I watched the Netflix documentary on the young chess prodigy on Saturday. He's still young and has to stay on top a bit longer, but I think he might be the best chess player ever. The way he dismantled Anand twice is impressive.

Fischer was a genius with chess, and if he hadn't gone insane during his peak, I would have liked to have seen what he could have done throughout a longer career. Kasparov usually gets credit as the best, and he may be. But Carlsen's intuition is unbelievable.

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Great documentary.

I have never played chess in my life, but am always drawn to chess stuff on TV. Even when the computer played the human -- didn't know what was going on, but was riveted for some reason.

Yep. I knew some about him before, but the documentary was fascinating.

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I used to be a rather precocious player myself as a young lad. Here I am under the tutelage of a stern Russian Grandmaster:

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Don't take it personally.

Fischer might have been eccentric and had eccentric views, but he was not insane like the media would have you believe. Was he paranoid? Yes. Listen to his whole press conference after he landed in Iceland, where he stayed until the end of his life. He destroyed those reporters that had hostile questions toward him, like that asswipe, Jeremy Schaap. The clip they always play of that interview was of Schaap saying Fisher didn't have a sane bone in his body, yet they always omit how Fischer killed him with his prior answers.

No question about it that Carlsen is very, very good. He beat former World Champion, Karpov, when he was only 13 in 2004. In the same tournament, he drew against Kasparov. The one player Carlsen has trouble with, though, is Ukranian GM Vassily Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk has beaten Kasparov, too.

I don't think anyone will ever eclipse Fischer's record en route to becoming world champion. He won 20 straight, beating Taimanov 6-0 and then Bent Larsen 6-0, before finally losing a game to Petrosian. That feat is completely unheard of at the highest levels of chess.

Young jorr with a Manhattan with a sucker!

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

It may be my jingoism kicking in and I have more than a passing interest in chess but I think no one has ever been better than Fischer.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Already with the Manhattan I see.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

It is pretty amazing the amount of aptitude it takes to master a game that from the outside appears basic for lack of a better word.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

the game itself is basic. the gameplay is where it really gets complicated. mostly because it's a convoluted duel.

I suppose insane wasn't probably the right word because I do agree that Fischer was a very paranoid guy and did receive a bad rap for some of it. But he definitely did bring a lot of it on himself. And I do agree that the interview with Schaap was very biased in the way the media has consistently portrayed it, but Fischer was still completely unhinged by that point. Iceland was about the only country that would take him in at that point, and even they got sick of him by the time of his end. I haven't seen someone blame the Jews that much for everything since the last LTG post I read.

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Don't take it personally.

I didn't know Jerry Lewis was Russian.

The man looks like Smyslov. But I doubt JORR was mentored by the former Soviet world champion, unless JORR has been a Russian spy all along.