Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Crazy and weird chess players


Wilhelm Steinitz
Willhelm steinitz crazy chess players



As a chess writer he is objective in writing and defended his ideas vigorously  from critics, when at a chessboard, he is worst, he earned the reputation as ill-mannered and violent, on both winning and losing, one of the his remarkable account is when he spat at his opponent, Blackburne, during a dispute in a game, his remarked after the incident was :

…he struck with his full fist into my eye, which he blackened and might have knocked out.  And though he is a powerful man of very nearly twice my size, who might have killed me with a few such strokes, I am proud to say that I had the courage of attempting to spit into his face, and only wish I had succeeded. 


Another of his outrageous and eccentric behavior was walking around his yard barefooted, trying to contact people he knew, with his wireless telephone. He believes his strong will power can relay signals in any distance.  He also tried to contact God using his "wireless" telephone and challenge him to a game. He had a delusion  of having telekinesis, wherein he is capable of move chess pieces using only his mind. He died broke prematurely in an asylum.

Aron Nimzowitsch

The innovator of nimzo-indian in which its name was based to his creator, his most hilarious act was when defeat was inevitable during a rapid chess game match against Fritz Saemisc (another chess opening innovator himself), he climbed up to the table and screamed "Why I must lose to this idiot?," enough to make even poker star Phil Hellmuth blush, in another occasion, he slashed all four tires of someone's Ford focus due to an outrage (probably. It would have been five if there is a reserve tire). During tournaments, he would do aerobics by going to the corner of main hall and stand on his head. A popular, but probably apocryphal, story is that once when an opponent laid a cigar on the table, he complained to the tournament arbiters, "he is threatening to smoke, and as an old player you must know that the threat is stronger than the execution." He is also paranoid that he is always being served with less food compared to others, Kmoch a friend of him, trying to help him with his paranoia offered to exchange plates with him, but after doing so, he shook his head, still in disbelief that he is being served with fewer portion.


Paul Morphy - Widely considered the greatest chess player of his era, and is often referred to as an unofficial World Champion. He had given a five simultaneous game against group of masters considered among the top ten players of the day, scoring 3-2.


Perhaps one of the most tragic stories, at his time, chess was not accepted as a descent profession, when he proposed his love to a handsome lady, he got rejected because of his chess profession, then Morphy decided to abandon chess and focus in practicing law, but unfortunately American Civil War broke, He opposed the war and did not serve in confederate army, causing him not being able to practice law. People would go visit him in his office just to ask him to go back and play chess.

Morphy's final days was spent wandering around the French Quarter of New Orleans, talking to people no one else could see, and having irrational feelings of persecution, and on July 10, 1884, he was found dead in his bathtub.
Carlos Torre
A Mexican Grandmaster,  and an exhibitionist, I don't mean playing a game like his opponent have queens instead of pawns, he is fond of going nude in the public, he got arrested once for running in streets naked, another remarkable stint of him was he did it while riding a public bus, so imagine the reaction of the grannys.

Bobby Fischer
His road to chess supremacy is inspirational, his games are remarkable, but what went wrong, is a mystery, his growing hate for Jews and anti-semitic view has earned him the disgust of those who once adored and worshiped him, He was faithful to his religion Worldwide Church of God donating lots of his earnings, but felt betrayed when the church was put in a series of scandals and failed prophecy causing him to denounced it publicly.

He is quoted in Philippine radio program after the 9/11 attacks "All the crimes the U.S. is committing all over the world ... This just shows, what goes around, that comes around even to the United States." so imagine the uproar of the Americans after being insulted after the injury.


Akiba Rubinstein -
He was scheduled to play a world championship match against  Emmanuel Lasker, but unfortunately World War 1 interrupted, he is an anti-social type that his wife would warn his visitors that do not stay long otherwise he will crawl out of window. A nerd crawling out of window, sounds like Peter Parker to me.

Alexander Alekhine -
You have probably heard grandmasters dozing during the game in tournaments, but Alekhine could all make the like of Vachier-Lagrave look amateur, though losing lots of games due to playing completely drunk, he had managed to salvage a few at least not retiring dozed after 11 moves, okay. He did have moments with the carpet of the floor.  His addiction to liquor and drinking during the game may be due to that he is suffering from anthrophobia, a fear of people and society. There was a game of him that after making a move he would stand up and go to the corner of the tournament hall to hide, and wait for his opponent's reply. Nowadays, people would hide to consult their Pocket Fritz.

Vassily Ivanchuk 
Anand describes him as the most eccentric player:


He's someone who is very intelligent ... but you never know which mood he is going to be in. Some days he will treat you like his long-lost brother. The next day he ignores you completely.
The players have a word for him. They say he lives on 'Planet Ivanchuk'. (Laughs) ... I have seen him totally drunk and singing Ukrainian poetry and then the next day I have seen him give an impressive talk.

When offered a draw by GM Alex Baburin during a game in Istanbul, felt on a deep thought for almost an hour to accept the offer.

In one occasion in Linares tournament, He went in to a restaurant and ask the manager to give him Kasparov's favorite chair, and he seated there meditating, when asked, he said He wants to absorb Kasparov's aura, and this paid off actually, winning his next game.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
is a Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman, politician, and president of FIDE since 1995, He visited Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi, during the Libyan civil war, when United Nations is condemning its leader of butchering its citizens, but thats not it, he claims he was abducted by aliens in 1997 and have travelled in galaxy with their spaceship.

