A PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF

BOBBY FISCHER
 A PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF
BOBBY FISCHER
Understanding the Genius, Mystery, and Psychological
Decline of a World Chess Champion

By

JOSEPH G. PONTEROTTO, PH.D.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ponterotto, Joseph G.
A psychobiography of Bobby Fischer : understanding the genius,
mystery, and psychological decline of a world chess champion / by
Joseph G. Ponterotto.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-398-08742-5 (hard) -- ISBN 978-0-398-08740-1 (pbk.)
-- ISBN 978-0-398-08741-8 (ebook)
1. Fischer, Bobby, 1943–2008—Psychology. 2. Chess players—United
States—Biography. 3. Chess—Psychological aspects. I. Title.

GV1439.F5P66 2012
794.1092–dc23
[B]
2011051219
 In Memory of:

Robert (Bobby) James Fischer (1943–2008)

Dr. Regina (Wender) (Fischer) Pustan (1913–1997)

Joan (Fischer) Targ (1937–1998) and Dr. Elisabeth Targ (1961–2002)

A family of national and international

historical significance in the twentieth century.
 AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Genesis of My Book on Bobby Fischer

started playing chess in 1972 at the age of 14. Like thousands of American
I teenagers at the time, the impetus to play chess was an American hero:
Bobby Fischer. In the streets of the Bronx where I grew up in the 1960s, the
activities year-round were street sports (we had no parks or fields nearby):
Stickball and softball in the spring and summer days, and ringalevio (a chase
and catch game) at night; touch football, basketball, and roller hockey in the
fall and winter; then back to stickball and softball as the spring weather
arrived. No one, that I recall, played chess. On a rainy summer day, we
might have played monopoly, stratego, battleship, or cards, but the game of
chess never entered our discussions. That is, not until the summer of 1972.
Bobby Fischer playing against Boris Spassky was not a game to us, but a
war; a war between a lonely, self-assured, cocky, confident, school-disliking
(like us) American kid from Brooklyn (although we did not think that high-
ly of Brooklyn in my section of the Bronx) battling all of Russia (I do not
think we used the term Soviet Union back then). We were all very competi-
tive, and this chess match, in a place we had never heard of, Reykjavik,
Iceland, forced us to learn to play chess so we could follow what was going
on in that faraway place we could hardly find on our globe. Thank God for
Shelby Lyman and PBS. For the first time in our young lives, my friends and
I were actually watching public television, to our parents’ astonishment.
After the world championship match in 1972 most of my friends drifted
away from chess, especially since Bobby stopped playing competitively—
there was no longer our chess hero to follow. I continued playing, however,
joining the chess club at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx and
playing whenever I could throughout high school and college. Whenever I
really wanted to play and there were no same-age peers around, there was
always my younger brother John, who though 7 years younger was always
brilliant and he picked up the game fairly quickly to the point of providing
me good competition. However, he did refuse to read my library chess books
I offered him; I could never understand why. John was usually open to a

vii
viii A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

game if I bribed him with a post-game car ride for pizza, carvel ice cream, or
Dunkin donuts. Thank you, John!
By my college years in the late 1970s at Iona College in New Rochelle,
New York, I was playing chess only infrequently, and by then we had lost
total touch with the career and life of Bobby Fischer (this was before the
Internet). Chess was never far from my mind though, and whenever I had to
present a topic orally in class, I managed to link the class topic (whatever it
may have been) to one of my three passions, chess and Bobby Fischer, soc-
cer and Pele, or the red wines of Italy and Northern California (yes, I did
manage to graduate). It was also during college where as a psychology major
I wrote my first paper on “The Psychology of Chess” for an abnormal psy-
chology class taught by Dr. Paul Greene, a gifted psychologist, teacher, and
clinical supervisor. I got an “A” on the paper, which was a bit surprising as I
was considered a poor writer. I found out later that Dr. Greene was a chess
fan himself and quite a good player. I think that probably helped my grade
a bit.
As I got on with my career first as Ph.D. student in Counseling Psy-
chology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and then as a
tenure-track academic researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and
then Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus, NY, I lost touch with
chess. Then in 1992, when Fischer reemerged from his professional and
social isolation (in what Brady [2011] and many others have deemed his
“wilderness years”) for a rematch with Boris Spassky, I got reconnected with
the Fischer story. Now, with the internet, it was easy to follow any news on
Fischer whether he was in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Japan, the Philippines,
Iceland, or elsewhere.
In January of 2008, the week Bobby Fischer passed away, I began writ-
ing about his story, not his chess story, but his inner psychology story. This
book is the culmination of that research and reflection.
Initially, my intention was to write a scholarly psychological assessment
article for a scientific journal, a type of writing and research I was much more
familiar with. However, as my work continued and as respected colleagues
read early drafts of my psychological assessment of Fischer, a common reac-
tion was that I “should consider writing a book on this topic and reach
beyond the scientific community.” I thought about this suggestion for a while
and realized that if I were to write a book-length psychobiography of Fischer,
I would need access to Fischer “intimates,” those who knew him very well,
as well as access to a full archival base of documents not only on Bobby
Fischer, but also on select family members.
With these considerations in mind I set out to have personal contact with
three key resources, or Fischer insiders: Dr. Frank Brady, his internationally
 Author’s Note ix

