Former Chess Life editor Larry Parr interviews five-time U. S. champion Grandmaster Larry Evans.

From the opening of his chess career, Bobby Fischer was praised for his play in the endgame. His performance against William Addison at the 1957 U. S. Open, a tournament that he won at age 14, was called “Mozartian.” His victory over Hungarian Grandmaster Gideon Barcza at the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal, the first time he utterly decimated a field of the world’s top players, was praised by Soviet foe Alexander Kotov as being “in the style of Capablanca.”

Now Bobby Fischer is playing the endgame of his life. Here is his position: he sits as a captured human pawn in a Japanese jail defending against attempts to pack him back to the United States where he faces a possible 10 years in prison. He is charged with violating a commercial embargo against Yugoslavia by playing a self-styled, $5 million world title match in 1992 against Boris Spassky, thereby violating an executive order signed by George Bush pere.

Like a magnet of the purest charisma, Bobby could still command attention for his Yugoslavia encounter, though he had not played in the 20 years since his first title match with Spassky in Reykjavik. At a press conference opening the match, in what became known as “the spit heard round the world,” Fischer spat on Bush’s piece of paper. Since that gesture of defiance, arguably not a criminal act, he has wandered the world like a modern Philip Nolan, the man without a country.

On July 16, 2004, the wandering ended. Bobby has learned the hard truth of Chaucer’s line, “I warne you well, it is no childes pley.” For that cold monster, the State, holds him in its maw. Now he has no passport, and his best hope is permanent exile in, perhaps, the Philippines.

For many years, one of Bobby’s closest friends was five-time U. S. champion Grandmaster Larry Evans, himself a chess prodigy, though neither so prodigious nor so prodigal as Bobby. Evans won his first U. S. title in 1951 at age 19, finishing ahead of Samuel Reshevsky, then regarded by many as the world’s strongest player. (Bobby first won the U. S. title by finishing ahead of Sammy at age 14.) Nearly 30 years later in 1980, GM Evans garnered his fifth title, tying for first in that year’s U. S. Championship with GMs Larry Christiansen and Walter Browne. Among the also-rans was a young Yasser Seirawan.

Larry Evans was with Bobby nearly from the beginning, and he competed against and worked with Bobby as a chess analyst (Evans authored the famous 10th edition of Modern Chess Openings, then known as “the Chessplayer’s Bible”) and editorial collaborator for over a decade. He was there with Bobby during the good and big years.

And what years they were!

At Fischer’s peak in the early 1970s, no one could push pawns and pieces with him for more than a few games. In three candidates’ matches played in 1971, Fischer notched up a score of 18 ½ - 2 ½ or nearly 90 percent against super-GMs Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian and contender GM Mark Taimanov. One calculation in the days before rating inflation, put his performance rating at 2939 for these matches. Against Larsen he played chess at a 3060 clip. Fischer tallied 18 ½ - 4 ½ in the 1970 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal; 15 – 2 at the 1970 Buenos Aires International (and, in the process, producing possibly the finest set of games ever played in a single tournament); 19 –3 at the Herceg Novi Five-Minute World Championship (Mikhail Tal finished a remote second at 14 ½, followed by Viktor Korchnoi at 14 and Petrosian at 13 ½); and a preposterous 21 ½ - ½ in a strong five-minute event at the Manhattan Chess Club. The final tally from such Caissic carnage: 92 ½ - 12 ½.

The men of chess who strayed into the path of this Ultimate Tornado of a Gamesman were swirled high into the intellectual ether. An old Fischer enemy in Sovietsky Sport could only splutter, “A miracle has occurred,” to describe one of the American’s results. Mikhail Botvinnik, the iron icon of Red materialism, charged that God was on Bobby’s side. Tal, too, took up religious imagery, calling Fischer “the greatest genius to have descended from the chessic sky.” Raymond Keene described Bobby as “a kind of angry chess god incarnate … waging total warfare on the chess board.” Miguel Najdorf was almost downbeat, merely claiming that Fischer “simply throws the pieces up in the air, and somehow they land on the right squares!” Which might have been because, as Isaac Kashdan opined, “in Fischer’s hands a slight theoretical advantage is as good as being a Queen ahead.” Jack Collins, Fischer’s old teacher, answered an interviewer’s question about his charge’s weaknesses by responding, “I think that your question makes an assumption which no longer applied to him …. You see, he had no weaknesses as a chessplayer. He had only strengths – a fierce will to win, great stamina, a memory nonpareil, extraordinary visualization, knowledge unmatched, and even long experience.”

