(696) MUSIC AND ME (Jan. 30, 2014) YUI MIYAZAKI- HER FRIEND AND A NOTE WITH DRAWING (ala Rin Kita)

COLLECTOR'S ITEMS
     Many people collect valuable items like coins, stamps, jewelries, etc. which may cost more in the future. It's like investments. What I collect are handwritten requests of songs from customers, small notes with drawings, 2-dollar bill, origami (in dollars), and many other small items from customers, like a cute note and drawing by Yui Miyazaki, middle. I treasured it like the one Rin Kita has given me 2 years ago. It makes Rin Kita almost in tears realizing that there are people who give importance to their effort of writing or drawing something from their hearts.
                                                       (Photo by Roberto Hernandez) 



    A NOTE AND DRAWING FROM
               YUI MIYAZAKI

  A very simple yet an illustration of drawing talent by Yui Miyazaki.

   Although the grammar needs improvement, it's the thought that counts.

   I remember in 1971, a young girl wrote me a letter that still lingers in my mind:
   "Dear Obet, It's very nice watching you play the guitar. My weakness is seeing you play and learning the chords of a song repeating and repeating until you've found the right chords. Never giving up until you learn that tiniest details of the chords. Keep it up!"
           No mention of her name. Until now, I don't know her but her inspirational letter is a cherished one although I lost the letter already. 


THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW I CHERISH NOTES FROM GUESTS:
            FROM POST NO. 282 (MUSIC AND ME - Aug. 16    A LETTER FROM A 6-YEAR-OLD JAPANESE GIRL)

          A LETTER FROM A 6-YEAR-OLD
                   JAPANESE GIRL

WHILE playing piano at Waves Restaurant on Sunday evening, March 20, 2011, a 6-year old Japanese girl is watching me play. After finishing the song, I called her and gave her my card. She was very excited about it and showed the card to her mom and auntie.

                There’s also a young Japanese couple with 2 kids (one is maybe one year old and the other is 3 years old). They’ve been regular guests at Waves and Breeze Bar in the last 3 days.

                Minutes later, a group of Japanese came and have dinner in the wooden area. Five of them are in a wheelchair. One of them can ‘drive’ it without someone pushing it.

                At past 8:00 pm, after finishing their dinner and paying their more than $700.00 bill, the group had surrounded me. The two wheelchairs with an old lady and a guy positioned to my right, one at my back and another 2 to my left. They like my rendition of Japanese songs. I showed them my Japanese song book and they choose and requested songs from that.

                The old lady in a wheelchair to my right requested “Ai No Sanka”. She clapped enthusiastically after the I played that song. I gave her and the guy at my back my card. She appreciated it very much and shook my hand in gratitude.

                The girl, Rin Kita, and the young Japanese couple with 2 kids, are watching those guests around me having a good time. After 3 more requested songs, they left. One of the ladies (not in wheelchair), gave me $5.00 tip and another lady gave me also $5.00 tip. I gave another card to the last guy in a wheelchair on my right.

                After they left, Rin Kita approached me and talk to me in Japanese. She specifically said “Ashita”, asking if I’ll be at Waves Restaurant again tomorrow evening. I told her “Shigoto wa rokuji kara, kyuji made desu (koko) to kyuji kara juichiji made desu (Breeze Bar). Sui-yobi wa yasumi. (It means I work from 6-9pm there and 9-11pm at Breeze Bar and Wednesday is my day off).

                Before 9:00, the Japanese guy and his 3-year old daughter approached me and gave me $10.00 tip. He said it’s their last night tonight and they will go back to Japan. I gave the girl my card. Upon reading it, he asked his daughter to say “Thank you, Roberto san.”

                Another young Japanese couple farther away also enjoyed my music. Before going home, the lady gave me $2.00 tip and said, “Thank you for the very nice Japanese songs.”

                At Breeze Bar, the Japanese couple with 2 kids proceed there and clapped after I played a song, whether Japanese or American songs. When it’s time for them to say goodbye for check out, a lot of waving from me and from them.

                The next day, Monday, Rin Kita arrived with her mom and auntie. She gave me a home-made card with a letter written in Katakana and Hirakana. It’s my first time to receive a lovely note from a 6-year old girl. I displayed that note/card at the piano music stand trying to figure out what it is she’s saying in the letter.

