Friday, January 19, 2018

17 January 2008: The lone king wanders off...

Ten years ago, on 17 January 2008, Bobby Fischer has died.
I remember going into the chess club at Friday evening that week, and being told by my fellow player Uli G. whilst going into the basement room in the hotel in my home city that Bobby Fischer has died. I'm not sure if I cried that night, or if it was later. I went on to buy the New In Chess that dealt with Bobby Fischer afterwards. "The lone king has wandered off...", the title story of van Geuzendam proclaimed, detailing Fischer's life - and death - in Iceland.

Two new ChessBase articles are interesting to read now, ten years later.

ChessBase has found an interesting coincidence: 17 January 1951 was the first public appearance of a young jewish American chess prodigy. His name? Robert James Fischer. "Bobby".
 https://en.chessbase.com/post/17-january-1951-bobby-fischers-first-simul

Another article on ChessBase deals with the last days of Iceland's most famous grandmaster...
https://en.chessbase.com/post/bobby-fischer-s-final-days