We return to the days of yesteryear with Grandmaster Larry Evans who remembers Bobby as he knew him – Bobby the friend, Bobby the chess genius, Bobby the man, and as time passed, Bobby the fugitive. We will also talk about Bobby the prisoner – in jail and of his own mind.

GETTING TO KNOW BOBBY FISCHER

Larry Parr: In his "Author's Preface" to My 60 Memorable Games, Bobby Fischer wrote, "I wish to express my gratitude to Larry Evans, friend and colleague, for his invaluable aid in the preparation of the text as well as for his lucid introductions" to the games.

This interview is not about your contribution to perhaps the greatest of all chess books, but it is about Bobby Fischer, arguably the greatest of all gamesmen.  You knew him well. You have been called his friend by no less than Fischer himself, and you were interviewed by CNN on July 19 about his arrest in Japan.

My first question is a request:  Tell us about the first time you met Bobby and outline your association with him over the years.

Grandmaster Larry Evans: I met him when he was 13 in Montreal after I tied for first in the 1956 Canadian Open. I think he was the youngest player in the field, and he finished in a logjam at 8th – 12th.

Bobby asked me and my wife if we would drive him back to New York. Along the way he peppered me with one question after another about various openings that we discussed without sight of the board.

Parr: Did you imagine that you might be in the company of arguably the strongest player in chess history?

GM Evans: I wish I could claim a premonition of some kind, but it never entered my head. It was clear that he was obsessed with chess, but I had no inkling of how far he would go because most prodigies fizzle out. Dr. Tarrasch said that it is not enough to be a strong player; you must also play strong moves. Bobby had not yet made those moves. Still, I remember him saying, "I think my subconscious mind is working on chess all the time – even when I'm not playing or studying."

Bobby became a force to reckon with when he won the 1957-58 U.S. Championship ahead of Reshevsky. I wasn't there, so our first tournament game took place the following year at the 1958-59 U. S. Championship. After I accepted his offer of a draw on move 27, he said I was the first person who didn't lose against his pet 6 Bc4 in the Sicilian Defense. Here's that game:

White:Fischer Black:Evans	New York 1958
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Be7 8.Be3 0-0 9.0-0 Nc6 10.f4 Na5 11.g4 d5 12.e5 Nd7 13.Qf3 Qc7 14.h4 Nc4 15.Bxc4 dxc4 16.a4 b6 17.h5 Bb7 18.Qg3 h6 19.Rae1 Rad8 20.Re2 Kh8 21.Rh2 Ba8 22.Re1 Bc5 23.Qf2 Rde8 24.Nf3 Bxe3 25.Qxe3 Qc5 26.Qxc5 Nxc5 27.Nd2 Draw

We spent a lot of time together during the 1960 Buenos Aires tournament, where I finished ahead of him. In 1961 I annotated his games with Reshevsky for Chess Life, pointing out errors by both sides in a match that ended knotted at 5 ½ each. The press depicted Bobby as a prima donna after he forfeited game 12, but I thought he got a raw deal and defended him staunchly.

Parr: Is this why Bobby trusted you so much?

GM Evans: Maybe. He knew I had no great ambitions in chess and didn't consider me a jealous rival.

SIGNIFICANCE OF FISCHER – RESHEVSKY MATCH

Parr: The Piatigorskys, the sponsors of that match, were Jewish. Could that have been the start of his anti-Semitism?

GM Evans: Not the start. Long before that, when he was ranting against the Jews, his mother said, “What makes you think you’re so pure?” Since Reshevsky was an Orthodox Jew, I suspect that the incident solidified his feelings of persecution by the Jews. Reshevsky always got special treatment because of his religion, like not having to write down his moves after sundown on Friday or not playing on the Sabbath. It's interesting that Bobby later got his own Sabbath by joining the Worldwide Church of God.

Parr: But he didn’t let the Reshevsky flap stop him from making tremendous progress.

