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
Chess Columns Additional Archives/Social Media

Bobby Fischer in 1971

Bobby Fischer 1971
Bobby Fischer 1971
Bobby Fischer 1971
Bobby Fischer 1971

“Bobby Fischer at Manhattan Chess Club Blitz Tournament, agosto 1971.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

Petrosian candidates final match.
“Fischer became the last challenger. The World championship match against Spassky was scheduled to begin in Reykjavic on 2nd July 1972. Fischer was still arguing with organisers from a distance, and a postponement was granted. The English financier Slater sent Fischer a telegram offering to supplement the prize fund by £50,000 adding ‘If you aren't afraid of Spassky then I have removed the element of money.’”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“1971 Argentinean Bobby Fischer, in the few moments that he was in the Pan American contest, studies the position of the Argentine maestro Oscar Panno.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“Bobby Fischer against Brent Larsen in 1971 by 6 matches to 0.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“At the Manhattan Chess Club in 1971, a crowd gathered around a speed match between Bobby Fischer, left, and Andrew Soltis.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“Fischer Flying to Ranch Outside Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 1971.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“Amusement Park, Buenos Aires, 1971.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“Game 6. Bobby Fischer vs. Mark Taimanov. Final game at the Candidates Quarterfinal UBC Vancouver June 1 (1971)”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“Bobby Fischer, left, training for the world championship with the help of Larry Evans in a hotel pool in the Catskills in 1971.” Credit United Press International

Bobby Fischer 1971

“1971”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“1971”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“1971”

Bobby Fischer 1971

“1971”

Bobby Fischer 1971

Image from 1971. “Fischer, who became world champion in 1972, is considered one of the most innovative and ingenious chess players in the world.”

Bobby Fischer 1971

Date unknown, 1971?

Bobby Fischer 1971

Image from 1971.

Bobby Fischer 1971

A photo of Fischer at a swimming pool that appeared in a Buenos Aires newspaper.

Bobby Fischer 1971

Bobby Fischer, 1971. (Full)

Bobby Fischer 1971

Fischer con Petrosian, en Buenos Aires 1971. (Full)

Bobby Fischer 1971

American chess player, during a tournament, 1971.

“…Quinteros, who was with Fischer when he defeated Spassky in '72 and again in '92, downplayed these incidents and said Fischer is neither as strange nor as anti-American as some have portrayed him. “He likes his country,” Quinteros said. “He may not appreciate some of the people who are running it, but there is no doubt that he likes his country.”

Fischer's first visit to Argentina was in 1971, when he defeated Tigran Petrosian in the set-up to the world championship. Adulating Argentines gave Fischer a hero's send-off after his victory, and ever since there has been an affinity between the capricious chess king and a legion of followers here.

A lot has happened since. The boyish Fischer who left in 1971 wore dark suits and thin ties, combed his hair and smiled a lot. And then, a quarter of a century later, he came back a burly and angry man with a salt-and-pepper beard, a baseball cap and a head full of conspiracy theories.”

Washington Post
Bobby Fischer's Strange Moves
By Gabriel Escobar September 11, 1996

Translated from “Fischer with the kids!”


Fischer, the chess, the square and the boys of River and Boca: Buenos Aires 1971.

“Chess in Park, Children Gather Round, Buenos Aires, 1971” by Harry Benson (Source)

Translated from, “Bobby Fischer: Iceland and Buenos Aires”

Iceland's previous fame in the sport came from chess.

All because Iceland was the home chosen by the great American Bobby Fischer.

But to tell this story we need to land in a neighboring country: Argentina, another country that adopted Fischer.

For the new or not so close to chess: Robert James Fischer was more than a player, but a symbol of the American-Soviet clash in the Cold War.

At age 6, he won the first board. At 14, he was already the absolute champion of the USA.

In this time - 1959, with 16 -, landed in Buenos Aires for the first time.

He loved the city. He found a resonance of Buenos Aires. Obsessive and brilliant. And a person with habits as peculiar as appearing, without warning, in the newspaper “La Crónica” newspaper simply because he read it. He left without saying goodbye.

Fischer was in other Argentine cities like Mar del Plata and Córdoba, but breathed Buenos Aires three times, proof of his love for the capital.

This frequency of visits from Fischer to the only place was quite unusual. He openly said he did not like adults - just chess, animals, and children.

Bobby had all this in Buenos Aires lands in 1969, 1971 and 1996 - the last, to play a match of his random chess in which the pieces come out of positions other than the common ones.

His most famous passage through Buenos Aires was that of 1971, when he qualified to face then-world champion, the Soviet Boris Spassky.

The Selective Candidate Tournament, which designated the challenger to the throne, took place at the Teatro San Martín, four blocks from the Obelisk, on Corrientes Avenue, stopping to see Fischer destroy the also Soviet Tigran Petrosian.

The Fischer - Larsen Candidates Semifinal (1971) and Petrosian - Korchnoi Candidates Semifinal (1971) was followed by a match between Fischer and past World Champion Petrosian, scheduled in Buenos Aires from September 30 - October 26, 1971.
The winner would be the challenger for the World Champion title, in a match against Boris Spassky.


(Photo : Jerry Cooke/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)
Closeup of Bobby Fischer in action, 10/5/1971

'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