Posted 10:02 AM by Gene

I wish I knew why the hacks went into this brief but intense spasm of mourning over Bobby Fischer. They tell us he was a "genius". Why do I suspect with many chess masters their genius is limited to one thing and one thing only? Besides as Fischer was not the first to prove, a high-IQ man may lead a low-IQ life. Several years back after he made his nutty comments about 9-11 a magazine (and I wish I could remember which one -- I'm thinking it was The Atlantic) ran a lengthy profile of the man, and it quickly became obvious Fischer was at best the MJ of chess -- an absolute cipher. Moreover he appears to have been unhinged almost from the beginning. What especially grates is that in some ways Fischer was also Bugmeister Bill and videogame phreaks before they came along -- a definitive geek obsessively devoted to the complete mastery of trivia. Why should we celebrate a man who did little but move black and white pieces on a checkered board, and then collapsed into political hysteria?

P. S. on 1/20 at 1:35 p.m. It was The Atlantic. (Via Reason.com via TNR.com)