mastermind captured!

[a.k.a.]

"The US government's

12-year pursuit of Fischer, considered by many to be the greatest player in chess history, ended this week when he

was detained by immigration authorities in Tokyo for trying to leave Japan using an invalid

passport."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1263311,00.html

(Bet you

thought I was talking about Osama.)

[DrSmellThis]

Ten years in prison, merely

for playing a chess match in a taboo country, twelve years ago!?

...A very sad downfall of a great

Champion, and the greatest chess player in history. If any good comes of it he will get some treatment for his

mental illness, a paranoid psychosis, and return to chess. But I'm not optimistic.

I love how all the idiots

have been demonizing him for being paranoid. So many people haven't learned a thing, despite all the information

out there about mental illness.

I've been following Bobby Fischer since I was eleven. He is a fascinating

figure in history.

The tremendously dramatic '72 match with Spassky was one of the monumental events of the

Cold War. It was quite something to have the eyes of the world riveted to a chess match. Fischer was truly a hero at

that time, for a country that badly needed one.

Had he stayed in chess he would have beaten everyone, for a long

time.

[bjf]

damn, when i saw the post title, I

though we got osama

yea yea, never gonna happen

[metroman]

Punishment definetly doesn't

fit the crime in this case, totally unfair...I think you get less time for murder...throwing him in jail isn't

going to solve anything. I'd classify him as a political prisoner. Probably being punished more for his vitriolic

statements on Philipino Radio than for playing the 92 match in the former Yugoslavia.

[DrSmellThis]

Everyone should know that the

statements on the radio were mostly crazy ramblings that didn't make sense, though they appeared on the surface to

somewhat make sense -- typical paranoia. He's like the guy in "A Beautiful Mind", only with a slightly different

mental illness. His thoughts and statements are not true to how he is in person, which is gracious and gentle. He

suffers paranoia primarily about Jewish people, though he and his family were Jewish, and although many of his

friends in Manhattan were Jewish. It doesn't make sense, because that's how mental illness is. He used to be that

way about Russians too, but was one of a few people who visited the Russian grandmaster, Tal, in the hospital when

he was gravely ill. Fischer spoke fluent Russian. Tal held him in high regard.

[Holmes]

He's like the

guy in "A Beautiful Mind", only with a slightly different mental illness.

Exactly.
.........

[DrSmellThis]

He was a true genius. In his

prime he virtually couldn't lose, and rarely drew. Not even Kasparov could do that in his prime. This was unheard

of in chess, and is still unheard of at the top levels, where players mostly play to draws, with a win here and

there.

He also did more to boost American morale during the Cold War than any other person. Ironically, even

many Russians have revered him, and treated him like a great celebrity (more than Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali).

If anything, the judge should have compassion and sentence him to take medications. It won't happen if Bush

is still president, though. After all, they execute retarded and mentally ill people (but not recovering

cokeheads or alcoholics) all the time in Texas, thanks in part to Bush. He'll be made an example of.