| | As someone who spent nearly all his time in isolation studying [[chess]], without a wife at least until well after age of 60, Fischer seemed to become paranoid. He would overreact to incidents like the unexpected sale of his goods in a storage locker by its owner to satisfy unpaid invoices. He read fringe books. He would say many off-the-wall, offensive things. But people who knew him did not think he was an evil person, and today his work in chess is highly respected despite his extremely offensive, off-topic remarks. | | As someone who spent nearly all his time in isolation studying [[chess]], without a wife at least until well after age of 60, Fischer seemed to become paranoid. He would overreact to incidents like the unexpected sale of his goods in a storage locker by its owner to satisfy unpaid invoices. He read fringe books. He would say many off-the-wall, offensive things. But people who knew him did not think he was an evil person, and today his work in chess is highly respected despite his extremely offensive, off-topic remarks. |
| | + | Fischer was, indeed, victimized by false accusations, and a relentless, unjustified persecution which forced him to become a desperate fugitive for the last 15 years of his life. He was falsely accused of fathering a child, which DNA disproved after he died. An unusual enforcement of an international law subjected him to attempted imprisonment merely for playing a game of [[chess]] in the "wrong" country. |
| | Late in life and prevented by the [[United States]] from returning as a free man, Fischer (who was mostly Jewish himself and had many Jewish friends and admirers) made [[anti-Semitic]] and [[Anti-Americanism|anti-American]] remarks in the media over the next ten years. Fischer was forced by an improper international law to become a fugitive by the [[United States]] merely for playing a game of chess in [[Yugoslavia]], and that witch-hunt against him created immense personal hardships. While in his never-ending exile, he praised of the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] when he stated "well, this is all wonderful news. It's time for the [expletive] US to get their heads kicked in. It's time to finish off the US once and for all."<ref>''Bobby Fischer on September 11, 2001'' Transcript [http://everything2.org/index.pl?node_id=1214006 everything2org]. Accessed 18 January 2008. The interview can also be heard on YouTube, but does contain the uncensored expletives.</ref> This cost him his membership in the United States Chess Federation (USCF), which has since been restored. This was generally viewed as symbolic, since Fischer not only did not play chess anymore, and his angry comments may have been due to how the United States was attempting to extradite and imprison him for having played a harmless game of chess contrary to so-called international law. In 2004, Fischer was arrested in [[Japan]], and afterward took [[asylum]] in [[Iceland]]. He died of [[kidney]] failure in January 2008. | | Late in life and prevented by the [[United States]] from returning as a free man, Fischer (who was mostly Jewish himself and had many Jewish friends and admirers) made [[anti-Semitic]] and [[Anti-Americanism|anti-American]] remarks in the media over the next ten years. Fischer was forced by an improper international law to become a fugitive by the [[United States]] merely for playing a game of chess in [[Yugoslavia]], and that witch-hunt against him created immense personal hardships. While in his never-ending exile, he praised of the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] when he stated "well, this is all wonderful news. It's time for the [expletive] US to get their heads kicked in. It's time to finish off the US once and for all."<ref>''Bobby Fischer on September 11, 2001'' Transcript [http://everything2.org/index.pl?node_id=1214006 everything2org]. Accessed 18 January 2008. The interview can also be heard on YouTube, but does contain the uncensored expletives.</ref> This cost him his membership in the United States Chess Federation (USCF), which has since been restored. This was generally viewed as symbolic, since Fischer not only did not play chess anymore, and his angry comments may have been due to how the United States was attempting to extradite and imprison him for having played a harmless game of chess contrary to so-called international law. In 2004, Fischer was arrested in [[Japan]], and afterward took [[asylum]] in [[Iceland]]. He died of [[kidney]] failure in January 2008. |