El contrapunto imitativo: las fugas comunes

After winning the world chess championship in 1972, Bobby lapsed into a period of isolation and growing paranoia, manifested primarily in virulent and vitriolic anti-Semitism. These anti-Semitic (and anti- American) rants could be heard on various radio broadcasts Bobby made in the Philippines and Hungary. Of course, Bobby’s mother

Regina Fischer was Jewish. Edmonds and Eidinow (2004) wondered whether some of the roots in Bobby’s hatred of Jews stemmed from rejection of his mother. Importantly, Bobby’s (likely) biological father, Paul Nemenyi, was also Jewish. Though Nemenyi supported Bobby financially, to some degree, for many years and visited him on occa- sion, he was obviously a distant and unavailable father figure. Bobby’s parental situation is further complicated in that it appears Regina did not openly acknowledge that Nemenyi was Bobby’s father. Nemenyi was kept secret in many ways. If Bobby knew early in life that Nemenyi was his “real” father, as some believe (Farkashazy, 2008; Nicholas, 2009), he may have been angered by his mother’s secretiveness about Nemenyi, and he may have felt abandoned (and distrustful) of his father, who was Jewish.

In his new biography of Fischer, Brady (2011) cites an unnamed family relative who believes that Regina kept Bobby’s true paternity a secret, and promoted the belief that Hans Gerhardt was the father, and listing him so on Bobby’s birth certificate because “she didn’t want Bobby to be known as a bastard” (p. 16). In addition to anger at his mom for being often unavailable given her long work hours, Bobby may have also felt angry believing that Regina kept his father away from the family. According to FBI Reports, Nemenyi told a Jewish Family Service worker that “he wanted the responsibility of maintain- ing the child and in 1947 he joined the subject [Regina Fischer] in Los Angeles, however, she assumed an attitude of hostility toward him” (FBI Report # NY 100–102290, p. 26).

This attitude of hostility, according to Nemenyi, motivated him to leave Los Angeles, and in fact in 1947 he left Regina and the family and travelled to Paris to attend a conference. In 1947, Bobby would have been about four years old, and perhaps old enough to sense the tension between his mother Regina and his likely father Paul Nemenyi. A num- ber of friends and mentors of Bobby Fischer mentioned that Bobby could be upset for hours at the mere mention of his father (e.g., Brady, personal communication, February 8, 2011; see also Solotaroff, 1992).

Another association of “abandonment” with Jewishness may have occurred for young Bobby when the Fischer family settled into their Lincoln Place, Brooklyn address. Brady (2011) vividly describes the following kitchen-table scenes when Regina would invite her friends over for discussions:

At night and on weekends, there were often lively discussions around the kitchen table, sometimes with friends—mostly Jewish intellectuals. The subjects often revolved around politics, ideas, and cultural is - sues. Arguments over Palestine and Israel and the possibility that Eisenhower might run for president. (p. 14)

According to Brady (2011), both Joan and Bobby were present dur- ing these kitchen-table discussions and debates, and though Bobby heard the discussions, he never participated. Brady reported that years later Bobby said that he “hated” all that kind of intelligista discussion (p. 14). Thus we have a young child, perhaps feeling abandoned by his biological father, and now even his mom “abandons” him symbolical- ly in that she spends some evenings with intellectual friends (many of whom were also Jewish) leaving Bobby to tend on his own or rely on big sister Joan for companionship. Perhaps a final felt sense of aban- donment was when Regina, on her peace march from San Francisco to Moscow, met and eventually married Cyril Pustan (who also hap- pened to be Jewish). In some illogical way to us, but logical to Bobby, he associates his deep feelings of hurt, betrayal, and abandonment with some notion of “Jewishness.”

Also speaking to the topic of the origins of Bobby’s anti-Semitism, Kasparov (2003) wondered whether Bobby’s anti-Semitism was relat- ed to his conflicts with Jewish-American Grandmaster Samuel Reshev - sky as well as his dislike of other Jews involved in the chess commu- nity, including wealthy sponsors (the Piatigorsky family), chess arbit - ers, and various journalists. Kasparov adds another interesting obser- vation:

I think Fischer’s anti-Semitism mania, which increased with the years, was largely associated with the domination of ‘Soviet-Jewish’ players. It seemed to him that they were all united against him with the aim of preventing him from becoming world champion. I remember Reshevsky telling me how, during the Interzonal tourna- ment on Mallorca, with burning eyes Fischer informed him that he was reading a ‘very interesting book.’ ‘What is it? Sammy asked inno- cently. ‘Mein Kampf!’ Bobby replied. (Kasparov, 2003, p. 280–281)

