Remembering Bobby Fischer

Reading Cavett's Eulogy of Bobby Fischer, brought back some interesting memories of childhood. At 8, I remember beating an International Chess Master in only 14 moves during a simultaneous exhibition. It was deemed newsworthy in the chess column of the local paper at the time. Encouraged by this, I played in some tournaments, beat some adults and got a rating. As such a young kid, I never had the discipline to study the game - I played on instinct alone. The Bobby Fischer craze died down, and I haven't yet taken it up seriously again. At least I did insist that my kids learn to play.

Those early wins gave me great confidence to tackle larger challenges later on. In spite of the madman and anti-Semite Bobby Fischer eventually became, thank you for inspiring one young kid to play in an adult world and win.