                A little accident occurred when she accidentally dropped a glass on the floor and a piece of broken glass hit her leg. She was treated with first aid kit by the new F & B Manager Edgie Garcia. When she’s waving goodbye to me while they are going out of Waves, I notice a little limping from her.

                I showed the card to our General Manager Isao Takahashi and he translated to me-- that the girl plays piano also and she’d like to see me again someday when they come back to Palau.

Source: Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez

             Tia Belau Newspaper

            Pages 8-9

            Volume 21

            Issue 56

            August 16, 2012

Exactly 2 years and 1 day, Rin Kita, right, came back to Palau with her mom. A photo was taken this time on March 21, 2013 with her showing the letter/card that she made 2 years ago that Roberto Hernandez has put in his scrap book.

   

 MUSIC AND ME (March 28, 2013)
   Rin Kita is back after 2 years

VERY NICE TO MEET RIN KITA AGAIN
    If a simple letter/card can be treasured and cherished, what more with this picture with a beautiful girl that wrote me a lovely note, although in Japanese character, to touch the hearts of many including PRR GM Isao Takahashi, who kept that note/letter for more than a year!                                                    (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



    RIN KITA IS BACK AFTER 2 YEARS

TWO weeks before going to Istanbul for 2012 World Chess Olympiad, the 56^th issue of Tia Belau was published with Music and Me story of “A Letter From A 5-year-old Japanese Girl”.

                The first line of that story is “While playing piano at Waves Restaurant on Sunday, March 20, 2011, a 5-year-old girl is watching me play.”

                Exactly 2 years and 1 day (March 21, 2013), that Japanese girl is watching me play again. After finishing the song that I’m playing, I gave her my card and asked her name. She said her name but I misheard it as “Kin Jita”.

                Then I played some Japanese songs and she sung some parts where she knows in soft voice. Then I showed her my scrap book with photos and print copy of some Music and Me issues with black and white photos.

                My instinct ‘commanded’ me to go to the last part of the book where the letter/card of Rin Kita was posted. Then I said, “This is written and made by Rin Kita. Are you Rin Kita?” When she nodded, that’s the time that I’m sure now that she is really her 2 years ago.

                When I mentioned to her that she is the one that make and draw the hearts, grapes and flags of Palau and Japan in there, she is almost in tears.

                She can’t believe that a simple note, letter and drawing like that will be treasured and cherished by someone. I asked her, “Where is your mom?” And I said, go ahead and bring the book and show it to her.

                When they come to me, we have pictures taken –one in their camera and one in my cell phone’s camera. It’s my day off the next day (Friday) but on Saturday, they come again to have dinner near the piano.

                When I played “Oribia O Kikinagara”, Rin Kita sang on some parts that she knows. Her mom can sing all the last parts of the song.

                We talked for a while about their stay in Palau 2 years ago. It’s their 3^rd time now in Palau. Rin Kita is 6 years old, not 5 as I have written. She’s 8 years old now and very beautiful.

                I read to them the contents of “A Letter From A 5-year-old Japanese Girl”—about the accident when Rin Kita accidentally drop a glass and some broken glass hit her leg; about the letter/card and how our GM Isao Takahashi translated it to me.

                I asked them also to check the website http://palau-chess.blogspot.com where I will feature Rin Kita again. She was featured (without picture) in Music and Me issue 56 (Aug. 16, 2012) and no. ²⁸²  post in that website. I posted it on August 18, 2012—a week before my trip to Istanbul.

Source: Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
             Tia Belau Newspaper
             Pages 9 and 11
             Volume 22
             Issue 25
            March 28, 2013
  

(695) BRIAN JONES SIMUL (Feb. 25, 2014) Island Paradise Resort Club Medalai, Koror, Palau

     
1.    Brian Jones is talking to Eric Ksau Whipps on how the simul is played -- He will be having all the white pieces. His opponents will move only when he comes come to them so that he can see what are their moves. The participants can pass if he/she is not ready yet to make a move.
                                       (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

2.   Right to left -- New member Ojhea Mae Figueroa Perdon, Tito Cabunagan's daughter Beth, Cris Ulap, Ksau Anthony Whipps and Moded Samantha Surangel.     (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

