It has been too long...

I was reading John den Boer's blog the other day, and was intrigued by the "interesting question," as follows: "Of all the people in the world that you haven't met which living person would you want to sit down and chat with?"

There are many interesting responses given (ranging from Osama bin Laden to Jesus), and I thought I'd weigh in with my own: Robert J. Fischer, World Chess Champion.

Bobby Fischer, by all accounts, was a genius. He coupled a photographic memory with an intense desire to win and presumably could've succeeded in anything he chose. He chose chess, and by the time he was 15 was an International Grandmaster. In 1971 Fischer defeated Russian Boris Spassky, the reigning World Champion, and became the first American to hold the title.

In 1975, Fischer had to defend his title against Karpov. When the match organizers didn't give in to his demands to reorganize the competition procedure, Bobby Fischer made "the most interesting move" ever: he resigned his title and disappeared. He didn't publicly play chess for twenty years.

In 1992, Bobby Fischer resurfaced, re-defeated Spassky, and disappeared again. Since then he was heard from in 1996 (promoting his chess variant called Fischer Random Chess) and in a series of radio interviews from Hungary, the Philippines, and Iceland.

There are a few reasons I'd like to meet and talk with Bobby Fischer. First of all, I love chess and Fischer is hailed as the greatest player ever (rated at 2780). Secondly, I'm not very good at chess so I figure I could get some tips and pointers. And thirdly, I can't think of a more interesting person, off-hand.

As a brief aside, there's a wonderful movie called Searching for Bobby Fischer that any lover of chess and/or good cinema should see. It's based on the life of the more recent chess prodigy, Josh Waitzkin, and stars Joe Montegna and the great Ben Kingsley. Highly recommended.