8 comments:

  1. With reference to chess and insanity, someone said of Fischer (and I paraphrase) that his insanity was kept within bounds by chess. Once he was no longer playing tournaments, he drifted off into madness.

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  2. and where Fischer was wrong with 9 /11

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  3. Aaron Nimzowitsch died in 1935. How could he slash a ford

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    1. Fords had been around for 30 years, but Focuses wouldn't be for more than 60 years later. I'm sure that's what you meant, but I thought I'd say it before someone makes a rude reply. Either way, I can't find a single source for that story or even another article making the claim, seems bogus to me.

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  4. Chess is an indoor game like any other..e.g.. scrabble, ludo, .. but certainly NOT better than badminton, table-tennis.. just a life wasting game promoted by those who earn from it..by lying that it is a very future realistic brainy game. Actually it is a life consuming ..a mere game that only royals.. who lack anything else to do play!

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  5. (Part 1 of 2)
    I was in the WWCG cult as Bobby Fischer. I took the same so-called "mysterious" track that Bobby did. It was no great mystery or leap of imagination. That cult leader Armstrong terrorized the cult with prophecies that in 1972 the Pope would emerge as antichrist, and the "Nazi Fascist Holy Roman Empire" would arise and invade the U.S. and Britain, and round up sabbath keeping worshippers, both Jews (of the tribe of Judah that were identified with the ancient southern Kingdom of "Judah" (part of the Israelites) and the "tribes of Israel" located in the northern kingdom of "Israel"(which included Bobby Fischer and myself among the Hebrew tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim). That was the cult's doctrines.
    In 1972, there was no escape to the place of safety and the Nazis didn't invade. Bobby spoke of his disillusionment,

    “But I was really upset in 1972 when Herbert Armstrong refused to apologize. He could have just apologized and said, ‘I became overly enthusiastic. I wanted Christ to return so badly. Everything seemed to fit. Please excuse me. I won't do that again.’
    I thought, ‘This doesn't seem right. I gave all my money. Everybody has been telling me this [1972 would be the date the WCG would flee to a place of safety] for years. And now, he's half-denying he ever said it when I remember him saying it a hundred times. And then on top of it, he won't even apologize for saying it.’ When you put it all together, it's hard to accept his sincerity. That's the problem.”
    -Bobby Fischer, 1977, Ambassador Report

    In 1973, Bobby was reported by the NY Times:

    "...by the beginning of 1973, he had withdrawn into the weird, contrarian solitude he more or less maintained for the remainder of his life... the church's home base, or nearby Los Angeles, where he was said to spend his time replaying chess games and reading Nazi literature. There were reports that he was destitute..."

    Yeah, poor Bobby stuck around in that cult for a couple years after 1972, holding on, thinking maybe there was some truth to Herb's lies. In 1974, he tithed his last.

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  6. (Part 2 of 2)
    He did what I did (and some others did). He was afraid of the coming extermination camps, the planned Nazi invasion. What is more logical than reading the literature of your prophesied killers? Bobby was Asperger's Syndrome and traumatized by Armstrong's terror. He wasn't going to be able to see through the mendacious levels of deception in Nazi propaganda. Nor could I. They write things in such a way to make it appear, Religious Jews were responsible for the Soviet Union's tyranny. The Religious Jews are blamed for every conceivable evil. It's very convincing, to the undiscriminating eye... Bobby was taught to blindly believe up to that point in the cult, not to question, not to be cautious or skeptical.

    We both ended up falling into the Nazi propaganda trap. I ended up marrying a man on the far right, and he killed 3 people. That was in the press back in the mid 90's. By 1998, I abandoned the violence of the far right, but continued to study their claims about history. They exploit bits of truth. I wanted to know what was true, and what was a lie.
    That's how Bobby got wrapped up with them too. He was searching for the truth about history. It's very sad, because he was exploited (a vulnerable adult with Asperger's/Autism), for 15 years in Armstrong's cult of terror, then, without benefit to catch his breath so to speak, preyed upon by Nazi shills and re-brainwashed. Then in 1982, he fell victim to police brutality.

    I acquired a licensed psychological professional (2017) qualified with treatment of Autism and diagnosis, -- she concluded Bobby Fischer had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder based on his two testimonies from 1977 and 1982:

    "Bobby Fischer Speaks Out!" (1977)
    "I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!" (1982)

    Real trauma, and not meriting "delusional" or "insane"). Bobby Fischer was terrorized and tortured over such a long period of time, it messed with his mind, and changed his personality. PTSD causes literal, physical damage to delicate networking in the brain, and when the brain repairs itself, the person is never quite the same.

    Anyhow, I learned this year, June 2017, that Bobby Fischer was 15 years in the cult (shocker) and I was in it for 18, and then, at last, I could make sense, and find inner peace and resolution as to why I was propelled by the cult terror of Nazi extermination camps, into the far right... after 1998, I carried a great guilt for the mistakes I suffered, but if Bobby Fischer, the World Chess Champion could make that mistake, anyone could. I was able to at last forgive myself and now, using my story, to make sense of the circumstances that lead to the tragic outcome of Bobby's life.

    He didn't deserve any of the terrible things that happened to him.

    You can find the story by Googling "vindication-of-bobby-fischer (dot) co"
    On facebook: facebook (dot) com/BobbyFischerTruth/

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