GM Evans: Right. He shrugged it off. The 1960s were productive years for Bobby. In 1963 he came to visit me in Las Vegas when I was working on the manuscript of MCO-10. I still have a picture of us standing in front of casinos on Fremont Street. I introduced him to the pianist Leonid Hambro, a chess enthusiast, who was touring with Victor Borge, and he took us backstage to meet the great comedian.

Parr: Why did Bobby decide to go on his cross-country exhibition tour in 1964?

GM Evans: He needed the money. My father had an office in New York and arranged all the details. He became Bobby's unofficial manager but never took a penny for his services. Meanwhile Bobby contributed articles to my magazine, The American Chess Quarterly, including his famous “A Bust to the King’s Gambit,” in the first issue (1961). I also helped him write his regular article for Boy’s Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1967 we collaborated on his My 60 Memorable Games.

Parr: Did you notice any signs that things were starting to go wrong?

GM Evans: It was clear something was seriously wrong by 1968 when our Olympiad team was in Lugano, Switzerland. Bobby walked out when the organizers wouldn't accommodate his demands for special treatment. After that he didn't play chess for almost two years until 1970, when USCF Executive Director Ed Edmondson persuaded him to compete in the USSR vs. Rest of the World Match. He sent me to Belgrade to help Bobby. When Larsen insisted on playing first board against Spassky, everyone wondered whether Bobby would take another hike. But he realized he was rusty and amicably agreed to take second board. He regained his zest for chess after trouncing Petrosian, 3 –1 (+2 =2).

At the time, Bobby said bitterly, "Around the world I'm more famous than Joe Namath. In the U.S. I'm nobody." He asked me to be his second at the Mallorca Interzonal in 1970 and for his match with Petrosian in 1971. While there, I was on good terms with GM Yuri Averbakh, Russia’s long-time delegate to FIDE. He described the impact of Bobby’s victory over Petrosian to me: “At home they don’t understand. They think it means there is something wrong with our system.”

Edmondson went with us. I watched this proud man crawl and cater to Bobby's every whim because he realized an American world champion would be a boon for chess in this country.

”QUALITY” TIME WITH BOBBY

Parr: You moved to Reno in 1968. Did you spend much time with Bobby after you moved there?

GM Evans: He visited my family there around 1969. Neither of my two dogs cared for him. I recall that he locked one of them with him in his room, and it cried to get out. We also had a pool, and he threw his wet bathing suit over a dictionary when he got inside the house. Fortunately, he moved into a downtown motel where he stayed for several weeks. I was working on the manuscript of Modern Chess Brilliancies and asked him to check it for errors. He wanted $100, and I paid it gladly. He went through the games blindfolded and did a good job.

Once we all got into a car to show him Virginia City. He was terrified by a strange sound while I was driving and asked whether it were safe to continue. "We're all willing to risk it," I quipped, "but we realize your life is more valuable than all of ours put together." Without missing a beat, he replied, "That's right! That’s right!"

Parr: Sounds like he really meant it.

GM Evans: Bobby was really fearful something might happen to him. It reminds me of when a reporter from Sports Illustrated and I accompanied him to an exhibition he gave at Riker's Island in 1960. I wrote about it in a column called "Chess is Breaking Out in Prisons," which is included in my first collection of syndicated columns, Evans on Chess. When we got there, he asked, "Suppose you didn't stop when the guards told you to. Would they shoot?" I told him not to try it. "No, seriously. Suppose you just kept on going and didn't stop. Would they shoot you? I mean, would they really kill you?" We were all amused, but not quite sure what would happen. At last the warden said gently, "They would not kill you."

Parr: Did you see very much of him after he won the title in 1972?

GM Evans: Not much. He had already started to distance himself from his old friends and live in his own fantasy world. As you once wrote, “Reality is in the ‘I’ of the Fischer beholder.”

Parr: Did you see him after he moved to California?

GM Evans: Yes. Warner Bros. wanted to make a record called Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess and hired me to write a script. Bobby didn’t like the writer they gave him and must have asked them to send for me. They sent a limousine to pick me up at the Los Angeles airport and whisked me into the office of Joe Smith, the CEO.  It was already late in September, and they wanted to rush it out in time for the Xmas season. It probably would have remained a steady seller year after year. Smith said film director and chess enthusiast Stanley Kubrick had phoned him from England about how to insert diagrams on the album cover. I asked whether Bobby had signed a contract. Smith said no, but they had already agreed to the deal, and it was just a formality. "No offense," I said. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to be paid in advance when working with Bobby." I also signed a contract to receive a percentage of the profits. The art department at Warners’ was instructed to give this project the highest priority.

