Bobby Fischer on Paul Morphy and how opening theory destroyed chess #chess960

This is why Magnus is so special. He’s good enough forces even the best players out of their prearranged book knowledge & memorized sequences.

Europa Universalis is also solved and broken for high level players. The problem isn't that chess can be completely dissected by machine logic, it's that people think chess is magical, special and important. It's just a fucking board game. Get over it. Nobody gives a shit that Sorry is solved. People still play Checkers, too.

Fischers greatest contribution to chess is probably Fischer Random AKA Chess960
You know when you play any opponent who has played standard chess seriously for just a few years knows theory on most main lines of all main openings. But when you
play 960, you know the opponent, just like you, is not "Booked up" and knows the best main lines and theory. So it makes even much better players than your self work for the win. Most of the time it takes a few minutes just to get an initial opening eval of any quality. I've opened and lost the initiative quickly by a blunder on move one! Then, in the post mortem analysis, I see the error I made was not something I didnt understand. It was that I didnt have a lifetime of experience and theory to lean on.

is it just me or Bobby Fischer is real world Rick Sanchez in terms of speaking style?

Is there a mathematical theory (or a beginning) of chess?

He was talking about computer when creativity is down the list

Isn't this true with our real life too? Hasn't most of the schooling and education (and even workplaces) become like rigid opening theories? We are all (at least most of us are) following pre-defined paths, because, if we don't, we don't stand a chance in the competition where everyone else is "getting the advantage" of following these "opening theories". Where and what TF my life has been spent in? Just "competing" and not living 🥴

Fischer isn't wrong.... I'm assuming it's an interview even though he seems like he's annoyed by them. People are so pathetic wanting to take photos and ask questions to celebrities all the time. It seems like most people don't have any self-awareness to realize people want to be left alone

Star treck tri-dimensional chess: the confrontation "Pica of the Galaxies": Spock x Bobby
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I agree with the great Bobby Fischer: speed chess is the prove of the truth of anything he said in this airplane interview

Conclusion: at certain point, chess became limitated and small to him ... his chess geniality needed more pieces and more squares in a bigger board

very cool to see and hear Fischer in his later years. Sounded perfectly coherent to me. thanks for posting.

He's absolutely right, the vast majority of chess is just theory, especially in the era of engines being far more powerful than the best human player, it's just a memorisation game.

A little creativity towards the end is important of course, but if you can memorise enough, you could beat a lot of more talented, creative players just by dominating them through the early-mid game

Bobby Fischer was the last "Lone World Beater"! He entered history alone. He was correct that computer teams and analysts were key to the success of all World Chess Champions after Bobby.

He lost his mind decades ago

man i can't stand interviewers who interrupt their guest. isn't the whole point of interviewing someone to LISTEN to them? let them finish their train of thought before asking another meaningless question

Glad he was a part of our generation.

Isn't this why speed chess was invented?

I feel Fischer has been mistreated by poor press. This man has a strong argument and reveals the result of loving, enjoying, a game that people made into something else entirely, sapping imagination from it, reducing it.

He wasn’t insane, as his critics claimed, but insanely intelligent.

I’ve been learning chess from my roommate who is quite good (lessons as a child, plays tournaments, plays online ranked at 1650) and I’ve found that the game is a lot how Fisher describes it. After a good game we will analyze it and all my mistakes are in the openings and there is just knowledge that I don’t have that he does. So to get better I have to either memorize these openings or play tens of thousands of games to develop this knowledge. Which frankly, is not very fun to me. I enjoyed playing with my brothers when I was young and neither of us knew these things but the games were much more exciting! I’m not sure I want to learn chess anymore if the game gets less fun at higher levels.

try 4 player chess if you guys want to have fun

i kinda agree... the 1800+ range is just knowing moves by heart
its like <<having fun>> and trying to outplay your opponent, its mostly who blunders the hardest in low ELO and higher ELO is just memorizing lines and being more prepared

Dude is a genius

And yet for a man of this unique high caliber they dare to say he was crazy

He thinks chess is an art when it’s a game which is closer to a sport which means the better prepared guy will win almost every time not given some sort of miracle

He would have loved fortnite

Sigh, I think I know why he “disappeared”. Damn.

Bobby Fischer, the best.

The most concerning modern-day's paradox is that the more intelligent the computers we make the -dumber we become...

Like high-level blackjack. The "better" you are the more mechanistic with less fun.

Has he ever played Magnus?

He is saying that computational theory is making chess boring. But if you look at game design as a whole, that computational power has been used to provide the procedural generation necessary to make a lot of games that would have been otherwise forgetable: strategy games, RPGs, sandbox games. The creativity and replayability of these games is owed to their random nature. They still have hard set and predictable rules, but they are modular and can fit into random scenarios.

It was like a light-bulb went off in my head to connect these ideas when he started talking about Fischer-Random, the whole goal of carrying the integrity of chesses design while retaining its replayability.

hes right. It's disgusting. It's a game about knowledge, not intelligence.

This is why my grandfather brother Benny, may live long told me years ago when I was a kid that chess is not mind game it's a memory game, and that Snooker is much better.

Exactly ,those same openings and exchanging pieces just to promote a queen is boring no one would like to watch 2 players exchange every piece, that's why i like tal's game i have rarely seen him play endgame

He seems utterly egoless about chess. And as someone who sorta abhors memorizing chess moves, I definitely feel like I have a better chance against people when I play chess 960.

A real warrior!. He never stopped figthting to find the best move. He never gave an easy draw even when the positiion was techinically drawish! Without books, computers, IA and withour a team to help him. He was the best!! I wonder how many players could reach his achievements without the money and resources tha professional players have nowdays

Very DaVinci looking here.

He should have just taken a laxative powerful enough to get his head out of his ass and just played the Hippopotamus. Both sides. Fuck, man, it's a game. He still could beat anyone today. Autism has it's strengths.

Genius, but with some problems. 💥

The greatest of them all

Oh dear what a question to ask Bobby with the subtitles on at the least few minutes and his answer was brilliant lol

He just dont want to memorize games and thats why he hates it, its like the people that hates woman because cant get atracttive for one...

I wonder if Paul Morphy was the greatest chess player ?

Tal will disagree.Probably best creative genius chess player ever lived

Man this is what I've been saying all along

Genius. Legend. Honest. Real. True. Experienced. Period.

A Chess Player's actual brilliance is known when he makes a move not known in the books , over the board & within the time limit given to him...

The saddest part is that did never arranged interview with Paul morphy. However, video cameras were invented in those days.