According to an article in the NY Times, Bobby Fischer is dead.

He was a strange man, probably bipolar (that’s not the strange part), who renounced the United States as a Jewish dictatorship and who applauded the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

First Things has a nice little editorial on the reclusive chess genius.

According to many, he was the greatest chess player the world had ever known.  Certainly he was among the top five.  He was the subject of movies, multiple books, and will be studied for generations.

His religious views were probably as obscure as his life.  He was a member of the Worldwide Church of God for a while.  Probably the most memorable quotations of Fischer was,

“I read a book lately by Nietzsche and he says religion is just to dull the senses of the people. I agree.”

It is a great tragedy that such a brilliant mind could not see the truth of the Gospel.  I pray he repented before his death, and will look forward to studying his games for years to come.

-LL