Mystery Chart No. 3 Revealed

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Caveat: This is long and reveals the name of mystery chart No. 3. If you do not wish to know the name at this time, don't read any further.

Boxer, wrestler, military man and performing artist have been suggested for our native and in one way or another all are accurate. Yet none is correct, Sun, lord ASC in the 9th is important, as our native is known for the use of his mind, or the ?higher mind? as contemporary astrologers call it. Pluto kept popping up but not in the way I expected. The man is a loner, but self-discipline was almost second nature ? sort of. His self-discipline was limited to his chosen field. The rest of his world, internal and external, was chaos, and likely still is.

The short phrase enfant terrible means ?frightful child,? in English and it describes our mystery native quite well. A prodigy who apparently never matured much beyond adolescence was indulged and excused by many because of his enormous talent for succeeding in a rather peculiar pastime: chess. Chess is military in nature, it is played one-on-one like boxing or wrestling, and it is performed for the entertainment of others, although few outside the chess world see it as entertaining, yet he succeeded, temporarily in creating a chess frenzy. Chess sets flew off shelves. Chess books were devoured. The United States Chess Federation?s membership swelled, and then it all went away, just like the man who started it. Our native is Bobby Fischer born in Chicago, but settling in New York shortly afterwards (he had little choice; he was very young). If there is an overlying theme in his life it is summed up in one word: obsession. This obsession led him to the highest title in chess, World Champion, and kept him from becoming a complete man and probably sent him to the dark world of madness he occupies today.

Since chess is something of an arcane subject, especially in the contemporary world of video games, and since high-level chess is not very well known much less understood in the outside world, Fischer became better known for his antics, his seemingly outrageous demands, and his overall boorish behavior. But if we look beyond the rudeness, and bizarre hate filled and frankly paranoid worldview, and get to the man, all that is left is his obsession with chess, an obsession that, according to all reports exists to this day.

In order to understand Fischer we?re going to have to understand the chess world, a shadowy place that is, among other things, a great social leveler. There was a time, and perhaps it is still so, that one could go to Washington Square in New York City?s Greenwich Village and see wealthy Wall Street executives poring over moves with chess hustlers and near vagrants. All that matters is the board. Coffee houses had paper chessboards constantly in use with broken, unmatched pieces, and especially in the cold weather months, they were good hangouts for those same hustlers. Chess fanatics all become obsessed at one level or another, and in some ways are a lot like astrologers. They buy books by the carload (it is said that more books have been written about chess than about all other games combined), study games endlessly, play all sorts of variations, such as speed chess, and unlike astrologers who are not in immediate competition, employ all sorts of off the board tactics to unnerve their opponents as state of mind is do important to victory.

Then there are the big leagues. International Chess (controlled by an organization with the French acronym FIDE) has a point system to determine the best players. In order to gain points a player must defeat opponents who have more points than they do. The higher ranked players lose some of their points to the player or players who defeat them. There are several titles within the system: Master, International Master, and Grandmaster (a title coined by Czar Nicholas II), if this hasn?t changed since I was somewhat involved in organized chess. There is only one title after Grandmaster and unlike professional boxing, only one person holds it: World Champion.

Chess wasn?t always this organized. The first official championship was held in 1886, but it was official because both participants said so. This was pretty much the way things were done until 1948. To try to grasp this world and our native, we?re going to take a cook?s tour of world champions and maybe one or two others. Beginning with New Orleans born Paul Morphy who claimed the title in the mid 19th century. Morphy?s mental prowess was considered so astounding that he reportedly memorized the entire Louisiana civil code and passed his bar exam at age 19. When the then self-proclaimed world champion, Howard Staunton, refused to play him, Morphy declared himself to be world champion, went home, gave up chess, and died crazy.

The next champion wasn?t much saner. Wilhelm Steinetz had to be taken from the insane asylum where he lived to matches and back again. He once claimed he could beat God and offered to play the Divinity over the newly invented telephone and give God odds to boot.

The next two champions were closer to normal. Emanuel Lasker was a mathematician and philosopher, but he didn?t believe in studying the philosophers who came before him instead he developed thought on his own. Unfortunately all he did was cover old ground. A perennial candidate for the world title at this time was Aron Nimzovitch who expressed a feeling all chess players have at times when he jumped on top of the table kicked the pieces all over the room and yelled at the top of his lungs, ?Why must I lose to this idiot?? We?ve all been there Aron.