3. Youngest participant 6-year-old Kyarii Sisior, left and the oldest, former Senator Surangel Whipps, Sr. (Eric's dad), who uses a unique chess set made of coconut wood and materials.
                                                            (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Beth Cabunagan, right, had her king traveled from e8 to c2 where it was mated. The daughter is Tito Cabunangan is just learning chess just like her mom.              (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Moded Samantha Surangel is a former piano student of Roberto Hernandez. When her former music teacher came back to Palau, she shifted to playing flute and take a break from piano. Her younger sister Ultei Angelei is now taking chess lessons from Roberto in preparation for 2014 World Youth Chess Champiponship is South Africa.                           (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

(694) MUSIC AND ME (Jan. 23, 2014) 1,000 YEN FOR PLAYING "LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING"

A MOVIE FILMED IN HONG KONG
    The Japanese guy in the middle requested me a song which he can't hum or remember the lyrics. He just said it's a love story theme from a movie shot in Hong Kong. My music instinct helped me guessed it right!
                                                      (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



            LOVE IS A MANY
        SPLENDORED THING

It was not a busy night in Feb. 2014 and I'm playing piano at Waves Restaurant of Palau Royal Resort. I played the usual songs that I'm playing when there's a variation of customers -- 1 Japanese song, 1 Taiwanese song and 1 American song.

There's an old Japanese couple about 12 meters from me. The guy said, "I can't speak very good English but I want to request a song from a movie shot in Hong Kong."

That's the only hint that he had about the song. I asked him if he can hum the tune, but he can't.

When he left to be with his wife, it suddenly comes to mind the song "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" and played it right away with expression.

The guy stand up in excitement! He thought that I really know that it's the song that he is requesting. It's just an educated guess. What a guess!

After that, I followed it up with more love songs from movie themes --Moon River from "Breakfast At Tiffany's", Somewhere My Love from Dr. Zhivago, As Time Goes By from Casablanca, etc.

Then I saw him get the room key and go to their room. I think I know what he will do. He don't have cash in his possession so he will get from their room.

When he comes back, he comes straight to me and said, "This is just what I've got-- 1,000 yen." Or equivalent to about $10.00.

When they are paying their bill, I stopped playing and asked them for a picture session as souvenir. Two shots were taken and I noticed that they paid in cash -- in dollars.

     

Source: Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
           The Beginning of Chess In Palau
           By Roberto Hernandez
           January 2014
           To be published as a book in the future     

(693) Micronesian Open, Palau Chess Team to Norway, Increased PCF Membership (TBN-Feb. 10, 2014)

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
     Mr. Brian Jones, right, President of Oceania Chess Confederation, is coming to Palau for 7 days with his wife Margaret for talks about the promotion of chess in Oceania and the holding of Micronesian Open. The other Jones, Rupert, was a roommate of Roberto Hernandez in the 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship and 2009 Gold Coast Open in Australia.                             (Photo by Roberto Hernandez) 


                MICRONESIAN OPEN, 
       PALAU CHESS TEAM TO NORWAY,
         INCREASED PCF MEMBERSHIP

 

THERE is still a chance for the Micronesian Open to push through with FM/IO Brian Jones of Australia as the only foreign player to participate or act as supervising arbiter and Palau Chess Federation President Eric Ksau Whipps to be his assistant so that Eric can add a norm to his FIDE Arbiter Title aspiration as he passed the exam for it during the World Youth Chess Championship in Al Ain, UAE.

                In a meeting with Board Members of PCF, it was agreed that a round-robin Micronesian Open will be held at Palau Royal Resort Conference Room on Feb. 19-24, 2014 with Mr. Jones against Palau players with 1600 ratings and above.

                A separate division will also be held with 1600 and below ratings so that unrated local players/newcomers will have a chance to try their savvy in a real chess tournament.

                Mr. Jones and his wife Margaret was booked by Roberto Hernandez at Palau Royal Resort for his 7-day stay (Feb. 18-25, 2014). If no tournament will be held during their stay, he’ll have a talk with PCF officials about chess development in Oceania, where he’s the president of Oceania Chess Confederation.

     THE NEW TENTATIVE LINE-UP OF PALAU CHESS TEAM TO NORWAY IS THE BEST EVER:

HEAD OF DELEGATION:  Frank Kyota or Baklai Temengil                  DELEGATE: Eric Ksau Whipps

MEN/OPEN TEAM:          Captain: Roberto Hernandez                      Board 1: Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr.

