Persons [ ] Chess is life & Pawn Sacrifice | Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer

“Genius. It’s a word. What does it really mean? If I win I’m a genius. If I don’t, I’m not.”

Bobby Fischer

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“I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.”

Bobby Fischer

at his Hollywood hotel on 12 April 1964. He won 47, lost 1 and drew 2.

Harry Benson, Bobby Fischer, Iceland, 1972

Just before Fischer died, Dr Skulason spent the entire night by his bedside. ‘I would speak in a monologue and he would fall asleep, like a baby. Then he would wake up with aches and pains and I would press some grapes and give him a glass of juice, or some goat’s milk, which unfortunately he could not hold down. Once, towards dawn, he woke up and said his feet ached and asked if I could massage them. I tried my best, and it was then that he said his last words to me and, as far as I know, to anybody. Responding to my hands on his feet he said, with a terrible gentleness, “Nothing is as healing as the human touch.”‘ (…)

*Author John Carlin mainly writes about the ex-World Champion’s last days in Iceland and especially about the very few people with whom Fischer had regular contact. One of those people is psychiatrist Magnus Skulason.








Pawn Sacrifice (2014) 
Director: Edward Zwick
Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer 
Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky

It is based on the true story of Bobby Fischer‘s challenge against top Soviet chess grandmasters during the Cold War and culminating in the 1972 World Chess Championship match versus Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Pawn sacrifice is a move in chess in which a player sacrifices his pawn for a soft advantage such as more space for his pieces or positioning them in better squares in order to develop an attack subsequently. It aims to create unbalanced positions so if the player who is committed to the pawn sacrifice did not capitalize on his temporary advantage, he would lose the game at the end due to his inferiority in material.