26:36What finally did make you decide to go, then?
0:26:36 > 0:26:39I feel that the prestige of this country is at stake.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44Some people have suggested this was psychological warfare against Spassky on your part.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Did that figure into it?
0:26:47 > 0:26:52No, uh-uh. I don't believe in psychology, I believe in good moves.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59'Bobby Fischer left New York for Iceland
0:26:59 > 0:27:03'and what a scene that was on the morning of July the 4th.'
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Nothing like this has happened in Iceland before.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10You try to describe the impact on the citizens here of Reykjavik,
0:27:10 > 0:27:17it's probably about the same as if the promoters of the next Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali prize-fight
0:27:17 > 0:27:20decided to stage their international extravaganza in Butte, Montana.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26One observer said the chess match was turning into the biggest thing to hit Iceland since Eric the Red.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28Though some people were still mad at Fischer,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31others approve of his holdout for more money.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Well, he was fighting for all the chess players over the world.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37He's tedious, he's arrogant, he's inconsiderate.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Basically people think that there's something wrong with the man.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01CHEERING AND SHOUTING
0:28:07 > 0:28:12I became his bodyguard. It was a big moment for me, you know.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15I was more of his friend than a bodyguard.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17He was quite a character,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21you know? He could be gentle
0:28:21 > 0:28:25but he could be like a volcano, sometimes.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29It was better to know when to speak and when to keep quiet.
0:28:32 > 0:28:38Finally, Bobby showed up in Iceland. Now, is he going to really play for the World Championship?
0:28:41 > 0:28:44'It's been a long road for Fischer to this game.'
0:28:44 > 0:28:47And it will be a long match at the end of that road.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51Both he and Spassky have to play 24 games.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53The match could last up to two months,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55each game runs to five hours.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59The most intellectually exhausting battle known to the mind of man -
0:28:59 > 0:29:01the World Chess Championship.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10We had the Icelandic government, the Icelandic president,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12the ambassador of the Soviet Union,
0:29:12 > 0:29:17the ambassador of the United States and many foreign guests.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20The theatre was full.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Regularly scheduled programmes will not be seen at this time,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27so we may bring you the following sports special.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31ABC Sports presents the World Chess Championship match,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34between Boris Spassky, the defending champion from the Soviet Union,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38and 29-year-old Bobby Fischer, the challenger from the United States.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40It was the Super Bowl.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42The audiences were gigantic.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45People stayed home from work.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49People were lining up in front of TV sets in department stores, there were chess groupies.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53In Times Square, they were showing the game live!
0:29:53 > 0:29:54It was that important!
0:29:54 > 0:29:59'Let's find out from you if there are any late-breaking developments.'
0:29:59 > 0:30:02'They might fuss around with the chess pieces and the lighting,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05'but I'm fairly confident the match will start on time.'
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Boris Spassky, the World Chess Champion,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12was there with all his assistants...
0:30:13 > 0:30:16..but Fischer was not here.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18CLOCK TICKS
0:30:18 > 0:30:23'The clock has now been started, it was officially five o'clock in Reykjavik.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27'Spassky is obviously anxious about the whereabouts of Mr Fischer.'
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Bobby was nowhere to be seen.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35And all of us despaired.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39'If Fischer doesn't show up by the time one hour has elapsed,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41'he forfeits the game automatically.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47'Oh, there he goes now, he's just played one pawn to queen four.'
0:30:47 > 0:30:50'You saw Spassky make his move then he touched his clock
0:30:50 > 0:30:55'which turns his clock off but turns his opponent's clock on.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59'So Fischer's time is now ticking.'
0:31:08 > 0:31:11There was no certainty that even though
0:31:11 > 0:31:13this was the biggest match of his life,
0:31:13 > 0:31:15he would actually show up.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Many people think that his antics were designed
0:31:18 > 0:31:23to upset Spassky, to discombobulate Spassky, which they did,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26but I don't think that was their intent.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29I don't think any of this was directed against Spassky,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32it was his own inner demons he was fighting.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35'Unpredictable Bobby Fischer...'
0:31:35 > 0:31:39'Nobody knows why Bobby Fischer does or does not do anything.'
0:31:39 > 0:31:43'The most individualistic, intransigent, uncommunicative,
0:31:43 > 0:31:44'solitary chess master of all time.'
0:31:44 > 0:31:46'He has no permanent home.'
0:31:46 > 0:31:48- 'Fischer is a nomad.' - 'Speaks to almost no-one.'
0:31:48 > 0:31:50- 'No contact with his family.' - 'Troubled childhood...'
0:31:50 > 0:31:53'He hasn't seen his mother in over ten years.'
0:31:55 > 0:31:59Is your mother still living? Do you get a chance to see her much?
0:31:59 > 0:32:01I haven't seen her in a few years.
0:32:01 > 0:32:02What about your father?
0:32:02 > 0:32:04No, I don't see him.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07Are they living together?
0:32:07 > 0:32:09No...
0:32:09 > 0:32:13'"I never talk about my father," that's what Fischer said.'
0:32:13 > 0:32:16This was what lead me to realise
0:32:16 > 0:32:19there is something special about his father that nobody else knew.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Regina Fischer has a 900-page FBI file
0:32:24 > 0:32:26and one of the things it reveals is that
0:32:26 > 0:32:31Bobby Fischer's father was not Gerhardt Fischer, as had been
0:32:31 > 0:32:35supposed and as the family had allowed to be known.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40In fact, Bobby Fischer's father was a man named Paul Nemenyi.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43Gerhardt Fischer, who was officially listed on the birth certificate,
0:32:43 > 0:32:45never came to America.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Regina and Paul Nemenyi met at a university near Denver
0:32:50 > 0:32:52and they had an affair.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Regina moved on and took the baby Bobby with her.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00Regina often, because she was destitute and needed help,
0:33:00 > 0:33:04would go to social service agencies and ask for help.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Paul Nemenyi would show up and consult with the social workers
0:33:08 > 0:33:10because he was very concerned about Bobby.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13He said that Bobby, even at a very young age,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17was a very upset child, he was afraid he wasn't being raised right.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Later, when Bobby moved to New York City,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26Paul would come and take him out to restaurants and would admonish him
0:33:26 > 0:33:28for having bad table manners.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32And would basically act towards him in the way that a father would.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34SCREAMING
0:33:36 > 0:33:40One day, Bobby asked his mother, "Where's Paul?
0:33:40 > 0:33:42"Why isn't he coming around any more?"