renowned biographer and former friend (Brady, 1965, 1973, 2011); Russell
Targ, Bobby’s brother-in-law who was married to Bobby’s sister Joan, and
who knew Bobby most of his life; and the journalist team of Clea Benson and
Peter Nicholas, who were the visionary and groundbreaking investigative
journalists who first uncovered, through the Freedom of Information Act, the
900+ page FBI file on Regina Fischer, Bobby’s mother. When all three of
these resources graciously agreed to talk with me at length, on multiple occa-
sions, I knew that I had a story to tell. I would use my quantitative and qual-
itative research skills as a multicultural psychologist to delve deeply into
Bobby Fischer’s life story, and hopefully provide the most comprehensive,
in-depth, and balanced psychological profile heretofore published on the
country’s first official world chess champion.
 PREFACE

his book focuses on the inner psychological life of Bobby Fischer in the
T hopes of gaining a better understanding and deeper insight into his
behavior. Among the topics explored are Bobby Fischer’s family history,
early childhood, development as a chess genius, possible mental illness, and
his eerie comparison to the legendary American chess champion, Paul
Morphy, who lived and played a century earlier. I also speculate as to how
Bobby Fischer’s life may have turned out had he received counseling and
psychological treatment starting in childhood.
The current text is not meant to be a general biography, as Bobby
Fischer has already been the subject of a number of such books. Dr. Frank
Brady’s Profile of a Prodigy (1973) and Endgame (2011) top the lists of the most
widely acclaimed and read biographies on Fischer, and there are a number
of other biographies or detailed accounts of his 1972 world championship
victory. This book is a psychobiography that answers many of the psycho-
logical questions left unexplored in biographies or documentaries on Bobby
Fischer.
The audience for this book includes mental health professionals of var-
ied specialty areas, particularly those interested in working with gifted and
talented youth and adolescents, those interested in biographies of puzzling
and complex subjects, and individuals interested in chess and chess history.
Though a couple of chapters are particularly targeted for mental health pro-
fessionals, most of the book is written for the layperson without advanced
psychological training. The book is organized along ten chapters, and includes
various appendices for readers interested in more detail on certain subjects.
Chapter One orients the reader to the nature of psychobiography, to the
particular ethical challenges involved in providing a psychological assessment
of a recently deceased public figure, and to the particular research methods
employed by the author. In Chapter Two, the familiar story of Bobby
Fischer’s rise to chess supremacy and his decline into possible mental illness
is recounted. Bobby’s place and ranking among all world chess champions is
considered, and a very brief review on the history of chess is provided.

