Saturday 19 January 2008

Some people don't age well


The death of Robert ("Bobby") Fischer yesterday brought back memories to 1972, when the whole world was watching the Chess World Championship games between Fischer and Boris Spasski. At that time I was a reasonable chess player (for my age) and was the #2 in our school. The combination of chess and world politics (an American playing against someone from the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war) made for very interesting stories on TV and in the newspapers. After Fischer won the game and became world champion, he disappeared from the public eye and had many crisis in his personal life. He refused to pay US taxes and was finally arrested a few years ago in Japan because he travelled on an expired US passport. He was happy about the September 11 attacks, said that Bush was a "war criminal" who should be "hung", and that the "Jews are leading America". After his arrest, Iceland offered him citizenship and he died of kidney problems at the age of 64 in a Reykjavik hospital. He certainly didn't age well, looking at his pictures as a cute kid, a handsome young adult and as an old man, one can see the problems he has had in his life.
As for me, I was very busy at work this week. OS also needs a lot of attention as he feels very sick from the radio therapy and he can't speak well, can't eat solid food and he feels unstable so I have to help him climb the stairs etc. Hopefully the doctors are right and by mid-February his situation will have improved.

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