FINDING BOBBY FISCHER….Anyone who remembers the bizarrely spellbinding drama of the 1972 world championship chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykjavik can hardly help but be mesmerized by the latest installment in the appalling soap opera that Fischer’s life has become since then. In the Guardian today, Stephen Moss writes about his attempt to interview Fischer following his recent escape from Japan to Iceland:
As [Fischer] is leaving Copenhagen, he is cornered in a car park by the agitated man from Channel 1 and gives some characteristically robust quotes ? to summarise, death to the Jews, death to Japan, death to America, death to George Bush. (Probably death to Tony Blair, too ? Fischer refused to fly via London because he feared he would be grabbed by the police there.) Anyway, Fischer has let off steam, the Channel 1 man’s job is saved, we have a news story.
And where was I, ace sleuth, while the car-park encounter took place? Drinking a beer and composing a short piece about failing to find Bobby Fischer.
If you read to the end, he also has some good advice for anyone hoping to get Fischer to autograph a copy of My 60 Memorable Games….