xi
xii A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

Chapter Three begins the psychological study of Bobby Fischer, starting

with a review of his early childhood and living environment. The seeds of
Bobby’s extraordinary chess ability—visual memory, concentration and focus,
spatial relations, original and creative thinking—as well as his psychological
problems—awkward social skills, marked distrust, problems academically—
become evident in this time period.
A core component in understanding Bobby Fischer is to know his par-
ents, as unraveling the mystery of Bobby Fischer begins with unraveling the
perplexity of his ancestry. Who was Regina Wender Fischer? Who was his
father? What kind of relationship did Bobby have with his parents, and what
was the impact of these relationships on his psychological development?
Chapter Four is devoted to understanding Regina Fischer in all her com-
plexity—loving, but overwhelmed single mother, a social justice and peace
activist, and a multilingual scholar who would earn, in time, both M.D. and
Ph.D. degrees. Critical to understanding Regina Fischer’s life is consideration
of the context of the Cold War period and the fact that she was under FBI
investigation as a possible Soviet spy. This chapter integrates a 994-page FBI
file on Regina (Wender) Fischer, which the author acquired through the
Freedom of Information Act.
Gerhardt (Liebscher) Fischer, born in 1908 in Berlin, Germany, is listed
on Bobby Fischer’s 1943 birth certificate as the father. The majority of Bobby
Fischer researchers, however, including this author, is fairly convinced that
Dr. Paul Felix Nemenyi, a Hungarian-born American scientist, was Bobby
Fischer’s biological father. Chapter Five systematically examines the evidence
regarding Bobby’s paternity. The lack of a stable, reliable father-son relation-
ship for a psychologically vulnerable young Bobby Fischer would have a last-
ing impact on his personality development and mental health over time.
In Chapter Six, the psychological development of Bobby Fischer is
examined more closely. Building off of the previous three chapters, this chap-
ter explores possible rationales for Bobby Fischer’s intense feelings of anger
and mistrust, and hypothesizes why a primary outlet of his anger was towards
Jews. This chapter sets the stage for a more systematic and detailed assess-
ment of Bobby’s mental state.
A formal post-mortem psychological assessment, a “psychological autop-
sy,” is the focus of Chapter Seven. The rationale for such an assessment in
terms of informing the mental health field is highlighted. Perhaps the most
technical and clinically detailed section in the book, this chapter reviews
available observational evidence on different mental disorders that have been
associated with Bobby Fischer in previous literature. Ultimately, the chapter
presents a differential diagnosis of Bobby Fischer and hypotheses what men-
tal illness he may have had.
 Preface xiii

Readers knowledgeable of chess history specifically, or American histo-

ry of the mid-nineteenth century, generally, will know the name of Paul
Morphy. An international chess phenomenon born in New Orleans, Morphy
captivated America and the world with his chess feats and victories in the late
1850s. In fact, the excitement and uproar created by Morphy resembles that
resulting from Bobby’s 1972 world championship victory over a century later.
Though there have been many great American chess champions in the last
two centuries, none have had the impact, nor held the legendary status, of
Morphy and Fischer. Sadly, Morphy, like Fischer, appeared to succumb to
increasing states of paranoia and mental illness. This chapter compares the
lives and psychologies of these two great American chess champions.
Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer were not the only chess grandmasters
to be associated with mental illness. What is it about chess genius and men-
tal illness? Are the two linked in some way? Chapter Nine reviews the his-
tory of mental illness among great chess players and integrates the empirical
research on any possible linkage between states of originality/creativity
(common to elite chess skill) and mental illness.
Finally, Chapter Ten outlines possible psychological supports and treat-
ments that may have helped Bobby Fischer (and family members) at various
points in his development. This chapter explores the following questions: If
Bobby would have received psychological counseling beginning in early
childhood, would his life had turned out differently? Could psychological
treatment have distracted Bobby from his passion and obsession for chess,
thus hindering his opportunity to reach the world title? Or could psycholog-
ical treatment have equipped him with the psychological resources and cop-
ing skills that would have facilitated not only his reaching the world chess
championship, but also a more balanced and stable personal, family, and
professional life? The chapter also includes suggestions for early school and
family intervention and psychoeducation regarding the needs and challenges
of the gifted and talented. I invite the reader on this journey of exploration
and insight into the psychological character of Bobby Fischer.

J.G.P.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PRIMARY SOURCES OF SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT

Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer represents my thirteenth authored or

A edited book, yet by far my most challenging effort, and the one where
I was most dependent on the assistance, generosity, wisdom, and experi-
ences of others to bring my vision of Bobby Fischer’s psychological history
to life. The first person I thank and acknowledge is Russell Targ, Bobby
Fischer’s brother-in-law. Mr. Targ met Bobby when he was, in his own words,
“courting his sister, Joan” (Targ, 2008, p. 237). Bobby was 14 years old at the
time. I venture that there is no person alive who knew Bobby better than
Russell Targ. Mr. Targ is a world-renowned researcher on distance healing
and the author of at least eight books, including his riveting and revealing
autobiography titled, Do You See what I see? Memoirs of a Blind Biker: Lasers and
Love, ESP and the CIA, and the Meaning of Life (Targ, 2008). Mr. Targ, who is
now 78 years old, continues to conduct research and travels to train others in
distance healing practices. During the time we were in some regular contact,
Mr. Targ was first off to Paris, France to accept a Life Achievement Award
from the International Association of Parapsychology, and then off to New
Zealand to conduct distance healing research.
I had the honor of three long phone interviews with Mr. Targ as well as
numerous back-and-forth e-mails to clarify questions as well as to get his
reaction to my earlier (Ponterotto, 2011) writing on his brother-in-law Bobby.
Furthermore, Mr. Targ read and commented on earlier versions of Chapters
Four and Five of this book focusing on profiles of Bobby’s mother Regina
Fischer, and his likely biological father Paul Nemenyi. Mr. Targ also granted
me permission to use photos from his family archive. Without Russell Targ’s
support for this project (not that he agrees with all of my conclusions) and his
insights on the Fischer family, this book may not have been possible.
The second person who encouraged and empowered me to keep study-
ing and working on the life of Bobby Fischer was the esteemed and interna-
tionally renowned biographer, Dr. Frank Brady, of nearby (to me at Ford-