Bobby had joined a sect called the WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD, and they were anxious for him to do the project because he was tithing them money. So I visited an apartment they provided him in Pasadena and asked Bobby to give me a lesson while pretending I was a beginner. I tape-recorded the session. Warners’ used my script and prepared phonetic versions for him to read in various other languages. For some reason the deal fell through. I heard he didn't like the sound of his own voice, but who knows? Bobby had already turned down millions of dollars in other offers, and his sanity seemed to desert him beyond the confines of the 64 squares. He also had an abnormal fear of being exploited. He'd kill deals if he made one dollar but somebody else made ten cents.

Parr: Did you keep in touch after that?

GM Evans: Mostly by phone and mail, but he went off the deep end by raving about Jewish conspiracies and being tortured in the Pasadena jailhouse. Okay, there may be something to his claims about being ill-treated by the police. Yet his life was falling apart. He broke with his Church, lived in flophouses, grew a beard, distributed anti-Semitic leaflets on the street, and became a recluse. Diehard Fischer-watchers call it “his wilderness years.”

One reporter said, "There was this growing dilemma in looking for Fischer. The more you knew about him, the less you actually wanted to find him."  If a friend talked about him to a reporter or wrote about him, Bobby would have nothing more to do with that person. It reminded me of when a friend of mine joined Scientology and sent me and his other pals a "disconnect" letter because we wouldn't join.

FISCHER AS THE ULTIMATE GAMESMAN

Parr: Bobby is probably the most famous gamesman who has ever lived. You competed against him. You played him six times in tournaments, losing two and drawing four.  After losing on the White side of a Nimzo-Indian in the 1965-66 U.S. Championship, you said that against any grandmaster except Fischer, there is at least one chance in a game to recover from a worse position.  Is unmatched technical accuracy what you remember most about his play?  What were his most important strengths as a competitor?

GM Evans: Bobby had a fierce killer instinct and sublimated his aggression into chess, which was his life. He was well-prepared and relentless, and he once said that he gave 98 percent of his mental energy to chess while others gave only two percent. "Each day go in like an unknown to prove yourself," he said. And he did. He was uncompromising, hated draws, and fought most of his games to the bitter end. His greatest weakness probably was using the same openings over and over.

Parr: How would you describe the chess style of the mature Fischer?

GM Evans: He said he didn't believe in psychology, only in good moves. Karpov once said of his own play, "Style? I have no style." By 1970 the essence of Fischer's style was that he had none. He was already the ultimate universal player. At Buenos Aires 1970 he mopped up the field, undefeated at 15 – 2, winning games in every conceivable way. Like  Petrosian, Bobby maneuvered mercilessly against Damjanovic; like Tal, he uncorked unexpected combinations against Panno and Schweber; like Capablanca, he made something from nothing against Szabo, when experts on the scene thought the game was a dead draw. 

Parr: Will the final historical verdict on Fischer vs. Garry Kasparov be that the Fischer of 1972 was the strongest player in chess history, while the Kasparov of the two decades, 1985 - 2004, is the greatest master in chess history?

GM Evans: Kasparov has been rated number one for nearly 20 years, an incredible feat in any sport. Most champions have a period when they are virtually invincible. Fischer's reign was brief. He burned out when he reached the peak, whereas Kasparov kept improving. I think all we can say with certainty is that the gap between Fischer and his rivals in 1972 was greater than the gap that existed between Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.

BOBBY – THE MAN

Parr: There is a famous photograph of you playing chess in a swimming pool with Bobby, taken at Grossinger's Resort back in 1972, when you were helping him to prepare for his world title match against Spassky.  You lived with Bobby, you shared meals with him, you analyzed with him, you played as a friend with him, you came to know him. Tell us about Bobby Fischer, the man, as you knew him.