0:33:43 > 0:33:44When Nemenyi died,
0:33:44 > 0:33:48that's when his mother told him he was his real father.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53He learned about her only about the time he was nine years old.
0:33:54 > 0:34:00Chess, to him, was the ultimate escape,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03his single obsession.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16'Well, Spassky is waiting.'
0:34:16 > 0:34:21'Right, waiting and wondering whether Bobby will show or not show.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26'And there's absolutely dead silence in the hall.'
0:34:29 > 0:34:31'Spassky's pacing, he's nervous...'
0:34:31 > 0:34:36'Wait! Here comes Fischer, coming on to stage saying he was caught in traffic, and, er...
0:34:36 > 0:34:39'and I think Spassky's visibly relieved.'
0:34:39 > 0:34:41'And also perhaps pained.'
0:34:41 > 0:34:46It didn't look like this match would happen but finally it happened
0:34:46 > 0:34:48and it was phenomenal!
0:34:48 > 0:34:51How do you spell "relief", OK?
0:34:51 > 0:34:54'Now, for the first time, we're looking at Bobby Fischer,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57'the man that eight times has won the United States Open Championship...'
0:34:57 > 0:35:00I remember saying on TV at one point during the match,
0:35:00 > 0:35:05"We're really lucky to be alive at this moment when Bobby Fischer is playing Boris Spassky."
0:35:12 > 0:35:15'There's his first move, one knight to king bishop three.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17'Very noncommittal.'
0:35:17 > 0:35:20'Now watch, see Fischer turn around here?
0:35:20 > 0:35:23'He's checking to see that camera location.
0:35:24 > 0:35:30'And now he goes over, to protest those cameras being there.'
0:35:30 > 0:35:33'There's Lothar Schmid in the background.'
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Bobby said, "I feel disturbed.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40"I cannot have that, please!"
0:35:43 > 0:35:48'Spassky remains serene and imperturbable throughout all this.'
0:35:51 > 0:35:57The first game started out with some minor psychological games
0:35:57 > 0:35:59in the opening but then it calmed down
0:35:59 > 0:36:03and the position they reached after 28 moves
0:36:03 > 0:36:07seemed like a complete draw, seemed like they're going to agree to a draw shortly
0:36:07 > 0:36:09and move on to the next game.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14All the pieces were traded, they got into an end game,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16each side had a bishop and a bunch of pawns.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18It was very easy, it was a dead draw,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22the position reached, a very even position, very symmetrical.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25And Fischer went haywire.
0:36:25 > 0:36:31He did something that hardly anyone would do except a rank amateur.
0:36:31 > 0:36:36He grabbed a pawn, allowing his bishop to be trapped.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40He made a colossal beginner's blunder.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43He took a pawn, which allowed Spassky to trap his bishop.
0:36:43 > 0:36:44We couldn't believe it.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47This looks like an error but this is Fischer playing the move,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50there must be more to it than that, there must be an explanation.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53There must be some deep combination that we've missed.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Bobby saw six moves ahead here, when he made the move.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17He just didn't see seven moves ahead.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21White can interpolate a move, he can play bishop to queen two.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25Notice that that cuts off the escape square.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29All that white has to do on the next move is play king to knight two,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31and the bishop is lost.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35That was the shot heard around the world.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38It was inexplicable.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41I still don't know how that happened.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Spassky won the first game.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55He had to get 12 and a half points, the best of 24.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59A win is one, a loss is zero and a draw is one half.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07He had an agreement that the cameras be quiet.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12And Bobby said, "They aren't quiet and they disturb me."
0:38:12 > 0:38:17He claimed that the noise from the machines
0:38:17 > 0:38:22was so high that he couldn't, you see,
0:38:22 > 0:38:24he couldn't think or concentrate.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28I believe that, by the way.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30I think that he had hyperacusis,
0:38:30 > 0:38:36a medical condition characterised by excessive sensitivity to noise.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39Fischer said he would boycott the match until hidden movie cameras
0:38:39 > 0:38:41were removed from the playing hall.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44The promoters said the entire financial structure of the match
0:38:44 > 0:38:47depends on recording and exhibiting the play.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01He asked to put the camera away.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10He wanted me to clear the cameras out of the hall.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16And I said, "No."
0:39:26 > 0:39:33You have to start in time. If a player is not present,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36you have to, as the arbiter, press his clock.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38CLOCK TICKS
0:39:42 > 0:39:47Fischer had been known to quit matches over trivia
0:39:47 > 0:39:51so we were afraid that he would just, you know,
0:39:51 > 0:39:53run back home and that would be the end of it.
0:39:56 > 0:40:04Bobby did not show up. I had, as the arbiter, to forfeit him
0:40:04 > 0:40:09and for a moment, I thought it, I made the right decision.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11Was it fair? Was it correct?
0:40:11 > 0:40:16But it was necessary, there was no other way.
0:40:16 > 0:40:22This night, I remember that I have been woken up by tears in my eyes,
0:40:22 > 0:40:28that I, as an arbiter, had to destroy a genius.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39He was now trailing 2-0. Very hard to make that up in a 24-game match.
0:40:39 > 0:40:46Half the world thought, "That's it, the match is over, he'll never come back."
0:40:46 > 0:40:51Why would he bother trying to come back from such a difficult situation?
0:41:00 > 0:41:03During the match, he would knock on my door
0:41:03 > 0:41:06about one or two in the morning
0:41:06 > 0:41:09and we'd just walk and walk.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16We'd sit and look at the animals.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27He loved animals.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36And he would talk. But he didn't like to talk about his childhood.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38It was a bad subject.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43He did tell me that from the age of two or three,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47he was left alone all day with his sister.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49The loneliness...
0:41:49 > 0:41:55Regina, for all of her gifts, was not a traditional mother.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59She was a person who moved her kids around, from place to place,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02even every few months when they were really little.
0:42:02 > 0:42:08There was obvious conflict between Regina and Bobby from an early age.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12He didn't like to have his mother around,
0:42:12 > 0:42:17she would end up having to send his sister, Joan, abroad with him on tournaments.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20He wouldn't play if his mother was along.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Regina moved out of the apartment that he shared with her
0:42:25 > 0:42:28in Brooklyn, when he was only 16 years old.
0:42:28 > 0:42:34He told his mum to leave, I don't know how politely, and she left.
0:42:34 > 0:42:40In a way, he rejected her because she was so like him.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43So pushy, so self-centred...
0:42:43 > 0:42:45So goal-directed.
