I love this story!!
I'm impressed by ChatGPT. But I've also got a healthy respect for Atari Chess, a cartridge for the classic Atari 2600 Video Computer System from 1977. I got Atari Chess when I was nine years old in third grade. I'd just learned how to play chess and already wanted to get better by having a computer opponent to practice with. Atari Chess beat me EVERY time. Then again I've only won a single time at chess but that's beside the point...
He was so intoxicated that he could barely sit in his chair and soon fell asleep after only 11 moves.
His inebriated state cost Tkachiev the match after tournament officials decided he was in no condition to play and after Tkachiev had run afoul of the hour and thirty minutes time limit.
(Maybe Tkachiev should consider taking up chess boxing instead? :-)
Let's get the obvious out of the way: yes, he was a very troubled person. His wild rants against the Jews alone hinted more of serious mental instability than sincere bigotry.
But in spite of it all, Bobby Fischer was - and to many people still is - considered to be the greatest chess player in history.
No man is perfect. And instead of harping on his erratic behavior and bizarre beliefs, it's a much better thing to mark his passing by toasting his talent. Indeed, his 1972 victory over Boris Spassky has been deemed an important moment in Cold War relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
For what it's worth, without passing judgment on his beliefs, I've always thought that the U.S. government went way over the line in harassing him after he met Spassky for a rematch in Yugoslavia in 1992. I mean, threatening a man with ten years in prison... for playing a game of chess?!? He never came back to America after that.
In the end, after a glorious youth that turned into years of reclusion and ridicule, Bobby Fischer has passed away in Iceland at the age of 64.