                                                Board 2: Tito Cabunagan                      Board 3: CM Bernardo Garcia

     Board 4: Mohammad Manik Hossain               Reserve: Ksau Flores Whipps or Jeffrey Balbalosa

WOMEN’S TEAM:          Captain: Tutii Joe Chilton or Jeffrey Balbalosa or Ksau Flores Whipps

                                         Board 1: Angelica Parrado            Board 2: Gladys Anne Paloma

                                         Board 3: Baby Edna Mission         Board 4: Destiny Sisior or Joy Flores Whipps

                                                Reserve: Joy Flores Whipps or Kayah Flores Whipps

                Roberto praised this selection of Eric with an email:

                “I like your suggested line-up of Palau Chess Team! It's a dream come true to me! I've waited for 8 years for this moment to have Palauans in the team. I can't ask for more. By being the team captain, I can attend the International Arbiters seminar/training/exam like what Jamie did in Istanbul. That's where he got his IA title. He grabbed that opportunity. I'll get my chance this time.
    Thank God for having you as PCF President!”

                Eric is humble enough to reply with: “Thank you Roberto, I'm glad I could help anyway possible. Thanks again for including me in Palau Chess. Let's meet soon to discuss future of Chess in Palau.”

Here’s an inspired and grateful email of Eric to Mr. Geoffrey Borg and Mr. Ignatius Leong:

Hello Mr. Borg and Mr. Leong,

            I would like to thank FIDE and both of you for your continued support. This year looks to be a very bright year for the development of chess in Palau. Interest from within Palau has grown and can expect to add around 20 Palauan citizens as members to the Palau Chess Federation and another 30 Palau residents within this year.

Meetings with Palau National Olympic Committee and various government offices will also help with exposure and future development of chess. The interest in Palau from both FIDE and other FIDE members also may bring more opportunities for development and cooperation in the near future.

I am thankful that I was able to attend the WYCC in UAE last year as it helped to show how active chess is, as I did not realize how large and dedicated the chess community is today. The chess competitions give immeasurable benefits to those who can represent their countries in international competition. It was amazing to see young children play with such skill and become so emotional with every game.

During the event I was also fortunate enough to meet FIDE President Ilyumzhinov and Deputy President Makropoulos together with CEO Borg and ACF Gen. Sec. Abundo. Unfortunately I only learned upon departure that Mr. Kasparov was present at WYCC and that Mr. Berglund decided not to attend.

 I would like to thank Mr. Borg and Mr. Abundo for their visit to Palau last week. Palau Chess thanks you all for your genuine interest to provide support and commitment to continue promotion and development of chess in Palau and the world.

Best Regards, Eric Ksau Whipps

The increase of PCF membership is the fastest in 9 years, garnering 36 new members and 2 honorary members (Mr. Geoffrey Borg of Malta and Mr. Graeme Gardiner of Australia).

The numbers will grow more after the conclusion of the ongoing Ksau Cup Blitz Chess Tournament. As suggested by Mr. Borg and Mr. Abundo, local chess tournament must be held constantly to reach all areas of Palau and to improve chess activities and levels of play.

Roberto won the Board of Directors seat (9^th place) in the TFCP election and the oath taking ceremony will be held on Sunday, Feb. 09, 2014 at D’ Multi Purpose Convention Hall from 5-9pm with the Guest Speaker none other than Eric Ksau Whipps, who is also the Honorary Consul of the Philippines.

Solution to last week’s puzzle: 1. Qh8+!! Kxh8 2. Nxf7++ Kg8 3. Nh6 mate.

This week’s puzzle: White to move and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)

From left to right, Joy Flores Whipps, Eric Ksau Whipps, Lourdes Funa, Polycarp Basilius, Tito Cabunagan and Ben Asuncion during the Oath Taking Ceremony of TFCP Election winners.
                                       (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

  Nonoy Arganda, left, and fellow Board Member winner Roberto Hernandez.
                                                     (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

The 15 winners of Board of Directors seats (left to right) -Beth Cabunagan and Rogie Salazar (Emcees) 1. Lorna Asido 2. Obet Aguilar 3. Nonoy Arganda 4. Lita Campingco 5. Rey Fortus 6. Let Tayag 7. Philip Afable 8. Lourdes Funa 9. Bhoie Castaneda (right to left, back row) 10. Conrado Almanzar 11. Angel Salvador 12. Roberto Hernandez 13. Anthony Eusebio 14. Nimfa Ramos 15. Rhea Malonzo
                                           (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Elected top 3 positions- left to right- Louis Molina (2nd Vice President), Aga David (President), Max Joseph Asido (1st Vice President) and Eric Ksau Whipps, Honorary Consul of the Philippines to Palau, President of Palau Chess Federation and Palau Badminton Federation.