0:42:45 > 0:42:51Maybe he was...splitting off part of himself.
0:42:52 > 0:42:571960, Regina went to Europe to get her MD degree.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02Bobby would have still been living in Lincoln Place in Brooklyn then.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09I went to his apartment a couple of times, it was roach-ridden, a walk-up tenement.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12He had chess books all over the place
0:43:12 > 0:43:14and it was just in a complete state of disarray.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19The fact is, his mother left him.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23Think about it yourself, if suddenly your father wasn't there
0:43:23 > 0:43:25and your mother disappeared.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Said "goodbye".
0:43:29 > 0:43:31How would you feel?
0:43:31 > 0:43:33I wonder what would happen to you.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38Bobby is all chess. I don't play chess
0:43:38 > 0:43:41and I don't pretend to speak for Bobby.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43But I feel that whatever I do here,
0:43:43 > 0:43:47whatever I say to help make the Vietnam come to an end more quickly
0:43:47 > 0:43:51will help every son, every daughter in the whole world.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55ALL: One, two, three, four, sign the treaty, end the war!
0:43:55 > 0:43:59One, two, three, four, sign the treaty, end the war!
0:43:59 > 0:44:03One, two, three, four, sign the treaty...
0:44:03 > 0:44:05You're not going to believe this...
0:44:18 > 0:44:22Fischer said, "I'll continue but the third game has got to be away
0:44:22 > 0:44:26"from the auditorium, inside a sealed room,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29"there's a little ping-pong room at the back of the stage."
0:44:29 > 0:44:31And Spassky agreed.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34You can't change the location without both sides' permission,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36once a match has started.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39He could have claimed the match on a forfeit.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42He didn't have to play in that back room.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45If he hadn't, Fischer would have not played
0:44:45 > 0:44:48and the match would not have continued.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Bobby started again to quarrel.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54"No, not this one! and not that!", etc.
0:44:54 > 0:45:00And Boris said in this moment, "So I retire. I do not want this.
0:45:00 > 0:45:06"This is too much for me. If so, we end the match."
0:45:06 > 0:45:11The two boys were standing together at the table
0:45:11 > 0:45:15and I took them here, both.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Pressed them down in the stools. "Now will you play?"
0:45:20 > 0:45:24Boris automatically made his first move.
0:45:27 > 0:45:33The game could still be watched by a closed-circuit TV camera.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37The audience was in the hall
0:45:37 > 0:45:40and they could follow the game move by move.
0:45:50 > 0:45:56In game three, Bobby played an opening, a defence, he had never played before -
0:45:56 > 0:46:01the "Benoni", which means "son of sorrow".
0:46:01 > 0:46:04It is so risky,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08so fraught with danger,
0:46:08 > 0:46:13that, whenever you play that, you're simply saying,
0:46:13 > 0:46:18"We're not going to make a draw. This is win or lose. This is a fight to the death."
0:46:18 > 0:46:20Bobby moved his knight to the edge of the board.
0:46:23 > 0:46:29There's a saying in chess, "Ein Springer am Rand bringt Kummer und Schand".
0:46:29 > 0:46:33"A knight on the side, I will not abide." It was against principle.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37It's not considered a good idea, because the centre of the board, typically,
0:46:37 > 0:46:42is the most important battleground and that's where we want to position our pieces,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45or least in a way that our pieces attack the middle of the board.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50Not only did he move the knight to the side, but also could have been captured by a bishop
0:46:50 > 0:46:54and he would have had a very ugly-looking double pawn on one side.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57It was very unaesthetic, let's say.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10Ah, more tense than you've seen him?
0:47:14 > 0:47:16He may what? I see.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32Spassky did not find the best continuation
0:47:32 > 0:47:35and was consistently outplayed,
0:47:35 > 0:47:40until Fischer won his first game of his life against Spassky.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43He was on the scoreboard.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53- What do you think of Bobby Fischer? - I like him. I like his style.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55- Are you following the game? - Yes, I am.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58The American chess players are behind Bobby 100%,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01and they're all anxious to see him get in there and win the championship.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Do you think that Fischer will win for the first time over the Russian champion?
0:48:07 > 0:48:10I think Fischer will win because he's playing for 200,000.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14If Spassky wins, most of the money will go to the Russian government.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18People sat in bars betting on what the next moves was going to be
0:48:18 > 0:48:22the way they bet on whether there was going to be a hit in a baseball game.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25That's when chess really exploded.
0:48:28 > 0:48:34- Tell me what turns you on about chess.- What?
0:48:34 > 0:48:38- Do you hope to be as good as Bobby Fischer one day?- I hope so, but I doubt if I will be.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42- Why?- I just think Fischer's about the best player in the world,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46and not very many people can get to be as good as he is.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53We're watching the looming presence of Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57as sketched by LeRoy Neiman, noted artist and familiar face to the Wide World.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01LeRoy is here with me at the Wide World studio in New York
0:49:01 > 0:49:05and he's going to be sharing some of his artistic impressions with us in just a minute.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09Larry, I thought watching a chess match would be like watching the grass curl.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13- It was far more exciting than I expected it to be. - I thought it was exciting, too.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16It was just like the Ali-Frazier fight all over again.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19This is Bobby Fischer leaving the hotel for the fight,
0:49:19 > 0:49:23like a matador leaving the Palace Hotel in Madrid.
0:49:23 > 0:49:29Onstage, the tension is developing. It's a real prize fight. That's when Fischer's a fighter.
0:49:29 > 0:49:34This right hand is like... and drew blood on Spassky.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53The score was even. Two and a half, two and a half.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Spassky was not himself. All these shenanigans
0:49:59 > 0:50:01had affected him adversely.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04He was not playing his true game.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN:
0:50:45 > 0:50:50They believed that the chairs had been wired and the lighting fixture
0:50:50 > 0:50:56to destabilise Boris's concentration. That's when Boris cracked.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00Spassky complained that
0:51:00 > 0:51:05there was some radiation which was affecting him.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09During the match I felt myself quite unusual, like before.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12So that was a reason to be for myself...
0:51:12 > 0:51:15I'm not a suspicious man. ..To become suspicious.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19There might be something in the chair.
0:51:19 > 0:51:25There might be something on the surface of the chair. There might be something in the light.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35They inspected the chairs and the lights
0:51:35 > 0:51:40to see whether the Americans were up to some kind of hanky-panky.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43They found two dead flies and that was it.
0:51:52 > 0:51:58Game six is very celebrated. It is probably the most reprinted game
0:51:58 > 0:52:00of the entire match.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05It was like a symphony of placid beauty.