GM Evans: As a human being he left much to be desired. His best quality was a sense of humor. I hope he still has one. His worst quality was his sadism. When Dick Cavett on TV asked him about his greatest pleasure in chess, Bobby was brutally frank: "Crushing the other guy's ego." As a youngster he blurted, "I like to see ‘em squirm." Brad Darrach captured his essence in the book, Bobby Fischer vs. the Rest of the World. He got some things wrong in that book, but if you want to know Bobby, then give it a read.

Parr: Is there any other telling example of the real Bobby that comes to mind?

GM Evans: In one of his recent radio rants, Bobby boasted: "I object to being called a chess genius, because I consider myself to be an all around genius who just happens to play chess, which is rather different. A piece of garbage like Kasparov might be called a chess genius, but he is like an idiot savant. Outside of chess he knows nothing." That kind of nonsense speaks for itself.

Parr: Why didn't you continue all the way as his second?

GM Evans: A penniless, uncultured high school dropout from Brooklyn suddenly got a taste of power, and it went to his head. I never asked to be paid and basically donated my services, and he then imposed conditions that were unacceptable.

Parr: Like what?

GM Evans: Like I couldn't write about his matches – even after they were over – and that I couldn't take my wife with me.

Parr: What happened then?

GM Evans: I said good luck. And good-bye.

BOBBY FORFEITS THE FIDE WORLD TITLE

Parr: In 1975 Bobby Fischer forfeited FIDE's version of the world chess title to Anatoly Karpov.  Nearly 30 years have passed.  At the time of the forfeit you wrote, "It makes no difference whether Bobby obeyed his conscience or was afraid of losing. He shirked his duty by not defending his title under fair conditions. He refused to negotiate or compromise and his obstinacy killed the match -- nothing or nobody else." But there were other factors that you felt should be taken into account.  What are your views today?

GM Evans: A very involved question.

Before Bobby won the title, he demanded that the challenger (himself) should have absolutely fair conditions, and he objected to Spassky having draws odds in 24 games. In this he was right. His later behavior was outrageous, and nobody knows whether he would have played even if FIDE had given him everything he wanted. I agree with what Kasparov wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal: "Fischer demolished the Soviet chess machine but could build nothing in its place. He was an ideal challenger – but a disastrous champion."

I tried to persuade Bobby to set a shining example by renouncing any advantage. "But you didn't think the champ should have any edge when you were the challenger," I argued. "That's besides the point! The Russkies always made the rules and got away with it. Let's give 'em a dose of their own medicine," he replied. He promised not to seek any edge in future matches if he got his way just this once. Reasoning with him was futile. I don't think he ever quite forgave me for trying to get him to do the right thing.

Parr: After winning the FIDE title, Bobby would go the next 20 years without playing another official game. Did you expect that?

GM Evans: In Reykjavik my wife, who knew him pretty well, predicted he’d never make another move after beating Spassky! In the recently published Bobby Fischer Goes to War (2004), Edmonds and Eidenow note: "[In 1972] Fischer stated that he would not shrink from defending his title; on the contrary, he would regularly take on challengers. Few expected him to be knocked off his throne for a decade or more. One exception was his former second, Larry Evans, who explained to The New York Times, 'I probably have more influence on him than anybody else, and that's exactly zero … I just had the feeling he would never play competitive chess again.’”

In 1973 or '74 Bobby asked me to compose a challenge on his behalf, offering a match against anyone in the world who was willing to put up a million dollar purse in gold, but he never released it. In 1975 Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos offered $5 million to hold the FIDE title match with Karpov in the Philippines, but Bobby wouldn't budge as a so-called "matter of principle." Karpov was probably eager to play but was pressured by the Kremlin to make no concessions.

FIDE gave Bobby most of what he wanted – but not all – and he was prepared to destroy his career by resigning his FIDE title instead of accepting a 36-game limit. But FIDE eventually caved on this issue. The funny thing is that the FIDE rules still favored Bobby because he would have kept the crown in case of an 18 - 18 tie. But he insisted only 10 wins should count – not draws – which might take forever by turning into a marathon. What stuck in everyone's craw and what did lead to his forfeiting the FIDE title was his demand to stop the match at a 9 - 9 tie with the purse divided evenly and the champion keeping the title. This provision meant Karpov had to win by at least two points (10 - 8). Korchnoi said that if he had been the challenger, he would have jumped at the deal.

Parr: Cowardice on Bobby’s part?

