60 “Mr. Nigro introduced me around and when I got better it was easier to get a game.” BFE, p. 2.
61 Kibitzers, always free with mostly unwanted advice BFE, p. 5.
62 “Mr. Nigro, when is the food coming?” Author’s conversation with Carmine Nigro, May 1956, New York.
63 So involved was Bobby in his games NYT, June 20, 1955, p. 42.
64 Bobby was highly indignant PRO, p. 10.
65 “We were glad when it was over” BFE, p. 5.
66 He finished fifteenth, and was awarded a ballpoint pen NYT, October 3, 1955, p. 27.
67 A few weeks later, however, while walking with his mother BFE, p. 5.
68 The New York Times ran a small story about the results NYT, October 3, 1955, p. 27.
69 “My grandfather had shown little interest in [me] and knew nothing about chess.” BFE, p. 5.
Chapter 3: Out of the Head of Zeus
Regina Fischer’s diary entries about Bobby’s trip to Cuba offered illuminating anecdotes about his interactions with his teammates. Interviews of players such as James T. Sherwin, Allen Kaufman, and Anthony Saidy, and extracts from Bobby’s autobiographical essay, also elucidate aspects of his life at this time.
1 “We were looking for [a way] to get out of the heat …” BFE, p. 4.
2 “I was so impressed by his play that I introduced the 12-year old to Maurice Kasper, the president of the club” Letter from Walter Shipman, March 31, 2009, FB.
3 “perhaps half of all of the greatest players of the past hundred years have been Jews” Saidy and Lessing, p. 179.
4 “I adored playing with Bobby” Interview of Dr. Stuart Margulies by the author, February 19, 2009.
5 Nevertheless, the boy was impressed at being in the presence of a champion Note by Bobby Fischer, undated, circa September 1955, FB.
6 Eighty-year-old Harold M. Phillips, a master and member of the board, wistfully likened Bobby’s style of play Author’s conversation with Harold M. Phillips, circa 1964, New York.
7 “You can’t win every game. Just do your best every time.” BFE, p. 5.
8 “He would just get real quiet, twist that dog tag even more and immediately set up the pieces to play again.” Mike Franett, “The Man Who Knew Bobby Fischer,” Chess, September 2001, pp. 8–10.
9 Regina called Bobby every day at an arranged time to see if he was all right Press release, undated, circa March 1956, MCF.
10 “It gave me a big thrill” BFE, p. 4.
11 One player, William Schneider, said he was embarrassed when he and Laucks—sporting his swastika Interview of William Schneider by the author, circa 2005, New York.
12 Bobby gave a twelve-board simultaneous exhibition against members of the club and won ten and drew two BFE, p. 8.
13 “The Cubans seem to take chess more seriously” BFE, p. 5.
14 The New York Times took notice of the Log Cabin tour NYT, March 5, 1956. p. 36.
15 the unstructured routine enabled him BFE, p. 5.
16 he disliked “any kind of formality and ceremony.” BFE, p. 5.
17 “Bobby Fischer rang my doorbell one afternoon” Collins, pp. 34–35.
18 The short, stunted man confined to a wheelchair and the growing boy went to movies Peter Marks, “The Man Who Was Fischer’s Chess Mentor,” Newsday, September 28, 1992, p. 39.
19 Bobby said that he always felt Nigro was more of a friend than a teacher BFE, p. 2.
20 With pupils, he’d often just set up a position and say, “Let’s look at this” Interview of Allen Kaufman by author, March 16, 2009.
21 “I think Jack helped Bobby psychologically, with chess fightingness” Interview of James T. Sherwin by author, February 29, 2009.
22 “geniuses like Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci” Collins, pp. 48–49.
23 She persuaded Maurice Kasper of the Manhattan Chess Club to give her $125 toward Bobby’s expenses Letter from Regina Fischer to Maurice Kasper, June 24, 1956, MCF.
24 Bobby played a twenty-one-game simultaneous exhibition International Photo, undated, FB.
25 Some of America’s youngest but strongest stars had ventured north of the border Interview of James Sherwin by author, February 27, 2009, by telephone.
26 “I knew I should have won!” From “Let’s Play Chess,” by William Oaker; clipping from unidentified newspaper, January 18, 1958. FB.
27 Freud held that dream content Freud, pp. 350–51.
28 “I had no idea that I was talking to a future world’s champion” Interview of Larry Evans by author, January 2010, by telephone.
29 “I’ll stop coming” Author’s conversation with Regina Fischer, circa 1958, New York.
30 “Industry!” Regina yelled at Bobby Conversation between author and Regina Fischer, circa 1956, New York.
31 Bobby’s remembrance of Streisand? “There was this mousey little girl” Andersen, p. 41.
32 Indeed, he’d already begun making frequent visits to the Marshall Recollection of author.
33 It was at this club that Cuba’s brilliant José Raúl Capablanca gave his last exhibition Archives of the Marshall Chess Club, MCF.
34 Bobby’s habitual mufti of T-shirt, wrinkled pants, and sneakers was considered an outrage by Caroline Marshall Author’s conversation with Caroline Marshall, May 1964.
35 Dark-haired, elegant in speech and dress, the twenty-five-year-old Byrne invariably held a cigarette between two fingers Observation of author, and Golombek, Golombek’s Encyclopedia, p. 52.
36 “The onlookers were invited to sit right next to you” BFE, p. 3.
37 Then, suddenly, he moved his knight to a square where it could be snapped off CL, December 1956, p. 374.
28 “It was extraordinary: The game and Bobby’s youth were an unbeatable combination.” Interview of Allen Kaufman by author, March 16, 2009.
39 As the game progressed, Bobby had only twenty minutes remaining on his clock to make the required forty moves CR, December 1956, p. 374.
40 He wasn’t absolutely certain he could see the full consequences of allowing Byrne to take his queen Fischer, My 60 Memorable Games, p. 65.
41 “Impossible! Byrne is losing to a 13-year-old nobody.” Hammond Times, February 24, 1957, p. 15.
42 Yet, other than the rapidity with which he was responding to Byrne’s moves, Bobby showed little emotion NYT, October 18, 1956, p. 44.
43 “Bobby Fischer’s [performance] sparkles with stupendous originality.” CR, December 1956, p. 374.
44 Bobby’s game appeared in newspapers throughout the country and chess magazines around the world Kasparov, p. 213.
45 The British magazine Chess relaxed its stiff upper lip, calling Bobby’s effort a game of “great depth and brilliancy” Chess, November 9, 1956.