Down and Out in Pasadena (No.5)

Fischer returned from the '72 Championship match to a hero's welcome. New York City Mayor, John Lindsay presented him with the key to the city. He was treated like a rock star. Women wanted him and men wanted to be like him. But all the attention made Bobby feel a bit claustrophobic. He made a reference to "The creeps closing in on him" and reportedly left $5 million in unsigned endorsement contracts on his lawyer's desk to flee for Pasadena.

In Pasadena, he lived close to the leadership of the Worldwide Church of God until his final breakup with them, probably in the neighborhood of 1977. It was a very acrimonious breakup, soon after which Fischer gave an interview with a group of former members who were doing expose work on the church.

In defending his '72 World Chess Championship title Fischer negotiated with a FIDE organization that was, at best, very sympathetic to the Soviets and their point of view. He wanted the rule instituted that the championship would be decided by the first one to win ten games. For whatever reason neither party would bend far enough to the other's requirements. In 1975 FIDE stripped Bobby of his title and handed it over to Anatoly Karpov. Fischer had ceased playing chess in big tournaments, but he still, reportedly, kept sharp by playing in private. He didn't want to play in public and several explanations have been bandied about for the possible reasons. He was afraid of Karpov, he wanted to imitate Morphy, he didn't like being in the public eye, or perhaps he was making very reasonable demands and would gladly have continued playing if he were treated right. I'm sure of one thing -- the world will never know the whole story.

After his breakup with the WCG Fischer was without a group of people who had made him feel safe for years. He had also cut himself off from the world of professional chess. He was, essentially without a livelihood and without a family. He had gone from the toast of the country to a vagabond in five short years. He lived in the very low rent districts that were inhabited by criminals, outcasts and misfits. He began to retreat further into his own paranoid delusions fueled by his anti-Semitism. He was virtually invisible to the media and the public who wanted to know what had happened to him.

On May 26, 1981 Bobby Fischer would emerge momentarily from his self-imposed exile from public view. He was detained by police in an identity mix-up that was, no doubt, exacerbated by his attitude. He thought the situation to be of such importance that he published a report of the story entitled "I was tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!" It was a best seller at chess bookstores for some time.

He received offers to play in tournaments, matches and single exhibitions; he was reportedly offered anywhere from $250,000 to $4 million. He wasn't interested in any of these offers, however. It was evidently too much fun walking the streets of Pasadena passing himself off as Robert D. James, wearing shabby clothes and sporting a scraggly beard. In order to make a living he was a sometime cable TV installer. He would occasionally cash in on his celebrity by making personal phone calls for the price of $2500/hr. Personal visits got a rate of $5000/hr. Bob Dylan and a few affluent chess students were said to be among his clients. His chess was still great, though. In 1981 GM Peter Biyiasas says that he lost 17 straight games of speed chess to Fischer. He said, of the encounter, "There was no use in playing him. It wasn't like I made this mistake or that mistake. It was like I was being gradually outplayed from the start. He wasn't taking any time to think. The most depressing thing about it is that I wasn't even getting out of the middle game to an endgame. I don't ever remember an endgame."

Finally in 1992 Fischer was pried out into the open with a rematch vs. his old buddy Boris Spassky. It was a good story, the chess was good (although the reviews are mixed on how good it was) and Fischer was his old self -- the Rebel King! But that's part of the next installment.

True Events...

The foregoing text was written between about June 5 and June 8, 1981, then later typed, edited, slightly revised, corrected, etc. However, no attempt has been made to bring it up to date or to incorporate later information or events, etc. It is a brief outline, a hastily written sketch, of the horrendous and incredible but absolutely true events that occurred to me in my life between about 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, 1981, and about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28, 1981. I do not pretend that this is literature. However, it is absolutely accurate in all the main points, at least a thousand times more accurate and truthful than anything you will hear from the other side - i.e., the policemen and the jailers and all the rest of the law enforcement authorities. Perhaps in the future when I have more time to devote to it I will write a revised and expanded and even more accurate and painstakingly written account of these events.

Sincerely, Robert D. James (professionally known as Robert J. Fischer or Bobby Fischer, The World Chess Champion)