GM Evans: Some fans thought so, but I think that's too simplistic. Suddenly he discovered girls and other things he had never noticed or had time for. Pal Benko alleged that Bobby feared the Russians would have him killed if he played Karpov. Whatever the reason – real or imagined – not defending his title was a tragedy for Bobby and a tragedy for chess. Sadly, his selfmate handed the title back to the Soviets without a fight.

Parr: What do you think about FIDE's role in all this?

GM Evans: At Caracas in 1977, FIDE accepted Bobby’s principle that only wins should count and decreed the title went to the player who first won six games in an open-ended match. But they gave Karpov a rematch clause, a bigger edge than Bobby ever sought. Bobby was furious. He vowed to get even and finally imposed his rules in the $5 million duel with Spassky in 1992. This match was played outside of FIDE's jurisdiction and billed as "The Return Match of the Century Between the Never Defeated Champion of the World and His Challenger Boris Spassky."

WHO IS DUH GREATEST?

Parr: In a poll by Chess magazine, Bobby Fischer was named "Player of the Millennium."  Garry Kasparov finished a close second.  How would you have voted?

GM Evans: That's a tough one. I would have probably picked Kasparov because he has a greater body of work over a longer span of time. Bobby, however, did it on his own without coaches or subsidies. "If I win a tournament, I win it by myself. I do the playing. Nobody helps me," he proclaimed. Another point is that Bobby’s name recognition is the greatest in the history of chess.

Chess is different today. Now players have databases at their fingertips and openings have been so analyzed that many games really begin at move 10 instead of move one. Over 30 years ago, Bobby already saw the writing on the wall. "Someday computers will make us all obsolete," he told me. That's why he says he is finished with "the old chess" and touts FischerRandom where games can start from any of 960 different positions chosen at random by computers. Ironically, he wants to use computers to rescue chess from computers. Yet it's only a matter of time before machines also excel at this variant. You can't destroy chess to save it.

The question arises, “Why would anyone today devote a lifetime to mastering a game from which it's almost impossible to earn a living when a hand-held device can find the best move in a split second?”

I think Noam Chomsky once said that he could see no purpose in a computerized chess program other than maybe taking the fun out of playing chess.

THE ENDGAME OF BOBBY’S LIFE

Parr: On July 16, 2004, Bobby Fischer was arrested at Tokyo's Narita Airport because his passport had been quietly revoked by the United States.  He faces possible deportation from Japan back to our country where there are charges stemming from a presidential executive order banning commercial dealings with Yugoslavia. Which is to say, Bobby played a chess match in 1992 with Boris Spassky for $5 million.

You and I co-authored at the time an award-winning editorial, "Is Bobby Fischer a Criminal?", which you reprinted in your "Evans on Chess" column here at the World Chess Network (January 26, 2004).

Why is Bobby not a criminal?  Why ought he to be freed?

GM Evans: Ironically, the executive order under which Bobby was indicted in 1992 was rescinded in 2003. The arrest warrant signed in 1992 is still in effect, but playing chess for money is not a crime, and I doubt that presidents have a right to tell American citizens where they can or cannot travel in peacetime. Lothar Schmid, the arbiter, was not indicted when he got back to Germany, neither was Spassky when he got back to France. Before leaving, Schmid got clearance from the German Foreign Ministry which told him the match would not violate UN sanctions.

Why are the feds suddenly pursuing him after 12 years? They always knew where he was and issued him a new passport in 1997 which was good for 10 years. I suspect it's really about his support for al-Qaida in a series of radio interviews. The climate in America has changed drastically since 9/11. The Bill of Rights is in danger because of terrorism. Today there is less tolerance for dissent or free speech because everyone knows that America is engaged in a life-and-death struggle with a faceless adversary who will stop at nothing.

Bobby praised the enemies of Israel well before his rematch with Spassky in 1992. As early as 1962 in a famous interview in Harper’s, he said, “There are too many Jews in chess. They seemed to have taken away the class of the game.” In a book about him called Bobby Fischer, wie er wirklich ist (Bobby Fischer, As He Really Is) by his ex-girl friend Petra Dautov, she wrote: "During the Gulf War in 1991 Bobby tried to telegram Saddam Hussein congratulating him for invading Kuwait. However, the German Post Office refused to send the message."