xv
xvi A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

ham University) St. John’s University in Queens, New York. When I first
contacted Dr. Brady in the summer of 2010, he was finishing up, unbe-
knownst to me, work on his latest biography of Fischer titled Endgame: Bobby
Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall—from America’s Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of
Madness (Brady, 2011). As busy as Dr. Brady was with proofing galley pages,
securing photo permissions, planning the release of his book, all the while
being a full-time professor preparing for fall classes and finishing up summer
administrative work (he had just stepped down from serving as Chair of the
Mass Communications Department at St. John’s University), he made time
to meet with me multiple times in person, and helped me repeatedly through
e-mail correspondence. In addition to his three biographies of Bobby Fischer,
Dr. Brady has published highly successful and acclaimed biographies of
Orson Wells, Aristotle Onassis, Hugh Heffner, and Barbara Streisand. Though
I am not a biographer by training, I believe it fair to credit Dr. Frank Brady
as one of the most important and impactful biographers of the last half-cen-
tury.
While I consider Mr. Russell Targ my Fischer family member mentor, I
consider Dr. Brady my mentor in the field of biography. At one lecture Dr.
Brady gave at the Marshall Chess Club (where he is current President) in
New York City after the release of Endgame in February, 2011, he advised
those in the audience interested in biography to “read everything there is on
your subject, interview everyone you can who knew him or her; even if you
do not use all the information, at least you are coming from a place of knowl-
edge and competence.” Though my own biographical research experience
pales in comparison to Dr. Brady’s, I have tried my best to live up to his advice.
A third trove of information and insights on Bobby Fischer and his life
was provided to me by Dr. Anthony Saidy, a medical doctor, an Interna-
tional Chess Master, and a one-time close friend of Bobby Fischer. Dr. Saidy
is a leading chess author, and two of his books, The March of Chess Ideas (Saidy,
1994) and The World of Chess (Saidy & Lessing, 1974), can be considered clas-
sics in the field. Dr. Saidy was the Canadian Open Chess Co-Champion in
1960, the American Open Chess Championship in 1967 and Co-Champion
in 1992, the U.S. Speed Champion in 1956, and he placed fourth in the 1974
U.S. Chess Championship (behind Walter Browne, Pal Benko, and Larry
Evans). At his peak playing strength around 1964, Dr. Saidy’s ELO rating
was 2532.
In any in-depth review of Bobby Fischer’s chess career and personal life,
Dr. Saidy figures prominently. For example, in Brad Darrach’s (2009) con-
troversial book, Bobby Fischer vs. the Rest of the World, Dr. Saidy is portrayed as
the key person in helping Bobby actually get to Reykjavik, Iceland for the
1972 World Chess Championship match. Dr. Saidy shared with me that
 Acknowledgments xvii