Our next champion was probably the sanest of the lot, the smooth, urbane, handsome, and hugely popular Cuban, Jose Raul Capablanca. Capa was a chess machine. He claimed never to have read a chess book and relied instead on principles and native genius. He is routinely placed at or near the top of everyone?s all time greatest lists. Outside chess he was well read, educated and a fine baseball player with pro-like talents. He did occasionally show up late for matches, but not out of rudeness. He would run into the hall while pulling on a shirt or adjusting his tie as though he was still getting dressed. He was still getting dressed - having spent the night carousing around town and had just risen from the bed of a lady or two he met the night before. Heroes are made not born.

Capa would lose his championship to a man who was once accurately described as an obscenity scrawled over a masterpiece. Alexander Alekhine. He was a drunk, abusive and had severe psychological problems. He once showed up for a match hopelessly inebriated and urinating on the floor. Unfortunately for his opponents he played drunk better than they played sober. After briefly losing his title to a true gentleman, Max Euwe of the Netherlands, he won it back all the while steadfastly refusing to give Capablanca a rematch, despite it being a precondition in the title match he won. Capa died at the age of 54 of a stroke and Alekhine followed him in death four years later at the same age.

The chess world was in chaos and the system that is more or less used to this day was developed. This was the beginning of the Russian hegemony of chess; one Russian after another took top honors. Chess was not only the national pastime of Russia it was state sponsored giving their players a huge advantage over players from other countries. It became a propaganda weapon as well, during the cold war. The rest of the world?s players had to scrounge out a living doing something in order to survive. Some drove cabs, some gambled, some became clergymen. Very, very few outside the Soviet Union could make enough on chess alone to live.

Soviet champions were no less colorful than those of the past. There were people like Botvinik, who never met a man he couldn?t insult, Tal a man who played chess like the three musketeers played at swords, Petrosian, who easily wins the title of world?s most boring player, and finally a thoroughly decent fellow and ultimately the first Russian to play for the title against a non-Soviet player, Boris Spassky. It was into this World Wrestling Federation for the mind that the brash bad boy from Brooklyn, Bobby Fischer, a high school dropout with an IQ estimated at over 180 entered and bulldozed his way to the wildest world championship of all time in August, 1972, Reykjavik, Iceland. After which, his life swirled deeper and deeper into paranoia.

Tony mentioned early in life primary directions. Little is known for certain of Fischer?s parentage. One man is generally acknowledged to be his father as his name is given on Fischer?s birth certificate, but my reading indicates that this may be in doubt. One source claims Fisher?s father left his family in 1945, perhaps coinciding with Pluto?s direction to the ASC. Fischer?s paranoia doesn?t permit research into his family background.

In the nativity, the Moon, imagination, a requirement for fine chess play, is in the sign of her exaltation at the top of the chart. Jupiter in Cancer (exaltation), natural ruler of the 9th, disposits the Sun in the 9th, but is posited in the 12th and is retrograde, works against the native. Mercury, the rational mind is usually well placed in Aquarius but in this case is afflicted by being conjunct the south node and posited in the 8th house of death. Something will die, and it will be Fischer?s rational mind.

There are those who believe he possesses enormous self-confidence. During the Spassky match he was implored to spend time studying an adjourned position by his second. After all Spassky had 35 (that?s right thirty-five) grandmasters in Iceland and in turn they had contact in Russia with many more. Fischer had himself and two others. He replied, ?Analyze what? The guy?s a fish. Let?s go bowling.? The ?fish? is always listed in the top 20 players of all time and usually in the top ten. Fischer won.

Others insist his stalling tactics are an indication of deep seated fear that he will be exposed as less than he thinks he is. His ego couldn?t stand that or so goes the argument.

If we go to the solar return for 1972 we do not see, or I don?t see, so much the culmination of his life?s work and his finest achievement, winning the World Chess Championship on September 1, but rather the beginning of the end. The angles of his birth chart repeat themselves and are fairly close in degree to the natal chart indicating a significant year. Venus who occupies the MC in her detriment in the nativity again occupies the 10th house, but this time in her domicile ruling the 11th house of ambitions, hopes, etc. He realized his hopes of being World Champion, but ominously on the ASC ? DSC axis lie the nodal axis with the malefic south node on the ascendant. If the south node is where you get hurt, on the ASC the native hurts himself. The part of fortune also occupies the 10th in a Moon sign (Taurus) indicating great fortune, but also occupying the 10th is the lesser malefic, Mars in detriment. The honors will not last. Notice, too, that shortly before his victory, Bobby underwent his first Saturn return.

