Objective About Fischer

I've already mentioned Joseph G. Ponterotto's 'A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer' in two short posts, where the last one was Not So Funny. It looks like the book is going to provide material for a series of posts similar to Frank Brady's 'ENDGAME' (see the series summary in Fischer's Best Games).

For good measure, I rescued from archive another old review of Fischer material -- Tales of Two Fischers (March 2005) -- and added it to my page on Chess History. It was hard enough remaining objective about Fischer when he was alive. Next month marks the fifth anniversary of his death and, given the wealth of new details on his life, it hasn't become any easier.

Not So Funny

Old Woody Allen joke:-

A guy walks into a psychiatrist's office and says, 'Hey doc, my brother's crazy! He thinks he's a chicken.' Then the doc says, 'Why don't you turn him in?' Then the guy says, 'I would but I need the eggs!'

Not so old Bobby Fischer story:-

At the Marshall Chess Club [late 1950s], no one doubted the teenager's talent. But his prickly behavior was alienating some of the wealthy sponsors whose support he would need to rise to the top.

"Some of what he did was so outrageous it was decided maybe he had emotional problems," says [Allen] Kaufman, who attended the meeting. What to do? Board members talked about finding a psychiatrist. They considered Reuben Fine, himself one of the giants of the game. Then someone raised a question: What if therapy worked? What if treatment sapped Fischer's drive to win, depriving the United States of its first homegrown world champ?

Meeting adjourned. No one, Kaufman recalls, wanted to tamper with that finely tuned brain.

[Fischer story from Joseph G. Ponterotto's 'A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer' (first noted on this blog a few days ago in The Broken Bridge), quoting 'Life is not a board game' by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 2003.]

Temporarily Out of Service

The Broken Bridge (*)

For the second time in a little more than three months, I'm on the wrong side of William W. Corasick. This time it feels like I've been hit by a truck, which is my layman's description of the flu.

Since I'm spending most of the day on my back, drifting in and out of random, incomprehensibly grey dreams, I decided to tackle the one chess gift I received on Christmas Day: 'A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer' by Joseph G. Ponterotto. Boy, was that ever a mistake! I can't remember reading a more depressing chess book. I'm almost certain that my downtrodden mood has a lot to do with my initial assessment, so I'll come back to the subject when there's more color in my life.

(*) Google translation of 'ponte rotto'.

Famous Christmas Plates

This image is something I archived from eBay in 2003. The description said,

The print is an offset-lithograph printed circa 1905. The sheet measures 9 x 6 inches and is in good condition aside from being trimmed on the top edge. The image is titled "Cornered". It is inscribed "Famous Christmas Plates. 517. Black and White Christmas Plate for 1899". The print is an illustration from an early-1900's issue of the London Magazine.

Is that Father Christmas at the board?

For last year's Christmas post and links to previous years, see The True Spirit and Meaning of Christmas.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring...

...Because they were all out having a great time at a Christmas Eve party, me included. That's why I only had time to do some routine maintenance for About to Tripod. It's hardly worth mentioning, but I'll say it anyway: naming conventions. See you tomorrow!

A Chess Set Fit for the Queen of England

Every year at this time on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, it's the same thing -- lots of interesting items to choose from in the weeks before Christmas, little in the weeks after. For this last edition before Christmas, I chose to feature an item titled 'Sonnett Original Sculpture Ceramic CORGI Chess Set with Board, R&W vs.Tri. OOAK!'. Pictured below, it sold for US $2247 after receiving 27 bids from 10 bidders. The auction page received 431 page views.

The description started with a story.

You could say that it took me 20 years to make this chess set! Back in the 80's and 90's when I was selling solely at The Washington International Horse Show, I made a chess set of Corgis vs. Jack Russells. But it turned out people preferred one or the other, which does make sense. So I vowed to split the set and make two new ones, for red and white vs. tri Corgis, and for smooth coated Jack Russell terriers vs. broken coats.

I packed it away in 1992 and kept putting if off the project because of all the work involved. Early this year I started working on the tri Corgis, doing a couple of figures a month until it is finally finished! I will tackle the Jack Russell one next year, hopefully.

And what about the pieces?

For each side I've made a detailed King and Queen. The Bishops are Corgis in glasses sitting on a stack of chess book and poring over their computers. The Knights both have hobby horses and the Rooks are either cottages or townhouses. The Pawns are all puppies, each doing something different that puppies do. For the limited amount of pictures I wasn't able to show all the small details, but they are there!

On the four corners of the wooden chess board I've put sculpted Corgi faces (two red & white and two tri-color) and some decorative ceramic leaves. The entire set of chess pieces has been hand sculpted by me from ceramic clay. There are no molds involved, each piece is one-of-a-kind. Needless to say, I am never going to do another Corgi chess set!

Each piece was sculpted, dried and painted in detail. They then went through two high temperature kiln firings which gave them a permanent glazed finish. I have put felt on the bottom of each piece. Measurements: the standard chess board is 20" square, and is square on it is 2" square. The King on each side is a little over 3 1/2" in height.

For more about the artiest, see BarbieSonnett.com.