Darrach’s portrayal of him and the circumstances leading up to Bobby’s trip

to Iceland was 80 percent accurate (and 20% fabricated). It is fair to say, that
without Dr. Saidy’s friendship, patience, ingenuity, and support, Bobby
Fischer would have never made the trip to Reykjavik for his 1972 match
against Boris Spassky. Dr. Saidy is featured in two documentaries on Bobby,
“Anything to Win: The Genius and Madness of Bobby Fischer” (2004) and
the more recently released “Bobby Fischer Against the World” (2011). In
these documentaries, Dr. Saidy’s passion for the game of chess, and his admi-
ration for and appreciation of Bobby’s accomplishments on the chessboard,
are touchingly evident.
Dr. Saidy read my 2011 Miller-McCune Magazine article on Bobby Fischer
(Ponterotto, 2011) and offered insights, reflections, and memories on his time
with Bobby that substantially extended the personal depth of my under-
standing of Bobby and his family. Furthermore, Dr. Saidy read, commented
on, and in fact helped copy-edit (he is a gifted editor as well as author) this
entire book. He also provided me with valuable leads for areas to pursue in
my study of Bobby Fischer, his mother Regina and grandmother Natalie
Wender, and the political context of the times. I feel deeply indebted to Dr.
Saidy for his careful reading of this entire book, for his professional guidance
and insights, and for his humor, good nature, and personal support.
My fourth source of support, and perhaps the greatest in terms of the
sheer volume of information and the amount of time they provided me, was
the journalism team of Clea Benson and Peter Nicholas. While working for
the Philadelphia Inquirer in the early 2000s, Nicholas and Benson discovered
and secured, through the Freedom of Information Act, a 900-page FBI
dossier on Regina Fischer. They subsequently requested and received the
FBI files of Regina’s husband (married from 1933 until her 1945 divorce),
Hans Gerhardt Fischer. As I read more of this team’s work, as well as began
to understand more fully the thoroughness and completeness of their inquiry
methods (extensive interviews conducted internationally, archival document
discovery across multiple languages, rigorous convergent validity methods in
assessing data accuracy), it began to dawn on me that their investigative work
was raising the status of research on Bobby Fischer and his family to a new
plateau of scholarly sophistication. Benson and Nicholas’s decade-long re-
search program (along with Dr. Brady’s almost 50 years of research on Bobby)
has provided a springboard for more recent researchers, including myself,
Edmonds and Eidinow (2004), among others to further extend the research
on Bobby Fischer, one of the most interesting and enigmatic celebrities and
intellectuals of the last half-century. By the empirical research standards of
any scientific profession, the work and contributions of Benson and Nicholas
have been groundbreaking.
xviii A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

As I was somewhat new to biographical methods at the start of this

Fischer project, I was also new to the field of journalism, and had much to
learn. Benson and Nicholas, particularly Clea Benson who organizes, logs,
and maintains the team’s Fischer archives, taught me much of what I now
know of investigative journalism.
A fifth primary source of information on Bobby Fischer and his family
was Dr. Robert Lipton, who now serves as an Associate Professor in the De-
partment of Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lipton
had kindly e-mailed me to offer family insights after reading my article on
Bobby Fischer that appeared in Miller-McCune Magazine (Ponterotto, 2011).
Dr. Lipton met and dated Elisabeth Targ, Bobby Fischer’s niece, while
Elisabeth was completing her psychiatry residency at the University of Cali-
fornia at Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Dr. Lipton got to know the Fischer
family well, particularly Elisabeth’s mom [who was Bobby’s older sister],
Joan Fischer Targ; in fact he remarked to me that Joan “was effectively my
surrogate mother” (R. Lipton, personal communication, January 28, 2011).
Dr. Lipton and Elisabeth eventually separated as boyfriend-girlfriend, but
the two remained close friends until Elisabeth’s untimely death in 2002 at the
age of 40 (see Targ, 2008). Given Elisabeth was living in Santa Monica while
she was at UCLA, and Bobby was living in the area as well, some of the
responsibility in caring for and helping Bobby and at times his mother
Regina, fell on Elisabeth and Robert.
Dr. Lipton’s insights are particularly insightful for four reasons. First, he
was very close to Elisabeth and her family, particularly Joan Fischer. Second,
he helped Bobby during his “wilderness years” where we have little validat-
ed information about Bobby’s life. Third, both he and Elisabeth were in the
mental health research field—Elisabeth an M.D. Psychiatrist, and Robert a
Ph.D. in Psychiatric Epidemiology (with a minor in psychocultural anthro-
pology)—and thus their clinical insights, which Dr. Lipton shared with me,
have important value in our understanding of the psychological life of Bobby
Fischer. Fourth, Robert spent time with Regina Fischer in her later years and
his observations of Regina and her life with her children/grandchildren is
particularly important because much of the literature on Regina Fischer
stems from earlier stages in her life (e.g., as in the FBI reports which spanned
1942 to 1973, and memories of the chess community in the 1950s and 1960s).
Dr. Lipton was also kind enough to read and comment on Chapter Four of
this book, “Mother Love: Understanding Regina Fischer’s Relationship with
son Bobby.”
 Acknowledgments xix