Since his 1972 victory Fischer has been a recluse. Moving from place to place perhaps emerging on Internet chess sites incognito. At least those are the legends. In what must be the ultimate nightmare for a paranoid, he was arrested for bank robbery in Pasadena, CA, in 1981. He fit the description of the bank robber, but rather than admit who he was, he used a false name complicating matters. He did not commit the crime and once it was learned who he was, and he could account for his whereabouts at the time of the robbery he was released, whereupon he wrote an article about his torture at the hands of the police. Had he been up front with them; he probably would have been released shortly after his arrest.

He played a re-match of sorts with Boris Spassky in 1992. Fischer still claims to be world champion on the grounds that he never lost the title. Spassky, reportedly needed the money, so he went through the charade. The match was held in Yugoslovia and Americans were forbidden to travel there at that time, but Fischer did anyway. He won the match, which produced a couple of seriously high level games, but was mostly uninspired. Spassky was ranked 95th in the world then, and falling. You have to be in top physical as well as top mental condition to play at a consistently high level, not to mention keeping up with the advancements in the game.

He hid in Japan for five years and managed to avoid detection. He cannot return to the US. If he does, he will be arrested for violating the executive order that forbid traveling to Yugoslavia. No small thing either. The maximum sentence is ten years and he is said to owe the US government $3.65 million and 10% of his purse from the 1992 Spassky match. He?s had a few girlfriends and even a wife, and he fathered a child he rarely sees. After decades of defending his repulsive and hate filled behavior, the US Chess Federation finally gave up on him when he publicly applauded the attacks on 9/11.

Fischer?s hate is in the same class as his chess. He is forever blaming ?the Jews? for everything and everyone he doesn?t like is a Jew including, probably to their surprise Bill Clinton and both Presidents Bush. He?s expressed admiration for Hitler particularly his single-mindedness, and dismissed the Holocaust as fiction. The possibility of the long ago trip to Yugoslovia being forgotten is remote as he called George W. Bush borderline retarded. There are some things you just don?t do when you need a favor.

His hate might be a problem, if he had the wherewithal or even desire to do something about it. He doesn?t, and was always on friendly terms with Jewish chess players. Fischer himself is Jewish. One chess player said if it weren?t for chess, he would be a dangerous psychopath. The world does not need a dangerous psychopath with an IQ in the 180s. Perhaps from afar, and being less hate filled than he, we can see him for what he is, not merely an enfant terrible, but a pathetically ill man as much worthy of our pity as our scorn.

Further Reading: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/798934/posts
Bobby Fischer Goes to War by David Edmonds and John Eidinow, Harper COllins 2004

Also the man who probably understands the chess world as well as anyone is Reuben Fine, a prominent Freudian Psychologist who was once a legitimate candidate for the World Championship. He had to make a choice, chess or psychology and chess lost. He wrote a book that I have not read, but I'm sure is good: Bobby Fischer's Conquest of the World Chess Championship.

A decent chronology of Fischer's life can be found at :
http://www.chess-poster.com/great_players/fischer.htm

Unless the reader is certain that the author has a strong grasp of the chess world, take what he writes with a grain of salt. Not all of Fisher's demands were unreasonable although to the uninitiated they may seem that way.

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Tom,

This chart has me baffled. The feel I get from the chart does not match my impression of Bobby Fischer over the years. I don't see his descent into paranoia in the chart. The other mystery charts seemed to fit the astrological musings much better. It makes me wonder if the birth time is accurate. I don't think this is just sour grapes and generally don't mind too much admitting when I am wrong. But this chart just doesn't feel right.

Tony

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Hi Tony,

The time is taken from Brady's early biography of Fischer, Profile of a Prodigy. It was repeated in Bobby' Fischer Goes to War by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (2004). I know what you mean I've seen charts that I don't think fit the native at all. I have an old copy of Prodigy in the basement I'll check it out again.

What would we look for in order to find the paranoia?