Parr: What do you think is the most likely line of play for the U. S. government in this endgame? How would you annotate the politics of the rights and wrongs?

GM Evans: First, let me say that his words do not make him a criminal. Bobby probably will be deported to America to face trial -- and he undoubtedly will be found guilty of something. Once the wheels are set in motion, they keep grinding. He has millions of chess fans, but I doubt he'll get much support from the chess community because his name was booed when they announced it was his birthday at a tournament last March.

On the Net a chess fan stated, "Still, it seems to me grotesque that a man be put into prison by a government that has ordered the killing of thousands, his only crime being spitting on a piece of paper and playing 30 games of chess. It will look like petty revenge for his harsh remarks against America. And it would, at least partially, prove him right about being persecuted by the Jews, which I don't think they want to do."

Another fan wrote, "Bobby's main crime is he could not buy a pardon from Clinton like Marc Rich.  Leave the poor guy alone."

An editorial opined sarcastically, "We have not found Osama bin Laden. But Americans can all sleep sounder tonight knowing that we have found Bobby Fischer."

Parr: In the press accounts of Bobby's arrest in Tokyo, there has been much said about his anti-Semitic remarks.  In one of his radio interviews he went so far as to say that Jews hated elephants. The friendly interviewer giggled, and Bobby quickly insisted that he was speaking seriously. How do you explain such anti-Semitism from a man whose parents were both Jews?

GM Evans: Actually I have that interview right in front of me. And you’re right: you have to giggle. It shows just how nutty he is. Bobby says, "I think the Jews want to drive the elephants to extinction because the trunk of the elephant reminds them of an uncircumcised penis. [Interviewer laughs.] No really, I am absolutely serious about that. They don't do anything to stop the encroachment on nature that the elephant needs to survive.  Jews are sick, they are mental cases …. Circumcision is an absolute crime. The Jews say they know better than millions of years of evolution."

We once watched a documentary on Hitler. Afterwards Bobby said he admired Hitler, and I asked him why. "Because Hitler imposed his will on the world," he replied. This explains a lot about Bobby's own power drive.  Later he devoured Hitler's Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a proven forgery.

Parr: When asked on CNN whether Bobby Fischer is crazy, you responded that he was "delusional." What do you mean by that? How is that different from being crazy?

GM Evans: Crazy is too broad. Bobby functions well until it comes to his pet peeves. He still denies that the Holocaust ever took place, and he blames a Jewish conspiracy for stopping him from playing chess for 20 years between 1972 and 1992. If that's not delusional, what is?

Another sign of his mental state is that Bobby seldom has a good word to say about anyone and makes wild charges without a scintilla of proof. Here's how he describes Karpov and Kasparov, the two champions who came after him, "These criminals have been ruining chess with immoral, unethical, pre-arranged games. They are the lowest dogs around."

We're still waiting for the book he promised to back up these charges.

Parr: Do you still "like" Bobby?  If he came tomorrow to your door, seeking succor, would you extend it to him as an old friend?

GM Evans: You ask a question to which my answer will make me sound like a hard man. I kind of feel like the Jedediah Leland character in Citizen Kane who said, “Maybe I wasn’t his friend, but if I wasn’t he never had one.”

Okay, I realize that he's unbalanced, but I don't believe in turning the other cheek. Frankly, it would be hard to shake his hand after all the lies he invented about me in one of his radio rants. He has really deteriorated. I've never done anything but help him and was astounded when he called me "a vicious rat" and "just a son of a bitch." He also said I pretend to be independent, but "the Jewish World Government” tells me what to write.

Bobby displayed the same kind of ingratitude toward Ed Edmondson, a man who moved mountains to make it possible for him to become world champion. The reason Bobby has few old friends left is that he is a friend to no one. Instead he surrounds himself with lackeys and bootlickers who stroke his ego. These people did him no good by egging him on in all those radio interviews.

Parr: If you had the power, what would you decree be done with Bobby? Give us the line of political play that you would recommend to the U. S. government in this endgame.

GM Evans: I'd prefer he be left alone with his own demons or be deported to a third country. But the odds are he'll be returned to America, in which case I'd favor the Ezra Pound solution.

Parr: By which you mean?