0:52:08 > 0:52:14Right on the first move, Bobby Fischer came up with a major surprise to the entire world.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21He almost always starts the game moving the pawn in front of his king two pawns up,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24with e4.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN:
0:52:38 > 0:52:41And in this game, everybody's shocked.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45He started with the English opening, by playing c4.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49Spassky's preparation was out the window.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53I'm sure he prepared for many things, but not this.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Fischer did not play his usual game.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00He played a different kind of game.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04A placid, positional, slowly-building-up game,
0:53:04 > 0:53:09where he deprives Spassky of mobility.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Pushed him back,
0:53:12 > 0:53:15where his pieces could not do anything.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18And it was just a beautiful game.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21I don't know what more can be said about it.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24It was just a model of precision.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27It was such a beautiful game
0:53:27 > 0:53:31that when the crowd applauded at the end of the game,
0:53:31 > 0:53:36Spassky himself stood up and applauded Fischer.
0:53:36 > 0:53:42On his way back to the hotel, Fischer said, "Did you see what Spassky did?" he said.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45"That's a sportsman. He's a real sportsman."
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Game 21 reached move 40.
0:54:53 > 0:54:59The move at which the game was adjourned for the two players to go study it.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17This is NBC Nightly News, Friday, September 1st.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19Good evening.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22We'll have more on the developments in the Watergate bugging case.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26We'll hear George McGovern talking about tightening up his campaign organisation.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30And we'll have a look at the new unemployment figures. First, Bobby Fischer.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Today was the day when Fischer and the Russian champion, Boris Spassky,
0:55:34 > 0:55:38were to have finished the 21st game of the World Championship,
0:55:38 > 0:55:43a game they started yesterday, but Spassky, after what must have been an agonising night
0:55:43 > 0:55:46spent analysing his position, didn't even show up to play.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55I was going to photograph Spassky in the morning.
0:55:55 > 0:56:01He came straight over to me, shook my hand and said, "There is another world champion.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04"His name is Robert James Fischer."
0:56:04 > 0:56:09I went back to the Lofteidir, to Bobby's room,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13and I told him, Spassky just retired.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15And I want to be the first to congratulate you.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17APPLAUSE
0:56:17 > 0:56:21Congratulations! Tell us how you feel, babe. Tell us how you feel!
0:56:21 > 0:56:25- I'll see you later. - Listen, will you talk to us, Bobby?
0:56:25 > 0:56:27Bobby, roll the window down!
0:56:30 > 0:56:35Bobby wanted to get away, cos they were banging on the door and all that.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39Just to beat it, out into the hills.
0:56:41 > 0:56:47Someone brings up the New York Post and it says "Bobby Is The Champ!".
0:57:02 > 0:57:05His mother has said to him,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09when she saw she couldn't separate him from chess, she said, "OK, go play chess.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13"When that's over you can start your life.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16"You can do something important."
0:57:17 > 0:57:23NBC news correspondent Dick Schaap was in Iceland today and here is what Fischer said.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27How does it feel now you have the World Championship, you're the best in the world?
0:57:27 > 0:57:29How does it feel inside?
0:57:29 > 0:57:33It feels pretty good, yeah. But my goal now is to play a lot more chess.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36I feel I haven't played enough chess.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:57:49 > 0:57:54- How did it feel? Had you ever thought of anything like that? - No, I never, you know,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58thought it was going to happen with chess. I hope it keeps on.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05I just had a premonition that something awful was going to happen to him.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09I didn't know what it would be, but I didn't feel good about it.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13One of Fischer's problems was that, after the match,
0:58:13 > 0:58:18he was supposedly better known by the population of the world
0:58:18 > 0:58:20than anyone except for Jesus Christ.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23And he was a guy who treasured his privacy.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27He had a problem.
0:58:37 > 0:58:41The entire world knows the name Bobby Fischer by now.
0:58:42 > 0:58:46Was it a letdown after it was all over, Bobby?
0:58:46 > 0:58:49I mean, there must have been a tremendous...
0:58:49 > 0:58:52It was. I woke up the day after the thing was over
0:58:52 > 0:58:57and I just felt different, like something was taken out of me.
0:59:11 > 0:59:16He didn't really, after he won, know what he wanted to do with his life.
0:59:16 > 0:59:19He reached an end point when he was 29.
0:59:19 > 0:59:23He was 29 years old and he hadn't had a childhood.
0:59:28 > 0:59:34Is it not true that chess masters are always young men?
0:59:34 > 0:59:37And that they don't last?
0:59:37 > 0:59:40That's true, generally speaking, but there are exceptions.
0:59:40 > 0:59:45- Steinitz - he was 63 when he was World Champion. - But you're in a fortunate position.
0:59:45 > 0:59:49Because most of us in life, no matter how successful we think we are,
0:59:49 > 0:59:52we have to do what other people want us to do, just to hold jobs.
0:59:52 > 0:59:57But you don't have to hold a job. You're on your own. It's a unique position.
0:59:57 > 1:00:02That's right. You can't say, "If Fischer won't come, we'll get some other chess genius."
1:00:07 > 1:00:09Bobby Fischer, the world champion chess player,
1:00:09 > 1:00:12has until midnight tonight to decide whether to abide
1:00:12 > 1:00:15by the international rules of chess or give up his title.
1:00:15 > 1:00:22If Fischer defaults, the title would go to the challenger, Soviet grandmaster Anatoly Karpov.
1:00:22 > 1:00:28He wanted, probably, to play the kid from Russia, Karpov...
1:00:28 > 1:00:32And beat him. I mean, it would be an easy task.
1:00:32 > 1:00:37On the other hand, part of him knew he could lose.
1:00:37 > 1:00:40And that's death to Bobby. He didn't want to risk that.
1:00:40 > 1:00:46So what came out was a series of new demands on the rules.
1:00:46 > 1:00:49First of all, I like to play matches without draws.
1:00:49 > 1:00:53And they have to increase the prizes if they want me to play...
1:00:53 > 1:00:58Well, if they want me to play for the title. I'm not going to play for their minimum prizes.
1:01:00 > 1:01:02Accepting all Fischer's demands
1:01:02 > 1:01:06was unacceptable, politically, for the Soviet Chess Federation.
1:01:06 > 1:01:09Baring a very unlikely last-minute change of heart by Fischer,
1:01:09 > 1:01:13Anatoly Karpov becomes the new champion by default.