I don't know what you know or don't know about Fischer. I do know that a lot of stuff reported about him, like things reported about a lot of celebrities is just wrong. I also know that many of the demands he made over the years seem silly or trivial to casual observers, but weren't really that outrageous. It was just that a lot of chess players didn't want to make them for one reason or another - usually financial survival. Golfers and tennis players routinely make demands that are met in order to insure a high level of play, why shouldn't chess players be given similar consideration? Don't get me started on Rock musicians. On the other hand, some of his behavior is simply inexcusable, and some of it is just mad.

I'll let you know what I find.

Tom

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Tom wrote:
If there is an overlying theme in his life it is summed up in one word: obsession. This obsession led him to the highest title in chess, World Champion, and kept him from becoming a complete man and probably sent him to the dark world of madness he occupies today.
Tony wrote:
I don't see his descent into paranoia in the chart.
There is surely a lot of significance packed into the angular Fixed-sign Moon-Mars square tied to the Asc.-Desc. axis. Opponents and the private lunar world are linked. Fixed signs hold on for dear life, but the Fixed rigidity eventually breaks. The Taoist reed bending in the wind isn?t a Fixed quality.

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There is surely a lot of significance packed into the angular Fixed-sign Moon-Mars square tied to the Asc.-Desc. axis. Opponents and the private lunar world are linked. Fixed signs hold on for dear life, but the Fixed rigidity eventually breaks. The Taoist reed bending in the wind isn?t a Fixed quality.
That's a valid point, Kirk, but I took Tony's remark a bit differently, and I suppose we should wait for him to explain it himself, but I have insomnia tonight. I took him to mean the gradual process of his descent into paranoia. The natal chart by itself is static therefore we should see, via directions or progressions or whatever some kind of sliding into increasing madness, or I think that's possible. On the other hand the chart should offer us a beginning.

I think both the obsession and the paranoia can be portrayed by the nature of fixed signs. In both cases the native will not let go either of the activities related to his passion or to his beliefs that someone or somthing is out to get him.

My first thoughts are Moon - Mercury and sure enough the Moon is on the contra-antiscion of Mercury with a 4 minute orb, and they are both in fixed signs. But where do we go from here to show the descent?

I offer a couple of possibilities using primary directions to conjunctions. Fisher, once he won the World Chess Championship in 1972, subsequently refused to meet his next challenger in, I think 1975. They cycle of matches takes about three years to complete. The following directions occurred just before that time:

Saturn directed to a conjunction with the Moon Oct 1974
Moon directed to the opposition of Neptune in Oct 1974
In both cases we have strong directions involving the planets concerned with the mind.

Also in 1974 the secondary progressed Moon squares the natal Sun, lord ASC for the second time, actually third if you count the square from the 5th house that occurred about 14 years prior in roughly 1960 (age 17 roughly the tim he became an International Grandmaster, then the youngest ever to do so. The next time this square occurred, in 1974, there were no worlds to conquor. These things in combination, and with hindsight seem to indicate the potential for some kind of developing mental trouble.

Tom

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I just had another thought in my sleep deprived condition. I took a look at Fischer's pre-natal eclipse.

Feb 19, 1943
11:38 PM
Chicago Ill

ASC 2 Scorpio
MC 8 Leo
Moon 0 Virgo

The eclipse falls on 0 degrees of the Virgo - Pisces Axis the LSD axis according to John Frawley (long story), and the rulers of Virgo and Pisces combine nicely to mean "Mind expansion." I don't know that Fischer ever took LSD.

His natal Moon falls exactly on the 7th cusp (1 minute orb) of the eclipse chart. If I were to nominate a sign to represent both paranoia and obsession, it would be Scorpio, the sign on the ASC of the eclipse. The antiscion of the eclipse ASC is 27 Aquarius, exactly where Mercury is in the natal chart (3 minute orb).

I don't see unequivical evidence of madness here but there are more refereces to the mind - enough to wonder if it isn't overwhelming the native.

Just some very early morning thoughts.

Tom

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I think this chart makes a bit more sense with whole sign houses, which put the Ascendant ruler the Sun in the 8th house. That tells quite a big part of the story for me. Basically, if we had a chart with the Ascendant ruler in the fortunate, religious 9th house, we would have a person with a decent, morally sound life, that is, basically. Also with moiety orbs, the Sun is still in wide square to Saturn, but I don't know if that counts.

I know a woman who suffers from mild paranoid schitzophrenia and she has a bunch of planets in the 7th whole sign house, as Bobby Fisher had too. But I don't know, if this is just a coincidence.

