In Memoriam: Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (1943 - 2008)
The legacy of yesterday deceased chess grandmaster and world champion Bobby Fischer is remarkable in one particular aspect that the media do not recognize, and it is his engagement in non-aligned countries, especially in former Yugoslavia, the country of his choice for the 1972 world championship match with Boris Spassky. Although the actual match took place in Reykyavik, Iceland, with Fischer winning the title, the controversial 1992 re-match eventually took place at Sveti Stefan island in Montenegro and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Fischer’s refusal to obey instructions from the US Department of Treasury to drop participation due to US sanctions towards Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the main reason for his subsequent life as fugitive for the US authorities and asylum seeker in several countries, of which Iceland granted him one in 2005.
Fischer’s visits to Yugoslavia in 1958, 1968 and in the seventies were given great attention by the Yugoslav media in terms of welcoming a western sportsman and intellectual who is supportive of the goal of Non-aligned Movement that Yugoslavia who, with president Josip Broz – Tito at the time, was a prominent and leading member country. After the refusal to accept the communist “Soviet way” in the early fifties, the Non-aligned Movement gave a chance to Yugoslavia to establish a historically important communication of one European country with the “third world” in the process of decolonization. Fischer’s visits to Belgrade, flooded with students and intellectuals from non-aligned countries were a critical point that made obvious that the “capitalist block” communicates very well in terms of the universal language such as chess. “Game of intellects” in the field of natural sciences and universal languages (with heavy accent on learning the new universal language – Esperanto) was a concept very much regarded in the socialist (not communist) Yugoslavia, where the late Marxism in the sixties acquired the critical mass in architecture, industry, culture, and in support to similar socialist projects in the world. On the political scale, the support was give to the emancipation of undeveloped countries in Africa and Asia, including the controversial Palestinian question. The academic and cultural exchange with Palestinians reduced the diplomatic relations with Israel to almost a zero. Bobby Fischer’s appearances in events sponsored by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia or by any state instance deemed to be supportive of either Vietnamese or Palestinian liberation movements, was perhaps the incentive for creation of his image as “anti-Semite”, especially bearing in mind that Fischer himself did not wrap up much what he had to say.
So, without further speculations of what might have been the cause for his alienation from the world that he came from, these lines are in the memory of a man who was expected to come to my home town at one occasion in the seventies, but due to appendix problems, he cancelled his visit to a chess championship here. Too bad, his visit could have spawned off some anecdotes…
R.I.P. Bobby Fischer
The legacy of yesterday deceased chess grandmaster and world champion Bobby Fischer is remarkable in one particular aspect that the media do not recognize, and it is his engagement in non-aligned countries, especially in former Yugoslavia, the country of his choice for the 1972 world championship match with Boris Spassky. Although the actual match took place in Reykyavik, Iceland, with Fischer winning the title, the controversial 1992 re-match eventually took place at Sveti Stefan island in Montenegro and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Fischer’s refusal to obey instructions from the US Department of Treasury to drop participation due to US sanctions towards Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the main reason for his subsequent life as fugitive for the US authorities and asylum seeker in several countries, of which Iceland granted him one in 2005.
Fischer’s visits to Yugoslavia in 1958, 1968 and in the seventies were given great attention by the Yugoslav media in terms of welcoming a western sportsman and intellectual who is supportive of the goal of Non-aligned Movement that Yugoslavia who, with president Josip Broz – Tito at the time, was a prominent and leading member country. After the refusal to accept the communist “Soviet way” in the early fifties, the Non-aligned Movement gave a chance to Yugoslavia to establish a historically important communication of one European country with the “third world” in the process of decolonization. Fischer’s visits to Belgrade, flooded with students and intellectuals from non-aligned countries were a critical point that made obvious that the “capitalist block” communicates very well in terms of the universal language such as chess. “Game of intellects” in the field of natural sciences and universal languages (with heavy accent on learning the new universal language – Esperanto) was a concept very much regarded in the socialist (not communist) Yugoslavia, where the late Marxism in the sixties acquired the critical mass in architecture, industry, culture, and in support to similar socialist projects in the world. On the political scale, the support was give to the emancipation of undeveloped countries in Africa and Asia, including the controversial Palestinian question. The academic and cultural exchange with Palestinians reduced the diplomatic relations with Israel to almost a zero. Bobby Fischer’s appearances in events sponsored by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia or by any state instance deemed to be supportive of either Vietnamese or Palestinian liberation movements, was perhaps the incentive for creation of his image as “anti-Semite”, especially bearing in mind that Fischer himself did not wrap up much what he had to say.
So, without further speculations of what might have been the cause for his alienation from the world that he came from, these lines are in the memory of a man who was expected to come to my home town at one occasion in the seventies, but due to appendix problems, he cancelled his visit to a chess championship here. Too bad, his visit could have spawned off some anecdotes…
R.I.P. Bobby Fischer
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