You know...I used to look up to Fisher, because I thought he was a genius (well...maybe he is), but everytime I hear something about him, now, I have the impression he's a very unstable person. Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Bobby Fischer is a walking cautionary tale. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't done this before.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I mean, his childhood and his existence for a very long time was only chess. He was the best in the world at it, but since you can't live in front of a chessboard, his interactions with the rest of the world were terrible. He didn't get an education because he dropped at in his early teens for chess.
Now, he became an adult, and he could have rectified things (see Josh Waitzkin), but that's what I mean by cautionary tale. It isn't fair to even the geniuses to only prepare them in one field, no matter how good they are at it, because they will live in a world that will ask more from them.
On the other hand, I suspect Bobby Fischer would have been a little off no matter what his life before had been like.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Hehe...I like the guy a lot. Of course, I hear his voice a lot, since it's his voice in Chessmaster series computer program. I find his life story inspirational.
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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It's weird that, even though I know he's old, and it was just a movie, I was expecting to see that little dark-haired boy that portrayed young Bobby Fisher when I clicked the link.
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*giggle* Did you see the pictures on that site? You say that like he couldn't crush you with one arm.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I've thought about this type of thing before. Granted, Fisher was probably a natural genius. But natural genius is rarely enough to become #1 in the world. There are always a lot of geniuses out there, no matter what field you are talking about.
So how do you become #1 in a field? You have to dedicate you life to it. Not just be comitted, but be so comitted that you throw away just about everything else in your life so that you can dedicate all your energies to being the best.
If you don't do that, somebody else will, and they will have a distinct advantage over you. Do you want to have a family? Enjoyable hobbies? Happiness? You'd better decide which is more important -- being the best or having those other things.
It seems that this is why so many celebrities have really crappy lives. How many musicians, actors, politicians, etc. are really great at what they do, but have lives that are riddled with misery, divorce, drug abuse, eating disorders, or similar things?
Am I being too pessimistic? Am I just using this idea as an excuse to not excel? Or is there some truth to it?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Did you see the pictures of him as a kid? I think the movie was fairly accurate - the actor even looked like him. There are pictures of Little Josh playing in the park, with his family, with his first coach, and competing against Kasparov.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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MPH, I don't know. Josh Waitzkin is grand champion, almost a PhD from Columbia, started a non-profit that works for sick children, and wins world-class competitions for a sport he took up only five years ago. I don't think excellence and a full life is an either/or proposition.
To make things easier, he does have a profession which earns him a great deal and for which he does not need to keep regular hours. I think it's harder to be a weekend warrior.
BTW, I looked up his instructor and he also teaches "San Da" or "San Shou" and his Grandmaster's surname is "Chen".
The art I study is, technically, Chen Family San Soo or San Siu... and there is evidence to suggest the "shou", "siu", and "soo" are all the same term. There's a very good chance what he's learning and what I study have a lot of similarities.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I learn William C. C. Chen style Tai Chi and my teacher is one of his [Chen's] long time students. She says that Josh is already one of his prize pupils and that there's a good chance he'll be a Tai Chi grandmaster eventually.
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I had a teacher that is a Grand Master that knew fisher when they were young. He said Fisher was always a bit strange and would flip out if he did not play well, even if he won.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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quote:I really enjoyed that movie... I wonder how "dramatized" it was.
I read the book (which the movie was based on)... you know the part at the end of the movie, where Waitzkin is able to look 12 turns ahead (or something like that) to see a way of winning the game? That actually did happen, yow... I can't remember many specifics now, but the movie was generally pretty true to the book (which itself is excellent and muchly recommended).
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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