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The natal chart by itself is static therefore we should see, via directions or progressions or whatever some kind of sliding into increasing madness, or I think that's possible.
I disagree with the idea of a static natal chart ? and very strongly. I see life-long movement in the natal chart: the chart has its pulse which grows, fades and returns. The chart isn?t static; it moves. It?s the constant shifting of a natal chart that I find so difficult to work with. By itself it doesn?t tell you when it will move and how much. The progressions, directions and transits may indicate when something noticeable to others and/or the native most likely will happen, but the heart is always beating and movement occurs. I think we can look at this chart without progressions, directions and transits and perceive what has gone on in the life (as much as any use of astrology is able to tell us that). The dynamic techniques give us the ability to say when things occurred or will occur, but it?s important to not rely too much on predictive techniques to provide the movement. It?s in the chart.
His natal Moon falls exactly on the 7th cusp (1 minute orb) of the eclipse chart.
It looks like I might be picking on a sleepless Tom, but I see the natal chart as offering so much more than a prenatal eclipse chart does ? a chart that would apply to many other people. We sometimes reach for more to work with while not understanding or looking closely enough at what we already have in the native?s chart ? more technique at the expense of less, but well-applied technique. There may be something to be said for bringing in the prenatal eclipse chart, but I can't see how it adds much to what is already in the natal chart. Or rather, maybe we should try as long as possible to work only with the natal chart.


Papretis,
In my previous post I considered mentioning the Sun (Asc. ruler) in the Whole Sign 8th house, but dropped it. The 8th is the house of fears (paranoia?). And Leo & Pisces are averse signs, so the Sun isn?t having a very good time as Ascendant ruler.

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Let me explain a little more about my puzzlement. It seems that given Bobby Fischer's progressive paranoia, there should be clearer indications in the natal chart. I know people and have seen charts with similar configurations that do not belong to individuals who have become so clearly paranoid. For example, I myself was born in 1945 and have friends and colleagues in my age group with Leo rising and Pluto in the first house. I did an internet search for notable people with the same birth date and came up with Charles Gibson of Good Morning America and the Evening News. What is striking is that Gibson, born on the same date and in almost the same location as Fischer, appears to be an almost diametical opposite. He is apparently happily married, sociable, outgoing, friendly, gracious, etc. I could not find a birth time for Charles Gibson (I sent an email to ABC News asking for his birth time and I hope they respond). If anyone has Gibson's birth time, could they post it here? The only difference between Fischer and Gibson's charts will be the house placements and the Moon position.

Not knowing these two individuals personally, I see them as polar opposites in their public personas. Maybe they have a lot more in common beneath the surface. Could Charles Gibson be silently paranoid and Bobby Fischer have a secret desire to be a talk show host? It would be a great exercise to compare the two charts of these notable persons to discern the influence of a change of birth time on the same date of birth.

Tony

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Could Charles Gibson be silently paranoid and Bobby Fischer have a secret desire to be a talk show host?
I don't know anything bout Charles Gibson. In fact, I didn't even know who he was when I came across the fact that he and Bobby Fischer were born on the same day in the same state. I had to write and ask someone. I'm not a TV watcher. In fact I hardly ever turn it on and I probably haven't watched Network News in 25 or more years.

But for the record Fischer did have a radio show! Sort of - he was a frequent guest on one actually. It was broadcast from the Phillipines. He was allowed to give monologues that started out as chess topics but always ened up the same way: vitriolic hate speeches largely aimed at "The Jews." His opinions were never challenged, according to what I've been told, and he just ranted.

I know absolutely nothing about Charles Gibson and wouldn't know him if I ran into on the street. In fact until about 10 days ago, if he were introduced to me, I wouldn't have known that he was a celebrity.

Taking Tony's description as accurate, and there is no reason to do otherwise, it does raise some interesting questions about technique and perhaps about astrology itself. How do people with virtually identical charts turn out so differently? And without a birth time for Gibson, and assuming Fischer's is correct, what is it in his chart that makes him paranoid? I would expect it takes a great deal more than Moon square Mars, an aspect that occurs twice a month (on an angle somewhere), although that may well be part of it.

Tony your expertise might be of help here. Are there typical stages of behavior associated with paranoia? Are there common threads among paranoids? Am I asking overly simplistic questions that require detailed answers not suitable in such a forum? I'd love to know.