Additional Sources of Consultation and Support

Without the support and encouragement of Russell Targ and Dr. Frank
Brady, likely the two persons alive who knew Bobby Fischer best, I don’t
know if I would have felt that I even had the right to pen a psychological life
story of Mr. Fischer. And without the support and mentoring of journalists
Clea Benson and Peter Nicholas, the assistance of Fischer family friend, Dr.
Robert Lipton, and the insights of Fischer close friend Dr. Anthony Saidy,
this book would not be the integrative vision and window into Bobby
Fischer’s life that I think it has become. However, there were many other col-
leagues, professionals, and Fischer associates who provided me with valuable
assistance over the last four years as I researched and wrote this book.
First, I thank my wife and colleague, Dr. Ingrid Grieger, a master clini-
cian and clinical supervisor, who not only read earlier versions of this work,
but also helped me understand and process early childhood aspects of Bobby
Fischer’s life that would relate to his long-term psychological development.
Interestingly, Ingrid and family moved to the Eastern Parkway section of
Brooklyn, around the block from Bobby Fischer’s family (who were at 560
Lincoln Place) in 1954, and Ingrid remembers seeing Bobby in the neigh-
borhood. Dr. Grieger’s expertise in understanding Jewish immigrants, par-
ticularly those associated with the Holocaust, was very valuable to my under-
standing of the Fischer family sociocultural-religious context in the 1940s and
1950s.
Other colleagues who are experienced psychologists (some are also chess
players) that read and commented on early versions of this work include Dr.
Paul Greene (whom I mention in the book Preface) of Iona College, Drs.
Amelio D’Onofrio and Daniel Ruckdeschel of Fordham University, and Dr.
Rahul Chauhan, in private practice in New York City. All experienced clin-
icians, representing diverse psychotherapeutic orientations—humanistic, exis-
tential, family systems, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and multicul-
tural—these scholars helped me understand more fully, and interpret more
clearly, the complexity of Bobby Fischer’s psychological life. Furthermore,
these psychologists consulted with me on the ethical appropriateness of my
psychological assessment and profile of Bobby Fischer and his mother Regina
Fischer.
Other mental health, medical, or legal experts who consulted with me on
the ethical issues involved in this psychobiography were Drs. Doyle McCarthy
and Akane Zusho of Fordham University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB),
Drs. Stephen Behnke and Lindsay Childress-Beatty of the American
Psychological Association, Dr. Celia Fisher of Fordham University’s Center
for Ethics Education, Dr. Marcus Zachary at Saint Francis hospital in San
xx A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

Francisco, and Joel Silverman, Esq., in New York City. I say more about my
ethics consultation with these professionals in Chapter One.
A chess insider who was very helpful to my research was Paul M. Albert,
Jr. Mr. Albert is a serious player and lover of chess, a successful investment
banker, investor, and corporate director and the former well-known sponsor
of the “Albert Brilliancy Prizes” from 1983 to 2003 awarded to the competi-
tors in the U.S. Chess Championship who played the most brilliant and inno-
vative games at the tournament. Mr. Albert was also a trustee of the Amer-
ican Chess Foundation from 1970s until 2003 (see Albert, 2004) and provid-
ed me with a penetrating window into chess life and politics during that era.
Mr. Albert also met Bobby Fischer on several occasions and handled the
demonstration board for a few games at the Marshall Chess Club in 1965
when Bobby was playing via teletype (he could not receive State Department
permission to travel to Cuba) in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament held
in Havana (Albert, 2009). Given the esteem and respect in which Mr. Albert
is held in the U.S. chess world, his kind introductions allowed me access to
other chess notables in Bobby Fischer’s era. Particularly, through Mr. Albert’s
introduction I met and spent time with Grandmaster William Lombardy,
who of course figured so prominently in Bobby Fischer’s rise to the World
Chess title. I thank Paul Albert for his generous time, insight, memories and
guidance.
A helpful source of information on the life and personality of Bobby
Fischer was Shernaz Kennedy, an International Woman’s Master who was a
friend and confidant of Bobby’s for roughly two decades, from 1981 through
2001. Shernaz and Bobby maintained a close relationship through regular
mail correspondence and phone calls. Furthermore, Shernaz visited Bobby
for four days in Los Angeles in 1986. Bobby appeared to trust Shernaz and
he shared with her his thoughts and feelings on many personal, family, and
professional topics. Shernaz, in turn, was and is very loyal to Bobby and I
feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to communicate with Shernaz
through long phone conversations and multiple e-mails. I also thank Grand-
master William Lombardy for the enlightening dinner and lunch conversa-
tions we had regarding his life and his relationship with Bobby Fischer.
I am indebted to Dr. Thomas Aiello, professor of history at Valdosta
State University, and one of the country’s leading experts on the life and
times of chess legend Paul Morphy. Professor Aiello reviewed an earlier ver-
sion of Chapter Eight on the parallel lives of Bobby Fischer and Paul
Morphy and made valuable suggestions that helped me to enhance the clar-
ity and accuracy of the chapter. Dr. Aiello’s knowledge of Paul Morphy, of
Morphy’s chief biographer, David Lawson, and of life in the South (particu-
larly New Orleans) in the mid-nineteenth century is astonishing. An eminent
 Acknowledgments xxi