1:01:13 > 1:01:17The world chess body gave him about 95% of what he wanted.
1:01:17 > 1:01:21But that was it. He didn't defend his title.
1:01:21 > 1:01:24HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
1:01:24 > 1:01:28INTERPRETER: I think he was unable to cope with his own invincibility.
1:01:28 > 1:01:32He got more or less scared to sit down again in front of the board
1:01:32 > 1:01:35and risk losing.
1:01:35 > 1:01:38But only he who never plays never loses.
1:01:40 > 1:01:43We all felt disappointed that he'd let chess down.
1:01:43 > 1:01:46He'd let the American masters down.
1:01:48 > 1:01:51Yeah, we all felt kind of a betrayal.
1:01:51 > 1:01:56Others could suffer from creative depression after such debacle.
1:01:56 > 1:02:00I went out to California on a job, phoned Bobby.
1:02:00 > 1:02:06Picked him up in Pasadena at some cult place he was staying.
1:02:06 > 1:02:09I've had so many bad experiences with...
1:02:09 > 1:02:12He would talk about nuclear disarmament.
1:02:14 > 1:02:18Our capabilities, ICBMs and that, you know?
1:02:18 > 1:02:21And that would go on for about an hour and a half.
1:02:21 > 1:02:24..The Worldwide Church of God.
1:02:24 > 1:02:28Bobby had been involved with the Church of God since 1962.
1:02:28 > 1:02:33And after he won the championship, the church was providing him with a place.
1:02:33 > 1:02:38The Worldwide Church of God was a group of people that believed
1:02:38 > 1:02:40in fundamental principles of the Bible.
1:02:40 > 1:02:43Some people would probably call us fundamentalists.
1:02:43 > 1:02:48..Will bring on the Great Tribulation and that will end in the Second Coming of Christ!
1:02:48 > 1:02:50The end of this civilisation!
1:02:50 > 1:02:55Basically, they said there was an impending coming Christ
1:02:55 > 1:02:57and we needed to prepare for that Second Coming.
1:02:57 > 1:03:03I told him it's all a bunch of hooey, but that's what he chose to do.
1:03:03 > 1:03:07'I have warned, you may be living in the time in which you will see...'
1:03:07 > 1:03:09I went to his apartment in Pasadena.
1:03:09 > 1:03:12It seemed to me pretty hopeless.
1:03:14 > 1:03:16He was extremely depressed.
1:03:16 > 1:03:20We would get into these long discussions about the Bible.
1:03:20 > 1:03:24Why are we here? What are we doing here? What is life?
1:03:27 > 1:03:30That's when he started to go haywire.
1:03:31 > 1:03:34He felt that he was being influenced by these Russians.
1:03:34 > 1:03:38And he also was scared of the Mossad, Israeli secret police.
1:03:43 > 1:03:46He felt that he could be easily spied upon through radioactivity
1:03:46 > 1:03:49and other through means - fillings.
1:03:49 > 1:03:53- He the Russians could send signals here.- Phones.
1:03:53 > 1:03:55Tinfoil...over the windows.
1:03:55 > 1:03:59Meteor, radioactive.
1:03:59 > 1:04:01This is paranoia.
1:04:03 > 1:04:06We tried, as church members,
1:04:06 > 1:04:09to bring him in to a little more normal life.
1:04:09 > 1:04:13I think he turned against the Worldwide Church of God
1:04:13 > 1:04:18when one of its prophecies patently did not come to pass.
1:04:18 > 1:04:23One - that in the last days of these times in which we're living, perilous times shall come.
1:04:23 > 1:04:25Fischer felt betrayed.
1:04:25 > 1:04:29He wrote a pamphlet attacking the church and Armstrong, its leader,
1:04:29 > 1:04:31saying that nobody should ever control your mind.
1:04:31 > 1:04:36I was never a member of the Church of God. Absolutely not true. It's a lie!
1:04:36 > 1:04:41As he denied God, he began to get worse.
1:04:45 > 1:04:48He started to go astray.
1:04:48 > 1:04:53He started reading the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which he mentioned to me.
1:04:53 > 1:04:59I said that book is a forgery and a hoax. It's anti-Semitic propaganda that even Hitler used.
1:04:59 > 1:05:04'Protocol number one - what has restrained the wild beast we call men?'
1:05:04 > 1:05:06He got into all these doctrines.
1:05:06 > 1:05:12The Illuminati, all these different people that were going to take over the world.
1:05:12 > 1:05:15'Protocol number nine - merciless revenge and bitter hatred.
1:05:15 > 1:05:18'From us emanates, an all-embracing terror.'
1:05:18 > 1:05:20We began to see less of Bobby.
1:05:20 > 1:05:24We didn't want to expose our children to the famous uncle
1:05:24 > 1:05:27who had become a fomenting anti-Semite.
1:05:27 > 1:05:32Hitler said in Mein Kampf that the Jews are not the victims but they're the victimisers.
1:05:32 > 1:05:37We could be having dinner and he would suddenly start, the Jews did this and the Jews did that.
1:05:37 > 1:05:39And in our house it was just unacceptable.
1:05:39 > 1:05:45They're actually making things happen in terms of killing people all over the world.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51His mother was Jewish. His real father was Jewish.
1:05:51 > 1:05:54It's complete madness.
1:05:54 > 1:06:00The question is, how could a Jewish kid become an anti-Semite?
1:06:00 > 1:06:03Paranoid psychosis.
1:06:03 > 1:06:09He had false fixed ideas of a very widening conspiracy against him.
1:06:11 > 1:06:14It was as if he were at war with himself.
1:06:14 > 1:06:18He became a recluse.
1:06:18 > 1:06:22Fischer watchers refer to it as the "wilderness years".
1:06:28 > 1:06:31- Where's Bobby these days? - Oh, Bobby's at home.
1:06:31 > 1:06:33- Where, in New York?- Well...
1:06:33 > 1:06:39I don't think I want to get on to the subject of Bobby. You know how Bobby feels about it.
1:06:39 > 1:06:44The last conversation we had enraged him.
1:06:45 > 1:06:48If you don't play chess...
1:06:49 > 1:06:54..there will soon come a time when no-one will ask you to play chess.
1:06:54 > 1:06:58He thought that was unacceptable.
1:06:58 > 1:07:01And that was the end of our relationship.
1:07:06 > 1:07:08If you look throughout history
1:07:08 > 1:07:13there have been a disproportionate number of extremely talented chess players
1:07:13 > 1:07:16who've also had serious psychological issues.