GM Evans: Well, Larry, as you know, Pound was a famous American poet who made a series of radio broadcasts from Italy during WWII attacking the Allies in support of Mussolini and fascism. In 1945, after the war, he was sent back to America to stand trial for treason at age 60. The literary community stood behind him and got him declared unfit to stand trial.  Pound was not mad, of course, but this fiction enabled him to avoid prison and serve time in an asylum for 13 years where he wrote some of his best work. Maybe psychiatric treatment would help Bobby, but at 61 he's probably too far gone.

If Bobby is put on trial, I wouldn't be surprised if he lapped it up and basked in the glory of spewing his venom. It would capture headlines for chess, but I wonder whether the publicity will help or hurt. How many parents want their kids to turn out like Bobby?

TRANSCRIPT OF CNN INTERVIEW

Parr: Finally, on July 19, 2004, you and former U. S. Chess Federation President Don Schultz were on CNN's Paula Zahn Now. Could you summarize the main points?

GM Evans: Our discussion was very brief but covered a couple of the questions you asked. Here's a portion of the CNN Transcript:

ZAHN: “As for how Bobby Fischer is reacting, a supporter of his in Japan has posted a statement on a web site. In part, it reads, ‘Bobby Fischer does not wish to return to the Jew-controlled USA where he faces a kangaroo court and 10 years in federal prison and a likely early demise or worse on trumped political charges. Nor does he wish to remain in a hostile, brutal and corrupt U.S.-controlled Japan. He urgently requests an immediate offer of political asylum from a friendly third country.’

“So what will Bobby Fischer's next move be? Joining us now, two people on the inside of the international chess world. In Reno, Nevada, Larry Evans, a chess grandmaster and friend of Bobby Fischer. In Boynton Beach, Florida, Don Schultz, who was with Fischer at the 1972 championship. He is the author of Fischer, Kasparov and the Others.

“Good to see both of you. Welcome. So Larry, help people understand why Bobby Fischer hates Jews so much and why he hates this country where he was born?”

LARRY EVANS: “Well, nobody knows why he hates Jews because both his father and mother are Jewish, it turns out.

“He feels very bitter about the fact that he doesn't feel that this country gave him enough recognition to help it win the Cold War.

“And he resents having been told that he couldn't play chess in Yugoslavia. He simply sold his services to the highest bidder. He committed no crime, and he doesn't see that he did anything wrong by playing Spassky again.”

ZAHN: “Do you agree with him?”

EVANS: “Basically, I don't like anything that he has to say, but I agree that he has a right to – as a free American -- to go where he pleases in peacetime to play chess.”

ZAHN: “Don, you knew him for many, many years. And I have to tell you, it makes a lot of us uncomfortable, particularly when you heard what he said about 9/11, declaring the slaughter of innocent Americans as wonderful news.”

DON SCHULTZ: “I couldn't listen to that tape. I heard the first part and it – it was so terrible, I had to turn it off. It was awful. And – but I do think – I do think the U.S. government is making a mistake on – in trying to bring him back at this point. They should let sleeping dogs lie.

“I think it will come back to haunt them. If they bring him back to the U.S. and try to prosecute him, Bobby has so many fans that will excuse anything he does, his anti-Semitism. The Jewish chess players love him. It seems to rub off him.

“He toppled the communist chess system single-handedly, and he's uncompromising. If they bring him back, I predict it will go on for some time, and there will be lots of problems, and they'll wish they never brought him back. I think the best thing the government can do is to let this just quietly go away and hope he goes to a third country.”

ZAHN: “Larry, I see you nodding in agreement. Yet what he has said has been so outrageous to the soul of any American. You really believe there's that reservoir of support out there for him?”

EVANS: “There are many mixed emotions in the chess community. But he's not being tried for what he said. He can say what he wants, you know. Any loony notions. He's being tried for violating or defying an executive order, which I think is a pretty weak case.”

ZAHN: “You just said any loony notions. Do you believe he is unbalanced?”

EVANS: “Yes.”

ZAHN: “That he's nuts?”

EVANS: “Well, delusional. I would like to see the third country that takes him be Iran. He would be very comfortable there, probably.”

ZAHN: “Don, I see you smiling with Iran back in the news again today.”

SCHULTZ: “I think the Iranians might not be so comfortable.”

© COPYRIGHT BY LARRY EVANS AND LARRY PARR