Tom

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Tom,

There is a brief bio of Charles Gibson on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gibson. It states that "Gibson is widely perceived as friendly and approachable, yet highly professional. He is also known for being a devoted husband and father." He is a respected TV journalist. Among his honors, "On October 8, 2004, he moderated the second presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry."

Regarding paranoia, the psychiatric model is that behavior is determined by biological, psychological and social factors. Paranoia can travel in families and there may well be a genetic component. Early parenting and nurturing experiences are considered important. If the infant has a repeated experience of the parents and the environment as dangerous and threatening, he or she may develop a paranoid stance. Some parents are known to torture their children in the name of discipline. I have worked with individuals whose parents have locked them as small children in dark basements or closets, burned them with cigarettes, beaten them with electrical cables, burned them with scalding water, starved them, etc. Often the theme of paranoid ideation is a belief that those in authority are unjustly intruding into your privacy and personal life. If your early experience of parenting figures is one of distrust and fear, then paranoia may result. One of my patients is a refugee who survied the situation depicted in the movie Hotel Rwanda. Periodically he decompensates and believes that the government is trying to kill him. I have another patient who believes that the government is trying to make him a scapegoat for the war in Iraq; he believes that president Bush is listening to his phone calls, reading his emails, and systematically dismantling the Bill of Rights. Social factors clearly play a part. In today's world religious fundamentalists live in communities that are paranoid about groups with different beliefs and life styles.

I should also mention Freud's idea about paranoia (at least in men) being related to repressed homosexual desires. Freud had patients for whom this was the case, and in my own experience I have found this idea of Freud to be valid in certain cases. In fact, it is common that paranoid patients terminate the therapy after a session in which they feel close or warm toward the therapist. Closeness gets equated with vulnerablity to attack and they feel a need to run for self-protection.

If we take the 4th to represent Fischer's parenting, it is ruled by Venus in Aries in the 10th and through exaltation by Saturn in Gemini in the 11th. Aries is a troublesome placement for Venus because the nature of Mars and Venus are so different. In addition, Venus is in paran-square with Mars (which receives Venus), so there could be an indication of difficult early parentling. Venus is also in a somewhat wider paran-square with Pluto, which modern astrologers would like to potential abusive parenting. It is striking that Venus is EXACTLY square Jupiter at the time of birth. Perhaps Jupiter as the exalted ruler of Cancer in the 12th becomes an accidental malefic (Cancer is contained in the 12th) and indicates sorrow and grief related to early childhood experiences (Jupiter in 12th square Venus, ruler of 4th). All these comments are of course in hindsight.

From what I know of Charles Gibson (I have watched him on TV and in the presidential debates), he does not seem paranoid. I hope we can find his birth time to be able to compare the two charts.

Best wishes for the holidays,

Tony

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If your early experience of parenting figures is one of distrust and fear, then paranoia may result.
Hi Tony,

The stories of Fischer's early life all seem to come from the original edition of Frank Brady's Profile of a Prodigy, which was written years before Fischer won the World Championship in 1972. A revised edtion came out in 1973, I've just learned. The story is that the name of the father on Fischer's birth certificate is one Gerhardt Fischer, a biophysicist and his mother Regina Wender. In Bobby Fischer Goes to War, she is described as Polish-Jewish. Wikipedia describes her as a naturalized US Citizen from Germany. No one doubts she was Jewish. Supposedly it has recently been established that Gerhardt was Jewish as well. It is difficult to keep up with all the stories concerning the life of Bobby Fischer.

The couple split up when Bobby was one or two and Regina took Bobby and his older (by five years) sister Joan to Brooklyn, New York. Regina was as strong willed as her son and also a highly intelligent woman. She had a master's degree in nursing. She was also politically active as well and quite pushy with the US Chess Federation as her son's potential began to manifest. She was once arrested after chaining herself to the White House fence and to a teenager she must have seemed to be one huge embarasment, but I've never come across anything tha resembles physical abuse. In fact one could argue it went the other way around. When Bobby quit school at 16 home life became so unbearable that Regina moved out!

Rueben Fine wrote a brief psychological description of many of the World Chess Champions from his Freudian perspective. I had the book, loaned it and never got it back. I think this book was written prior to 1972. It was an "upgrade" if you will of the similar work of one Ernest Jones who wrote on either chess champions or just on Paul Morphy. I can't recall.