1:07:16 > 1:07:20You are putting yourself in a world that is infinite.
1:07:20 > 1:07:26It's abstract. You are, in essence, reshaping your mind.
1:07:28 > 1:07:31If you understand that, in the first move of a chess game,
1:07:31 > 1:07:34each player has 20 possible moves.
1:07:34 > 1:07:39If you multiply 20 by 20, that means there are 400 different possible chess positions
1:07:39 > 1:07:42after the first move.
1:07:43 > 1:07:46The tree becomes a lot of branches, you know?
1:07:46 > 1:07:52You start with one move and on that there are several options. All of a sudden it is a jungle.
1:07:52 > 1:07:57The number of all positions that can occur in the game of chess
1:07:57 > 1:08:00is something like ten with 45 zeros.
1:08:00 > 1:08:04It's like the number of atoms in the solar system.
1:08:04 > 1:08:10You're trying to anticipate what your opponent might do and you don't know what he might do,
1:08:10 > 1:08:13so you're thinking of all the different possibilities.
1:08:13 > 1:08:17A good chess player is paranoid, on the board.
1:08:17 > 1:08:23But then if you take that paranoia to real life, it doesn't play so well.
1:08:23 > 1:08:29You end up seeing your real world according to the confines of chess.
1:08:32 > 1:08:34The cancer had set in.
1:08:34 > 1:08:40We like to think that chess didn't cause that, but maybe it did.
1:08:44 > 1:08:48An individual with an unbalanced tendency,
1:08:48 > 1:08:50by becoming a chess monomaniac,
1:08:50 > 1:08:53will throw himself over the brink.
1:08:53 > 1:08:59Yeah, we have some examples where people of exceptional abilities
1:08:59 > 1:09:02were infected by this mental illness.
1:09:02 > 1:09:09Viktor Korchnoi claimed to have played a match with a dead man. He even provided the moves.
1:09:09 > 1:09:13Rubinstein jumped out the window cos the player was after him.
1:09:13 > 1:09:17Steinitz was in an institution.
1:09:17 > 1:09:22Steinitz in late life thought he was playing chess by wireless
1:09:22 > 1:09:27with God Almighty AND had the better of God Almighty.
1:09:28 > 1:09:31Carlos Torre took all his clothes off on a bus.
1:09:35 > 1:09:40And the probably greatest name, the greatest impact on the game of chess in the 19th century,
1:09:40 > 1:09:43belonged to an American player, Paul Morphy.
1:09:44 > 1:09:48Unfortunately, there was some resemblance with Fischer.
1:09:48 > 1:09:53Paul Morphy was an American player who stunned the world with his chess play.
1:09:53 > 1:09:58And then, at age 26, he wandered the streets, aimlessly.
1:09:58 > 1:10:00He muttered to himself.
1:10:00 > 1:10:03He became a paranoid schizophrenic.
1:10:03 > 1:10:09His tour in Europe in 1858, 1859, was one of the most unforgettable events in the history of chess.
1:10:09 > 1:10:12And then Morphy stopped playing chess.
1:10:13 > 1:10:17There are many similarities between Morphy and Fischer.
1:10:17 > 1:10:21People are always going to equate their names together.
1:10:21 > 1:10:23Both gave up the game at the height of their powers.
1:10:23 > 1:10:30And disappeared into a world of neurosis and psychosis.
1:10:37 > 1:10:41- Where DID Bobby Fischer go? - What happened to Bobby Fischer?
1:10:41 > 1:10:44We spent countless hours prowling the streets
1:10:44 > 1:10:47looking for him at chess clubs where he's been known to play.
1:10:47 > 1:10:51Ultimately, the Now investigation was successful.
1:10:51 > 1:10:54We found Bobby Fischer. The quest paid off.
1:10:55 > 1:10:58In 1990, he shows up in Pasadena.
1:10:58 > 1:11:01A little on the heavy side.
1:11:01 > 1:11:04He handed me this letter.
1:11:04 > 1:11:09"Mr Fischer, you are the Mozart of the chess world.
1:11:09 > 1:11:13"I want you to get back into chess."
1:11:13 > 1:11:18Her name was Zita. "I wonder what she looks like, Harry!"
1:11:18 > 1:11:22All of a sudden he's romantically entwined.
1:11:22 > 1:11:28She got him off all of his rationalisations why he couldn't play chess any more,
1:11:28 > 1:11:31and she set up the tournament.
1:11:31 > 1:11:36After many false alarms, it was a 19-year-old Hungarian chess player,
1:11:36 > 1:11:41Zita Raycsanyi, who brought Fischer back to chess.
1:11:41 > 1:11:46- Do you think he's still as handsome now?- What do you think?
1:11:46 > 1:11:50As a result of their meeting, Zita arranged Bobby's comeback.
1:11:50 > 1:11:56The chess world was shaken today with news that an old legend lives,
1:11:56 > 1:11:59apparently, ready to risk himself in public again.
1:11:59 > 1:12:04Headlines around the world announced he'd signed a contract to play a rematch
1:12:04 > 1:12:07to play his old Russian rival from Iceland, Boris Spassky.
1:12:07 > 1:12:10Everybody's waiting for him to play for 20 years.
1:12:10 > 1:12:13Month after month, year after year, there were these stories.
1:12:13 > 1:12:18He's negotiating this. He wouldn't play! Finally, he plays!
1:12:18 > 1:12:21He was playing in Yugoslavia against Spassky.
1:12:21 > 1:12:26It was trumpeted as a return World Championship match.
1:12:26 > 1:12:28This is a typical question
1:12:28 > 1:12:33from Mr Roger Cohen of the New York Times.
1:12:33 > 1:12:39"If you beat Spassky, will you go on to challenge Kasparov for the World Championship?"
1:12:39 > 1:12:41Can you read what it says behind here?
1:12:41 > 1:12:45LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
1:12:46 > 1:12:47EXPLOSION
1:12:47 > 1:12:50The match took place in Yugoslavia
1:12:50 > 1:12:52during the middle of the Yugoslav war.
1:12:52 > 1:12:57And, by participating, Fischer broke a UN-backed embargo.
1:12:57 > 1:13:02The US government sent him a letter and said, "Don't play. If you do, you're going to to jail."
1:13:02 > 1:13:05This is my reply to their order not to defend my title here.
1:13:06 > 1:13:08That's my answer.
1:13:11 > 1:13:16The match in '92, in my view, had no chess relevance.
1:13:16 > 1:13:19They played very decent chess, but it was chess of 1972.
