Reuter reports that reclusive former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, not seen publicly since the early 1970s, has been found - and apparently lost again.
The syndicated television program "Now It Can Be Told" said recently it had tracked down the 49-year-old Fischer and secretly photographed him getting into a car outside his Los Angeles home.Producer Maury Terry said that when the program returned to the house, there were signs that the deeply reclusive Fischer had moved out.
It was set to broadcast its film, and the Fischer it shows is a stark contrast to the well-dressed, deeply intense youth who, in 1972, became the first and only American ever to win the world chess championship.
Fischer, who guards his privacy, looks these days like an "aging hippie" with long hair, a beard and a "disheveled appearance," Terry said.
He was tracked down after a four-month investigation by filmmaker Darney Hoffman, who is making a film called "The Bobby Fischer Story."
Hoffman said he tracked down Fischer, who now lives under another name in Los Angeles, through sources in the chess "underground."
Hoffman said his sources told him that Fischer, who refuses to play chess publicly and has turned down millions of dollars in offers to play again, lives on handouts from friends and relatives.
Hoffman added, "I am trying to set up a $10 million match between Fischer and Boris Spaasky, whom he beat for the world championship in 1972."
But Hoffman is not hopeful that Fischer, who has spurned other offers, will accept his.
He added, "I am now being told that I am No. 1 on Fischer's hate list."
Fischer disappeared from public view in the early 1970s after defeating Spaasky. He refused to defend his world title, and the crown went to Anatoly Karpov.
The reason he refused to defend his title was that the Soviet-controlled International Chess Federation would not accept Fischer's terms for a match. One part of the terms was that the match would continue until one of the contestants won 10 games. FIDE insisted that the match would be played in 24 games.
At a Yugoslav tournament in 1961, Bobby Fischer, 18, crushed Tal and Geller, then boasted he would beat all four Russians in the field.
"But Bobby, that's impossible," teased Paul Keres. "To date you have beaten a Ukrainian and a Lativian. That leaves Petrosian, an Armenian, and me, an Estonian."
"Never mind what states you come from," glowered Bobby. "You are all Russians to me." He scored 31/2 points out of 4 against this powerful quartet; only Keres escaped with a draw.
Recently a British grandmaster echoed a gripe shared by many Western pros: "While everyone around is celebrating perestroika, I am found muttering to myself about the good old days when you played a Russian in Russia."
With the Soviet empire in disarray, the Russians are coming to America. Gary Kasparov defended his crown at New York in 1990, and Los Angeles will host the next title match for a purse of $4 million in 1993.
In the early days of Hollywood, writer Ben Hecht regarded Josef von Sternberg as a poseur with a monocle. "There are thousands of guys like that playing chess on Avenue A," sneered Hecht.
One of those guys who played chess on the lower east side of New York before amazing the world with his exploits as commander-in-chief of the Red Army was Leon Trotsky. But to a true chess fanatic, only chess ability is impressive.
Someone who knew him by his real name of Bronstein back in New York snorted contemptuously, "Hmmm! I could give him knight odds."
Today chess is as Russian as vodka. The game has always been popular in cold climates, but long winter nights hardly account for Soviet supremacy. The USSR was the first nation to subsidize chess as a major sport.
Czar Nicholas II coined the term "grandmaster" when he sponsored the great St. Petersburg tournament in 1914. The Bolsheviks were equally keen on chess and used it to educate and entertain the masses.
- CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SOLVERS! - Raeburn Kennard, Steve Kennard, Nathan Kennard, Hal Knight, Frank Knight, Jim Low, Kay Lundstrom, Lincoln McClellan, Dr. Kim James Michelson, Gary Neumann, Roger Neumann, Elsa Oldroyd, Ted Pathakis, Knute Petersen, Jim Reed, Hans Rubner, Vern Smith, Edwin O. Smith, Jeff Thelin, Ardean Watts, Eugene Wagstaff, Steven Anderson, Russell Anderson, Loile Bailey, Kim Barney, Ramon E. Bassett, Daniel Barlow, Kathleen R. Barlow, Alan E. Brown, O. Kent Berg, Craig Bryson, Jack Crandall, George L. Cavanaugh, Farrell Clark, William DeVroom, Ken Frost, Gordon W. Greene, Hal Harmon, Brian Harrow, Alison Hermance, David Higley and Steven Jensen.