                                  (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez

             Tia Belau Newspaper

             Pages 13-14

             Volume 23 

             Issue 12

             February 10, 2014 

(692) ROBERT JAMES FISCHER 1943-2008 (Booby Fischer - The Times Obituary)

 ROBERT JAMES FISCHER, 1943-2008
                  Bobby Fischer: The Times obituary
                             from Times Online, January 18, 2008, by GM Raymond Keene

Bobby Fischer, the brash, unschooled chess genius from Brooklyn who toppled the might of the Soviet chess system before his 30th birthday, is the only North American World Champion and was the only non-Soviet or non-Russian title holder between the Second World War and the victory of Indian Viswanathan Anand in October last year.

Fischer's taking of the World Championship from Boris Spassky in 1972 was hailed as a symbolic moment for American hopes in the Cold War, and in many ways, Fischer's story epitomized the self-reliant, frontier ideals of Americans. (It also inspired Chess, the musical).

Yet Fischer was a deeply disturbed man, and the dream evaporated after his victory in Reykjavik. Dramatically, Fischer renounced chess after failing to agree terms for his defense of the title and did not play a single competitive game for 20 years. Instead he descended into paronaoia, characterized by hate-filled and poisonously anti-Semitic outbursts against his own country.

Robert James Fischer was born in Chicago in 1943 to a Jewish mother and a German father (though his actual paternity has been a subject of speculation). His parents split when he was 2, and he moved with his mother and sister to New York. He took up chess aged 6 and soon became obsessed with the game, eventually dropping out of high school.

He won the US Championship at 14, thus qualifying for the World Championship Candidates Tournament of 1958, and becoming at the age of 15, the youngest Grandmaster in the world in the process. He performed very creditably, but the top Soviet players who dominated world chess had no problem handling him, and he was crushed 7-1 in his games against Tal and Petrosian.

His reaction in the renewed failure in 1962 qualifying event in Curacao was passionate, accusing the elite contenders of playing as a team, and refusing to countenance participation until the tournament system had been replaced by a series of matches and tournament thereafter often featured similarly brusque demands, and his career was interrupted more than once by long periods of withdrawals from international chess.

When he did play, it was obvious that a remarkable talent had emerged. His sharp, clear and vigorous style, his breathtaking speed of play and massive determination at the board made him a legend even before he won the world title.

He first sprang to prominence, when he won a brilliant game at the age of 13 in 1956 against the American master Donald Byrne. This game involved an amazing queen sacrifice, it went round the world and became known as the game of the century. It propelled Fischer's career in a way that no amount of first prizes in tournaments could possibly have done. He once won the US Championship with an 11-0 score and, in the Candidates' Matches of 1970-1, he succeeded in winning his first two matches against Taimanov and Larsen by six games to nil.

Fischer's World Championship match with Spassky was also characterized by his detailed demands and his near-refusal to play. After nerve-wrenching brinkmanship, Fischer condescended to sit at the board, persuaded by a personal telephone appeal from Henry Kissinger and the injection of considerable last-minute extra funds by British millionaire Jim Slater.

He began to play magnificent chess, which he backed up with an extraordinary battery of off-the-board protests that must have put great psychological pressures on both players. Fischer did not turn up for the second game, which was awarded to Spassky by forfeit; for the third game, Fischer insisted on the exclusion of all TV and film cameras and that the game should be conducted in a small closed room.

Has Spassky refused, the subsequent history of world chess might have been very different; Fischer won his first ever game against Spassky and quickly went on to establish a lead in the match. The Russians ultimately and belatedly retaliated by having the hall swept of electronic and chemical equipment and X-raying the players' chairs. The result of this exercise in paranoia was the discovery of two dead flies in the light fitting.

The match ended in an emphatic victory for Fischer, yet, after his recent Candidates performances, the 12.5-8.5 score actually lost him rating points.

The 6th game was widely regarded as the most elegant. The Argentine connoisseur Grandmaster Miguel Najdorf compared it to a symphony by Mozart. Harry Golombek, chess correspondent of The Times, who was present at the match added: "One very nice touch was that Spassky joined in the applause at the end. 