Anyway Fine noted that all the chess champions were taught the game by their father except one: Alexander Alekhine. He was taught the game by his mother. Fine notes that chess is an acting out of the Oedipal complex. Alekhine had severe psychological problem in addition to his alcoholism and just rotten personality. He came from a wealthy, perhaps noble Russian family that ended up on the wrong side of the Russian Revolution. I think they were the White Russians. He escaped into France by forcing a young girl to marry him. Once across the border he ditched her, probably doing her the favor of a lifetime.

His sexual relations always raised eyebows because he preferred heavy older matronly women for dancing and presumably sex partners. If memory recalls he married several women fitting this description. Obviously marrying his mother since all his marriages (three rings a bell) were to women who were old enough to be his mother. Alekhine's passion for chess was the same as Fischer's and it was often said that Bobby Fisher was the living answer to the question: What would Capablanca have played like if he had Alekhine's passion for the game.

Like Alekhine, Fischer was taught the game by a female. Joan used to bring board games home to amuse her six-year-old brother and one day brought home a chess board. They learned the game by reading the directions or rather Joan read the directions and Bobby learned the game.
Six is awfully young for most people to learn chess.

Of all the champions Fine wrote about, only Morphy and Alekhine seemed to have had sexual problems. Morphy was, according to legend, never taught the game, but rather watched by learning his father play. A similar story would be told about Capablanca. There are all sorts of reasons given for Morphy's psychosis, and one is his supposed rejection by a young woman on the grounds she would never marry "a mere chess player." Morphy would be seen around his home city of New Orleans stopping and staring into women's faces not saying a word and never touching them. I have no idea if anyone found a reason for the psychosis of Wilhelm Steinetz.

Fischer's life until later adulthood was probably asexual. He never had a girlfriend as a teenager, and probably not before he won the World Championship. He's had several since that time, including two sisters at once not all that long ago, but it is doubtful this was sexual in nature. He may have been shortly married and fathered a child. No homosexual tendencies were ever reported or I've never seen any such reports.

He never enjoyed the usual social interactions as a child, adolescent, and young adult. In my non-professional opinion, care has to be exercised when pointing to early instances of paranoia particularly his accusations of Russian cheating. Depending on how you look at it he was right, and at least one Soviet Grandmaster has admitted it. The "cheating" consisted of pre-arranged draws between Soviet players so they could be rested for play against top non-Soviet playres. Since numerically the Soviets greatly outnumbered the other players (at one time the Soviets had at least double the number of grandmasters of any other country and close to half of all grandmasters in the world were Soviet). This way they only had to fight hard half the time while non-Soviet players had to be in top form for the entire tournament.

To the Soviets this was not cheating. They eschewed individual accomplishment. It was the system that was on display and the players existed to prove the superiority of the system. An American wouldn't remotely understand that attitude and it was well beyond the comprehension of Bobby Fisher. One could argue that the Russians were really conserving their energy for each other, and eventually their competitive instincts would take over, but the Soviet Ministry of Sport was less concerned with which Soviet Player came out on top as long as it was a Soviet player. The point is that this is not, in my opinion, an early display of paranoia, but rather an accurate assessment of the situation. The Russians were taking advantage of their numerical superiority to assure a particular outcome to the disadvantage of other players.

Fischer's paranoia doesn't strike me the same way your examples did. Fischer complains that people made financial gains on his name without paying him anything. He claims to have had treasures stolen from him and none of this is true. But it isn't totally fanciful either. His name was used in a popular movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, but under current law, he isn't entitled to payment for using his name in that motion picture.

His "treasures" were stored at a storage facility, and the rent was unpaid. He refused to respond to requests for payment and the owenrs sold off the contents. Some of the memmoriabilia had value and someone actually paid a few thousand dollars for them and tried to give them to Fischer, and he was rebuffed. This seems more like exaggerated whining rather than full blown paranoia, but I work for a paint company. I'm not a mental health professional.

I"m certain some or even much of his behavior fits the paranoid model to one degree or another, but his always seemed a little more grounded except for this most recent blaming "The Jews" for everything. He may refuse to admit he is Jewish, but the existing documentation says otherwise. That isn't rational. He always seemed to me to be more childlike than psychotic, and to my knowledge he's never hurt anyone. Let's hope it stays that way.

he believes that president Bush is listening to his phone calls, reading his emails, and systematically dismantling the Bill of Rights.
Sounds like Nancy Pelosi.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year to all.

Tom