author and editor, Dr. Aiello’s recent books include Dan Burley’s Jive (2009),
The Kings of Casino Park: Race and Race Baseball in the Lost Season of 1932 (2011),
and Bayou Classic: The Grambling-Southern Football Rivalry (2011). Thank you
Dr. Aiello for your thoughtful review and comments.
I also want to acknowledge and thank Dr. William Todd Schultz of Pacific
University in Oregon, one of our nation’s eminent psychobiographers. Prior
to beginning my research on Bobby Fischer I did not know Dr. Shultz per-
sonally, but nonetheless when I contacted him he graciously offered me his
advice and recommendations, and led me to definitive sources and exemplar
models of psychobiography. Dr. Schultz, in his own work, highlights that good
psychobiography is not “pathography,” that is, the reduction of a complex
personality to static psychopathological categories or symptoms. He empha-
sized that it is critical for the psychobiographer to capture the essence of the
subject’s thoughts and feelings that underlie the behavior we witness. Dr.
Schultz read an earlier brief manuscript on Bobby Fischer and provided me
with valuable assistance and constructive criticism. Dr. Schultz’s (2011) new-
est psychobiography was recently released by Oxford University Press: Tiny
Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers.
Other individuals who contributed to this book in some way included
Dr. Diane Ponterotto, a feminist-oriented psycholinguist at the University of
Rome (Italy) who helped me monitor any potential bias as a man writing
about the women in Bobby Fischer’s life, particularly his mother, Regina
Fischer, and his sister Joan Fischer. Dr. Richard Ross, of New York City, a
close acquaintance of the chess legend and psychoanalyst Dr. Reuben Fine
in his later years, provided me with valuable insights into the personality and
character of this historic figure in chess history. Salvatore Franco of Minne-
apolis, Minnesota expended strong effort in helping me try to locate a for-
mer Fischer acquaintance. Albert Audette, a retired Air Force colonel, and
now head of Audette & Associates, LLC, helped me understand the rela-
tionship between the FBI and the military in the 1960s. Dalia Wissgott-
Moneta, a social worker in Frankfurt, Germany, and Professors Susan Ray
and Suzanne Hafner of Fordham University, assisted me with translation of
German documents. A few of our Fordham University Ph.D. students were
helpful in terms of discussions we had related to the Bobby Fischer story,
particularly Alex Fietzer, Esther Fingerhut, and Jason Reynolds.
I acknowledge the generosity of Einar Einarsson and Svala Soleyg,
friends of Bobby Fischer’s in Iceland who granted me permission to repro-
duce their “last” photo and pencil drawing of Bobby Fischer. Thanks as well
to Dr. Alfredo Pasin of Monza, Italy, for allowing me to reproduce his poem
“Il Giocatore Bobby” (“Bobby the Chess Player”) in its entirety in this vol-
ume.
xxii A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

Finally, I acknowledge the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investi-

gation (FBI) who honored my Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
for all documents pertaining to Bobby Fischer’s mother, Regina (Wender)
Fischer (Pustan). Knowing the length of Regina’s file and the many requests
the FBI Records Management Division likely receives on a weekly basis, I
anticipated a long, drawn-out process in securing all relevant files. However,
FBI staff responded immediately to my requests and was very helpful. I am
particularly indebted to David M. Hardy, Section Chief, and David P.
Sobonya, Public Information Officer and Legal Administrative Specialist, of
the Record/Information Dissemination Section of the FBI. Furthermore, I
acknowledge the assistance of Linda Wilkins, Public Affairs Specialist, and
Susan McKee, Unit Chief, Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit,
Office of Public Affairs, for their assistance in helping me secure FBI per-
mission to reproduce the photo of a young Regina Wender that appeared in
the FBI documents.
 CONTENTS

Page
Author’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter One. BRIEF NOTES ON PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY,

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, AND
RESEARCH METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
On the Nature of Psychobiography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
On the Place of Psychological Theory in
Psychobiography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Ethical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter Two. DRAMATIC RISE AND MYSTERIOUS FALL