Interestingly, in my recent conversation with Bobby’s brother-in- law, Russell Targ, he also hypothesized that the roots of Bobby’s anti-

Semitism stemmed from his adversarial relationship with Samuel Reshevsky. Bobby believed that money raised by chess organizations to support his chess ascendancy was diverted to Reshevsky (R. Targ, personal communication, July 20, 2010). Brady (personal communica- tion, February 9, 2011) also noted that many in the leadership (includ- ing Directors) of the American Chess Foundation at the time were Jewish and Bobby felt the Foundation was giving more support to Reshevsky than to him, which was the case. Regardless of the origins of Bobby’s unspeakable anti-Semitism, his anti-Jewish rantings, in time, alienated the majority of former friends, mentors, and supporters. There is a litany of individuals, couples, and families who once cared for or helped Bobby who eventually would cut relations with him. To be sure, some of these breaks were first initiated by Bobby due to a perceived (usually erroneously) slight or affront. Among those social supports that Bobby lost were Jack Collins, his chess teacher (after Carmine Nigro) for 15 years, and his sister Ethel (who was motherly towards Bobby); the Polgar and Lilienthal families who he visited and spent a good amount of time with in 1993 in Hungary, among many others (see Brady, 2011).

Bobby’s long-time biographer, Dr. Frank Brady, who has always been fair and balanced in his profiles of Bobby (Brady, 1965, 1973, 2011) could no longer tolerate Bobby’s vitriolic anti-Semitism. Soon after Bobby’s death in 2008, Dr. Brady was interviewed by New York

Times journalist Dylan Loeb McClain (2008, p. B10) and stated that

Fischer’s “Anti-Semitic and anti-American rants, particularly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were unacceptable. . . . It is some- thing that I can never forgive.” Even Bobby’s own loving family could not tolerate his virulent anti-Semitism. Russell Targ reported to me that at one period in time when Bobby was living with Russell, Joan, and their three children, Joan and Russell asked him to move out as they did not want the children, particularly, exposed to Bobby’s out- spoken hatred of all things Jewish (R. Targ, personal communication, July 20, 2010).

Plate 1. Regina Fischer as a young woman. One of the earliest photos of Regina Fischer; the facial similarity to son Bobby is evident. (Source: Russell Targ, from the Russell Targ Family Photo Archive, used with permission.)

Plate 2. Regina Fischer as a young woman. This photo and the previous one show Regina’s beauty. She was extremely intelligent, highly educated; earning both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, and was multilingual. (Source: Russell Targ, from the Russell Targ Family Photo Archive, used with permission.)

Plate 3. Regina and Hans Gerhardt Fischer, here we see Gerhardt and Regina in happi- er times; they are the parents of Joan Fischer, who would also figure prominently in Bobby’s life. (Source: With permission from the Marshall Chess Club Foundation, New York City, and President Dr. Frank Brady.)

Plate 4. Regina Fischer with daughter, Joan, circa 1940. An obviously happy Joan with her mother. (Source: Russell Targ, from the Russell Targ Family Photo Archive.)

Plate 5. Paul Felix Nemenyi, young adulthood. The facial similarity to Bobby Fischer (see book cover) is evident. (Source: The California Institute of Technology Archives.)

Plate 6. Paul Felix Nemenyi, middle adulthood. Again, the facial similarity to Bobby in older years (see Plate 9) is also evident. (Source: U.S. Citizenship application, U.S. State Department National Archives and Records Administration, in the public domain.)

Plate 7. Bobby Fischer with mentor Jack Collins. Here we see Bobby’s lighthearted nature as he plays chess with his longtime mentor Jack Collins in Brooklyn. (Source: From Collinskids1912 at the Wikipedia project released into the public domain.)

Plate 8. Bobby Fischer with sister Joan Fischer. (Source: Photo by Richard Meek, from Sports Illustrated, with permission of Gettyimages.)

Plate 9. Last known portrait of Bobby Fischer taken by his Icelandic friend Einar Einarsson. (Source: Reprinted with permission of Einar S. Einarsson, photographer.)

Plate 10. Bobby Fischer, lead pencil drawing by Svala Soleyg of the last known portrait of Bobby Fischer, taken by his Icelandic friend Einar Einarsson. (Source: Reprinted with permission of Einar S. Einarsson, photographer.)