Fischer being human was affected by this, but as he subsequently told a friend, he had to hurry away to hide his feelings. "What a gentleman Spassky is,' Fischer is reported to have said. However, he wanted to restrain  such feelings for fear that they would interfere with the tigerish quality which he regarded as essential for crushing an opponent."

Fischer's demands performed one lasting service to the followers of chess and to his fellow-professionals. The vast prize of modern prize funds is a direct result of his insistence that chess players should be paid on a scale comparable with champions in other sports. And his cult of invincibility created a massive upsurge in the popularity of chess, particularly in the West, having shown that the Soviet stranglehold on the game could be broken.

The contest seemed to have strangely traumatic effects on both players: Spassky subsequently disappeared into a shell of caution, Fischer into self-imposed exile, like that of Paul Morphy, the earlier American genius. He forfeited his title after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov in 1975.

He lived a peripatetic existence, abandoning conventional chess and promoting both his own form of the game, involving a semi-random arrangement of the pieces on the first rank, and a method of time control involving time being added after each move: the later has achieved greater currency in chess circles.

He did not even visit a chess club, or chess event as a spectator until his profitable but competitively meaningless "return match" with Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992. But Yugoslavia was then the subject of US sanctions, and Fischer was threatened with prison if he took part - a warning he literally spat on at a press conference. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he never returned to the US.

Fischer occasionally surfaced elsewhere, condemning the "stinking Jews" whom he accused of plotting to dominate the world (the Holocaust was dismissed as "a money-making invention"), and the "brutal, evil dictatorship" of the US. On Filipino radio in 2001 he hailed the attacks of September 11 as "wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all."

In 2004 he attempted to fly out of Japan, where he had been living with his long-term Japanese partner, Miyoko Watai, head of the Japan Chess Association. The US authorities had, however, revoked Fischer's passport, apparently without telling him, and he was detained at Narita airport. He was held for almost nine months while the US attempted to have him extradited.  

The Icelandic government, with fond memories of 1972, offered him residency. This was not enough for the Japanese, but after Iceland's parliament unanimously voted to give him full citizenship, he was flown to Reykjavik, where his arrival was broadcast live and crowds turned out to greet him. Iceland's welcoming of Fischer drew international criticism, but the Icelandic ambassador to the US said the decision was a humanitarian one, unrelated to Fischer's noxious views. Fischer, he said, should be "considered the subject of pity, rather than hatred."

Bobby Fischer, chess champion, was born on March 9, 1943. He died of kidney failure on January 17, 2008, aged 64.   

     

 

 

     

(691) LEGENDARY WORLD CHAMPION BOBBY FISCHER DIED IN ICELAND

      LEGENDARY WORLD CHAMPION
    BOBBY FISCHER DIED IN ICELAND

Robert James Fischer (1943-2008), the only American ever to become World Chess Champion in 1972 after winning the title match against Boris Spassky has unexpectedly passed away on the 17th of January, 2008 in a hospital in Reykjavik.

Chess players all over the world have always appraised his contribution to the royal game and admired him for the fighting spirit, his unquestionable devotion to the game and many other things he has done for chess.

As a young chess player, he showed quite early his talent and became the youngest Grandmaster in 1958. In many tournaments after that time he scored excellent results but the highest attention he received were connected with the crushing victories against super Grandmasters in the quarter -and semi-final games leading to the title match with Spassky. 

In the match, Fischer achieved a convincing victory after profound struggles with his opponent and a similar achievement was reached by him in the World Championship Rematch (as he interpreted in that time) in Sveti Stefan/Belgrade in 1992 when after a long period of absence he returned to the chess life.

Unfortunately, there was no continuation of this return and the chess world has lost a great player forever. Beyond the opening systems he renewed and filled with new ideas, he innovated the chess clock/time system now most widely used in FIDE tournaments where the players get some extra time after their moves made.

This system completely eliminated the big trouble of the past games, the serious middle-game time pressure and the postponement of the continuation of the game for the next day. He also invented the random (shuffle) chess opportunity as in his view, not only the preparation but mainly the performance on-the-board should decide the outcome of the game.

During his life he has had many disputes with chess authorities, with the US Chess Federation, with other authorities but almost never with a fellow chess player. 

As a human being, he was a very controversial person but the chess world shall be thankful to him for changing the conditions of the tournaments and increasing the reputation for the game. 

He will always be undefeated champion in our eyes and wish him a peaceful rest. People of the chess world will remember him until chess is played.


Peter Rajcsanyi
Public Relations and Marketing Director