1:13:19 > 1:13:22It's like watching two old boxers
1:13:22 > 1:13:27come back into the ring for one last payday.
1:13:27 > 1:13:33A slightly sad affair, where both players are clearly passed their best.
1:13:33 > 1:13:37Both Fischer and Spassky are shadows of their former selves.
1:13:40 > 1:13:44He won and won several million dollars,
1:13:44 > 1:13:48but was declared a criminal for having taken part in the match.
1:13:48 > 1:13:52Today, Federal Grand Jury here in Washington
1:13:52 > 1:13:54charged Robert James Bobby Fischer
1:13:54 > 1:14:00with a criminal violation of the US-imposed sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
1:14:00 > 1:14:03Fischer faces up to ten years in prison
1:14:03 > 1:14:07and the millions of dollars of proceeds of the chess match
1:14:07 > 1:14:09are forfeitable to the United States.
1:14:09 > 1:14:12Bobby Fischer, like anyone else,
1:14:12 > 1:14:15should be held accountable for his actions.
1:14:15 > 1:14:18The cost was very high. He lost his country.
1:14:18 > 1:14:20He couldn't come back. He was indicted.
1:14:20 > 1:14:25A lot of people questioned the validity of this indictment, but Fischer broke the law.
1:14:27 > 1:14:31He couldn't come back in the country. They were out to arrest him.
1:14:31 > 1:14:33So he became an ex-patriot.
1:14:45 > 1:14:48So, I mean, Yugoslavia...
1:14:48 > 1:14:50It was pointless.
1:14:52 > 1:14:56You know, he was gone. It was no longer a story.
1:14:57 > 1:14:59I knew Zita. I knew her personally.
1:15:01 > 1:15:06She was a nice girl. But who knows what he did there.
1:15:16 > 1:15:19Joan had gone to Hungary
1:15:19 > 1:15:23in 1995 to visit Bobby,
1:15:23 > 1:15:25when he was staying in Budapest.
1:15:25 > 1:15:29That's the last of our family who'd seen him.
1:15:30 > 1:15:32Regina died in '96.
1:15:32 > 1:15:36And my wife, Joan, died in 1998
1:15:36 > 1:15:39from a cerebral haemorrhage.
1:15:39 > 1:15:42No forewarning at all.
1:15:42 > 1:15:46Died within half a day.
1:15:46 > 1:15:49That was a tragedy. His mother dies, his sister dies.
1:15:50 > 1:15:55Bobby was stripped of any family support that he could hope for.
1:15:55 > 1:16:01And when he was a man without a country, he got worse and worse.
1:16:05 > 1:16:08This is all wonderful news!
1:16:08 > 1:16:12It's time for the fucking US to get their heads kicked in.
1:16:12 > 1:16:14Finish off the US once and for all.
1:16:14 > 1:16:20This just shows you that what goes around, comes around, even for the United States.
1:16:20 > 1:16:22HE LAUGHS
1:16:22 > 1:16:27He felt that he was above politics and could say whatever he wanted to say.
1:16:27 > 1:16:30And George Bush says, "No. I can grab you wherever you are!"
1:16:34 > 1:16:36United States' citizen Robert Booby Fischer
1:16:36 > 1:16:38has been detained by Japanese authorities
1:16:38 > 1:16:41on alleged immigration law violations.
1:16:43 > 1:16:46I get a collect phone call from Japan.
1:16:46 > 1:16:51"From who?" I said. He said, "Bobby Fischer."
1:16:51 > 1:16:5422 years I haven't heard from him.
1:16:54 > 1:16:59Not anything. But he must have kept me in the drawer or something.
1:16:59 > 1:17:02So I was not completely forgotten when he needed me.
1:17:03 > 1:17:07And I went to Japan to get this man out of jail.
1:17:15 > 1:17:21When I saw him there, it was on his birthday.
1:17:21 > 1:17:24He asked me if I could help him out, you know.
1:17:24 > 1:17:27I said, "I'll see what I can do."
1:17:41 > 1:17:46Iceland has stood up and offered him residency.
1:17:46 > 1:17:50Iceland has stood up and given him a passport.
1:17:52 > 1:17:57We, a small nation of 300,000 people intervened
1:17:57 > 1:18:02and went against the United States and Japan,
1:18:02 > 1:18:07the two strongest economies in the world, and got him to Iceland.
1:18:13 > 1:18:16CHEERING
1:18:18 > 1:18:20HE SPEAKS ICELANDIC
1:18:22 > 1:18:24CROWD: Bobby Fischer! Bobby Fischer!
1:18:24 > 1:18:27Welcome to Iceland, Mr Fischer. How does it feel to be home?
1:18:27 > 1:18:33- Great!- You're getting quite a hero's welcome. Did you expect this?- No, I didn't.
1:18:33 > 1:18:37This is your first time in Iceland in quite a few years.
1:18:37 > 1:18:43- You weren't that thrilled the first time around. Think it will be better this time?- That is not true!
1:18:43 > 1:18:47- Do you mean, I didn't want to play here originally?- Well, yeah.
1:18:47 > 1:18:51I explained all that. That was all a CIA setup. I'll explain that some day.
1:18:51 > 1:18:55We look forward to that, Bobby Fischer. Welcome to Iceland.
1:18:55 > 1:18:57Have a good night.
1:19:17 > 1:19:20Sorry for keeping you waiting.
1:19:20 > 1:19:25- How does it feel to be a free person?- Oh, it feels great.
1:19:25 > 1:19:30You've got a wonderful country. Wonderful fresh air. Very fine people.
1:19:30 > 1:19:32Excellent food.
1:19:32 > 1:19:36- Plenty of room. - What's next, Bobby?
1:19:36 > 1:19:41I still want to do a book showing how the 1984/85 Karpov-Kasparov match
1:19:41 > 1:19:43was prearranged move by move.
1:19:43 > 1:19:48They're all saying, "Oh, Fischer didn't write the book he said he was going to write."
1:19:48 > 1:19:52Yeah! But they don't say that they stole my file on it!
1:19:52 > 1:19:58They don't say they stole several big moving boxes full of books that took me years to accumulate.
1:19:58 > 1:20:00- What is your name?- Jeremy.
1:20:00 > 1:20:05- Jeremy what?- Schaap. - Your father was Dick Schaap, you were telling me last night?- Yes.
1:20:05 > 1:20:08I knew him, yeah. He rapped me very hard.
1:20:08 > 1:20:13He said I don't have a sane bone in my body. I didn't forget that.
