The Gift of Chess

Notice to commercial publishers seeking use of images from this collection of chess-related archive blogs. For use of the many large color restorations, two conditions must be met: 1) It is YOUR responsibility to obtain written permissions for use from the current holders of rights over the original b/w photo. Then, 2) make a tax-deductible donation to The Gift of Chess in honor of Robert J. Fischer-Newspaper Archives. A donation in the amount of $250 USD or greater is requested for images above 2000 pixels and other special request items. For small images, such as for fair use on personal blogs, all credits must remain intact and a donation is still requested but negotiable. Please direct any photographs for restoration and special request (for best results, scanned and submitted at their highest possible resolution), including any additional questions to S. Mooney, at bobbynewspaperblogs•gmail. As highlighted in the ABC News feature, chess has numerous benefits for individuals, including enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, improving concentration and memory, and promoting social interaction and community building. Initiatives like The Gift of Chess have the potential to bring these benefits to a wider audience, particularly in areas where access to educational and recreational resources is limited.

Best of Chess Fischer Newspaper Archives
• Robert J. Fischer, 1955 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1956 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1957 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1958 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1959 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1960 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1961 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1962 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1963 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1964 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1965 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1966 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1967 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1968 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1969 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1970 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1971 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1972 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1973 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1974 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1975 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1976 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1977 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1978 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1979 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1980 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1981 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1982 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1983 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1984 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1985 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1986 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1987 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1988 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1989 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1990 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1991 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1992 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1993 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1994 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1995 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1996 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1997 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1998 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1999 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2000 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2001 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2002 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2003 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2004 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2005 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2006 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2007 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2008 bio + additional games
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U.S. Chess Genius 'Tied' for Funds

Back to 1959 Index

The Austin American Austin, Texas Sunday, August 16, 1959

U.S. Chess Genius 'Tied' for Funds
By Edith Kermit Roosevelt
(Edith Kermit Roosevelt has been a newspaper reporter and a correspondent for the past 10 years. She is the granddaughter of former President Theodore Roosevelt.)
Were 16-year old Chess Genius Bobby Fischer to visit Russia, he would probably win more kudos than Vice President Nixon and Jazz Man Louis Armstrong put together.
Chess in Russia is a national pastime. It is taught in the schools. Russian boys and girls tote chess sets to the beat the way American couple carry a portable radio. At the international chess meets held in Moscow 18,000 Russians pore over the moves of the chess masters as they are duplicated on giant boards on the walls of the Palace of Sport in the Lenin Recreation Center. Then as the events are rebroadcasted, millions more Russians huddle over their radios and place bets on the players.
This is why if Bobby ever walked on Red Square he'd be mobbed with requests for autographs. A boy like Bobby Fischer is a credit to our country on a visit to Russia or anywhere else; not only is he U.S. champion but he's the youngest international grand champion of all time.
ALTHOUGH this wiry, six footer from Brooklyn is official U.S. representative to the Candidates Tournament to be held in Yugoslavia Sept. 6 to October 31, he had not yet been able to scrape together the $2,000 he need for expenses. Unless he finds a way to raise these funds immediately, he also will forfeit his chance to challenge the Soviet's World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik in Moscow in 1960.
In preparation for the coming tournament, Bobby already has exhausted both his own prize winnings and the spare pennies contributed by his mother, Mrs. Regina Fischer, a nurse.
Foreigners have a hard time understanding Bobby's embarrassing position. In their countries chess is a highly regarded, popular sport, subsidized by powerful chess organizations or by the state.
If Bobby gets to the Yugoslav meet, he will face four Russians whom the state has provided with coaches for the gambits, plus every kind of financial and moral backing.
In the U.S. chess is the step child of the sports world. It is considered a hobby befitting a retired colonel or perhaps an old maid with a lorgnette, but certainly not a career for a red-blooded American man. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a first-rate professional chess player to earn his keep from the game.
Last year, after winning the U.S. championship for 1958, Bobby qualified for the Interzonal Tournament in Yugoslavia during the summer. After three months in a futile attempt to raise money, he was only able to attend by a fluke. He won tickets on the Garry Moore Show, “I've Got A Secret.”
Like many standouts, Bobby's a high strung youth. And he's carrying a triple load. He must complete his schooling, pursue the demands of an exacting profession and raise money for chess coaches and chess literature.
Last winter after his day at Erasmus High School, Brooklyn, he sat up night to work on his book, “Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess.”
Bobby has been offered sizeable sums to compete in exhibition matches with weak players. He always refuses because “it would be bad for my chess.”
Instead, he takes off for faraway places, many times at his own expense, to compete against the international grand masters where, he says, “you can compete man-to-man against the strong players.”
BOBBY DOESN'T get a good press in this country. He has a shy, studious personality. His only friends are other top chess players, men usually two or three times his own age.
He rarely grants interviews “because I can't see why it's anybody's business to know what I eat for breakfast, when I take a shower or what time I go to bed.”
Fellow players describe Bobby as “quiet at the board.” Unlike some players, he has never been known to divert or annoy opponents by smoking, banging chess pieces or passing disconcerting remarks.
But gentleman though he is, Bobby is known as “a deadly fighter over the boards.” The youngster has total recall about moves and appears as fresh at the end of a five hour chess game as at the “openings.”
Bobby's plight has attracted the interest of the U.S. Chess Federation. The organization believes it is the obligation of this country's approximately 1,000,000 chess players to cooperate with their chess clubs in setting up a fund to support qualified chess masters in international meets. Chess is an intricate and challenging sport, one in which Americans should be proud to excel.

Footnote: Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodore's niece.

U.S. Chess Genius 'Tied' for Funds by Edith Kermit Roosevelt

'til the world understands why Robert J. Fischer criticised the U.S./British and Russian military industry imperial alliance and their own Israeli Apartheid. Sarah Wilkinson explains:

Bobby Fischer, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech
What a sad story Fischer was,” typed a racist, pro-imperialist colonial troll who supports mega-corporation entities over human rights, police state policies & white supremacy.
To which I replied: “Really? I think he [Bob Fischer] stood up to the broken system of corruption and raised awareness! Whether on the Palestinian/Israel-British-U.S. Imperial Apartheid scam, the Bush wars of ‘7 countries in 5 years,’ illegally, unconstitutionally which constituted mass xenocide or his run in with police brutality in Pasadena, California-- right here in the U.S., police run rampant over the Constitution of the U.S., on oath they swore to uphold, but when Americans don't know the law, and the cops either don't know or worse, “don't care” -- then I think that's pretty darn “sad”. I think Mr. Fischer held out and fought the good fight, steadfast til the day he died, and may he Rest In Peace.
Educate yourself about U.S./State Laws --
https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit/videos
After which the troll posted a string of profanities, confirming there was never any genuine sentiment of “compassion” for Mr. Fischer, rather an intent to inflict further defamatory remarks.

This ongoing work is a tribute to the life and accomplishments of Robert “Bobby” Fischer who passionately loved and studied chess history. May his life continue to inspire many other future generations of chess enthusiasts and kibitzers, alike.

Robert J. Fischer, Kid Chess Wizard 1956March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008

The photograph of Bobby Fischer (above) from the March 02, 1956 The Tampa Times was discovered by Sharon Mooney (Bobby Fischer Newspaper Archive editor) on February 01, 2018 while gathering research materials for this ongoing newspaper archive project. Along with lost games now being translated into Algebraic notation and extractions from over two centuries of newspapers, it is but one of the many lost treasures to be found in the pages of old newspapers since our social media presence was first established November 11, 2017.

Special Thanks