Bobby Fischer died yesterday.
Fischer was one of those people who is not easy to categorize. I think it's pretty clear that he was profoundly disturbed, an interesting complement to his genius. I find it particularly appropriate that he died in Reykjavik, the site of his greatest, or most public, triumph.
I suppose the big question is this: did he have a positive impact on the world? There's no clear answer. Early in life, he popularized chess, something that I can't consider a bad thing. Many, many thousands of people got into the game when Fischer's star was rising. The United States Chess Federation membership rolls absolutely exploded during the late 1960s through Fischer's 1972 match with Boris Spassky. This is a very good thing.
There's a lot of talk about him being the best that ever lived. I'm a little skeptical of that, but what I wouldn't give to see the 1972 Fischer in a match with the c. 1998 Kasparov! No matter who won, it would be brilliant.
I'm also not sure of the claim that he has had more impact on the game than anyone else in history. I tend to think that honor goes to Paul Morphy, an American widely acknowledged as the best in the world before there was any world championship (hence Fischer's title as the only American to officially be the world champion). Morphy pioneered the style of play that is now universal and changed the face of chess forever. For all his contributions, I don't know that Fischer had quite the same impact.
In any case, to all things come an end.
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