1:20:13 > 1:20:16His father, many, many years ago, befriended me.
1:20:16 > 1:20:20- Took me out to see... I don't remember what. - Knicks games.- Knicks games.
1:20:20 > 1:20:25- You were 12. - Acted kind of like a father figure.
1:20:25 > 1:20:28And then later, like a typical Jewish snake,
1:20:28 > 1:20:33- he had the most vicious things to say about me. - I have to object.- OK.
1:20:33 > 1:20:37Did you read the article where he said I don't have a sane bone in my body?
1:20:37 > 1:20:40- I'm not sure if I read it, but I know that he said it.- Yeah.
1:20:40 > 1:20:44And, honestly, I don't know that you've done much here today really
1:20:44 > 1:20:47to disprove anything he said.
1:21:01 > 1:21:03I met Bobby after he came to Iceland.
1:21:03 > 1:21:07His existence was a very lonely one.
1:21:09 > 1:21:14He gradually, in Iceland, like everywhere else, alienated people
1:21:14 > 1:21:15with his behaviour.
1:21:15 > 1:21:17I had one huge safe...
1:21:17 > 1:21:22We just walked around the pond in downtown Reykjavik and we talked.
1:21:22 > 1:21:25And we had coffee together.
1:21:25 > 1:21:29I met him a few times when I ran into him in restaurants, etc.
1:21:29 > 1:21:32The US didn't give a damn what their opinions were any more!
1:21:32 > 1:21:37Their role was over. Now the bomb belonged to the government. Do you understand?
1:21:37 > 1:21:41- This is...- And they were shocked. They didn't believe it.
1:21:41 > 1:21:45Listen to me. Either you're going to have a fucking conversation...
1:21:45 > 1:21:47This cannot be a monologue.
1:21:47 > 1:21:49Yeah...
1:21:49 > 1:21:56'He could not tear himself from the topic of the evil nature of the Jews.'
1:21:56 > 1:21:58And the evil nature of the United States,
1:21:58 > 1:22:03or the evil nature of nuclear power. He talked about this relentlessly.
1:22:03 > 1:22:05You really couldn't pull him out of that discussion.
1:22:05 > 1:22:09'It was not just that he was talking about it.
1:22:09 > 1:22:14'It was the obsessive, compulsive nature of the discussion,
1:22:14 > 1:22:17the relentless nature of it.'
1:22:17 > 1:22:20You don't see how fucked up the world is. That's a form of insanity.
1:22:20 > 1:22:23'The last time I ran into him,
1:22:23 > 1:22:29'I turned him away from my table, because I had gotten enough of him.
1:22:29 > 1:22:34'Most of us think within a relatively narrow bandwidth.'
1:22:34 > 1:22:38But occasionally an individual manages to get outside the box.
1:22:38 > 1:22:42Those are the people who make new discoveries. Those are the creative people.
1:22:42 > 1:22:46But occasionally it is difficult to get back into the box.
1:22:46 > 1:22:50King moves. Takes the Queen.
1:22:50 > 1:22:56'His genius and his illness are joined at the hip.
1:22:56 > 1:23:02'I don't think that Bobby could have been as creative, as extraordinary...'
1:23:02 > 1:23:06without being extraordinary in other aspects and that aspect we call a disease.
1:23:06 > 1:23:09So the whole game's collapsing. We resigned.
1:23:12 > 1:23:15I don't consider myself to be...
1:23:15 > 1:23:20..a genius at chess. I consider myself more to be...
1:23:21 > 1:23:25..a genius who just happens to play chess.
1:23:25 > 1:23:28Understand? So I could be doing any...
1:23:28 > 1:23:32I could have done and I can do any number of other things, you know?
1:23:32 > 1:23:36You know, I always wanted to write some songs. I was telling Larry Evans.
1:23:36 > 1:23:39This is back in the '60s. I listened to all his songs.
1:23:39 > 1:23:44I wish I could write that, but I tried to write some, I tried to think of something,
1:23:44 > 1:23:46and I guess nothing comes out.
1:23:46 > 1:23:49And he says, "Yeah, because you haven't lived!"
1:23:49 > 1:23:53I started thinking about it. He's right!
1:23:53 > 1:23:57..Library. All my regular library.
1:23:57 > 1:24:01All my personal correspondence. All my chess sets...
1:24:02 > 1:24:05'Everything stolen. Everything. All of my chess library.'
1:24:05 > 1:24:07He died from a psychiatric illness.
1:24:07 > 1:24:12He did not want to accept treatment for benign prostatic hypertrophy.
1:24:12 > 1:24:17He refused dialysis, as I understand. Could have prolonged his life if he'd taken it.
1:24:17 > 1:24:22I was able to get him a photograph of Regina and Joan to have with him,
1:24:22 > 1:24:26which is what he had with him in the hospital when he died.
1:24:28 > 1:24:33Reportedly Fischer's last words were, "Nothing is so healing as the human touch."
1:24:42 > 1:24:46The former world champion of chess Bobby Fischer has died.
1:24:46 > 1:24:52His career reached its height during matches with his nemesis, Boris Spassky, back in 1972.
1:25:09 > 1:25:11Just his games, that's his monument.
1:25:12 > 1:25:15His games.
1:25:15 > 1:25:18If you love an art.
1:25:20 > 1:25:22Let's say you love painting.
1:25:22 > 1:25:26Imagine if Picasso had died after only five years of work.
1:25:26 > 1:25:28All the rest of his works had never appeared.
1:25:31 > 1:25:34This was a tragedy for the whole chess world.
1:25:36 > 1:25:39He did it all by himself.
1:25:41 > 1:25:46He penetrated the secrets of chess in this shabby Brooklyn apartment.
1:25:48 > 1:25:51He was the best player who ever lived.
1:25:53 > 1:25:55Bobby Fischer, sound roll three.
1:25:57 > 1:25:58Right.
1:26:03 > 1:26:07Bobby, you've been playing this game since you were six years old.
1:26:07 > 1:26:10And playing it very seriously shortly after the age of six.
1:26:10 > 1:26:16Did all this concentration, to the exclusion of other activities, did this bother you?
1:26:16 > 1:26:19Do you think this deprived you of anything growing up?
1:26:19 > 1:26:23- Maybe, yeah, yeah. To some extent, yeah.- Like what?
1:26:23 > 1:26:27Well, it would have been better, a little more balanced, yeah.
1:26:27 > 1:26:31Maybe a little more rounded, but what can you do?
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