[ExI] Fw: Re: atheists declare religions as scams.

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Dave Sill
.

 

Bobby Fischer was probably the greatest human chess player who ever lived
and he was a total ignoramus and a thoroughly inferior creature in every
other aspect of existence. 

 

Nonetheless, I'm confident that he could have learned checkers and did learn
many things besides chess.-Dave

 

 

This was an extremely interesting debate back in the day.  There were those
who claimed Fischer was extremely intelligent, as evidenced by his ability
to speak Russian, German, French and Spanish, in addition to his native
English.  Others pointed out that he didn't really speak these languages,
but rather had mastered the specific chess terms in those languages.  The
game does have its own specialized language.  Speakers of those languages in
the chess world may not have even realized Fischer had no idea how to
converse on other topics outside the door of that club, even in his native
language.

 

My theory is that Fischer was very intelligent and super focused on the
game, to the total exclusion of everything else, to the point of complete
dysfunctional obsessive compulsive.  He came up with ideas over the board
that amaze fans to this day, made what looked like crazy sacrifices that
were perfectly sound, and resulted in his smashing his opponent off the
board 12 or 15 moves down the road.  Fischer focused everything he had on
the 8x8 board.  That was his whole world.

 

Smart and super focused: a winning combination.  Or losing, depending on how
one defines win and loss.

 

spike

 

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