OF BOBBY FISCHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Bobby’s Rise to the World Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Brief Note on the Origins of Chess and its
Champions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Genius Blossoms: How did Bobby Fischer Get
so Good? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Bobby Fischer’s Place Among the World
Champions of Chess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter Three. IN THE BEGINNING: THE EARLY LIFE

OF BOBBY FISCHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Bobby’s Birth and Family Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Bobby’s Early Life: Seeds of Psychological
Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

xxiii
xxiv A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

Chapter Four. MOTHER LOVE: UNDERSTANDING

REGINA FISCHER’S RELATIONSHIP
WITH SON BOBBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Regina Fischer: Queen Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Regina Fischer as Peace Activist, Mother,
and Subject of FBI Surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
FBI Investigation Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Ambivalence in the Mother-Son Relationship—
Regina Fischer Moves Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Limitations of FBI Perspective and a More
Balanced Profile of Regina Fischer . . . . . . . . . . 42
Cold War Context of FBI Investigation . . . . . . . . 42
A More Balanced Perspective on Regina
Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Understanding the Psychology of Regina
Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Regina Fischer’s Early Childhood and
Adolescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Regina Meets Gerhardt Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Regina as a Single Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter Five. WHO IS MY FATHER? THE MYSTERY OF

BOBBY FISCHER’S PATERNITY . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Who was Hans Gerhardt Fischer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
The Identity of Bobby’s Biological Father . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Evidence for Paul Felix Nemenyi being Bobby
Fischer’s Biological Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Did Bobby Know the Identity of his Biological
Father? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter Six. THE MIND AND INNER LIFE OF

BOBBY FISCHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Bobby’s Psychological Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Bobby Fischer’s Psychological Deterioration . . . . . . . . 70

Chapter Seven. A PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY OF

BOBBY FISCHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
 Contents xxv

Why Conduct a Psychological Autopsy of

Bobby Fischer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
On the Nature of a Psychological Autopsy . . . . . . . . . . 86
Diagnosing Bobby Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
A Comprehensive Mental Health Assessment
of Bobby Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Bobby’s Biological Parents and Grandparents . . . 89
Bobby’s Half-Siblings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Starting Out: Bobby’s Genetic Predisposition . . . 93
Differential Diagnosis of Bobby’s Mental
Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Chapter Eight. THE PARALLEL LIVES AND MENTAL

ILLNESSES OF PAUL MORPHY AND
BOBBY FISCHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Rocking the Chess World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
The Life of Paul Morphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Family Origins and Early History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
An Intellectual and Artistic Prodigy . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Life in College and Law School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Embarking on his Brief Chess Career . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The Civil War and Life as an Attorney in
New Orleans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Psychological Decline and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Evidence of Paul Morphy’s Psychological Illness . . . . 117
What Happened to Paul Morphy? A
Psychological Autopsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Beyond a Clinical Diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
A Note on Paul Morphy’s Sexuality . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Similarities and Differences in the Lives and
Mental Illness of Morphy and Fischer . . . . . . 128

Chapter Nine. ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENIUS

AND MADNESS—ARE CHESS MASTERS
MORE VULNERABLE TO MENTAL
ILLNESS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Mental Illness Among Chess Legends of the Past . . . 135
A Neurological Link between Creativity and
Mental Illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
xxvi A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

Are Elite Chess Players More Prone to

Mental Illness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Are Certain Career Paths More Hazardous
to One’s Mental Health? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Well, What Are We to Make of this Data? . . . . . . . 142

Chapter Ten. IF ONLY? PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT

OF BOBBY FISCHER AND FAMILY . . . . . . . 145
Bobby Fischer’s Final Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Psychological Counseling and the Fischer
Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Psychological Support for Regina and
Joan Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Psychological Intervention for Bobby
Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
What Can be Learned from the Bobby Fischer
Story? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Appendix A—Select Chess Achievements of Bobby Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Appendix B—Select Personal Challenges and Events in Bobby Fischer’s Life . . . 164
Appendix C—Regina Fischer Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Appendix D—Paul Morphy Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Name Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page
Figures

Figure 3.1 Robert (Bobby) James Fischer Family Genogram . . . . . . . . . 27

Figure 7.1 Differential Diagnosis Flow Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Figure 8.1 Paul Morphy’s Family Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Tables

Table 2.1 Official World Chess Champions (Men) and Their

Chessmetrics Average Peak Ratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Table 8.1 Similarities in the Lives of Bobby Fischer and
Paul Morphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Table 8.2 Differences in the Lives of Bobby Fischer and
Paul Morphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Plates

Plate 1. Regina Fischer as a young woman #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Plate 2. Regina Fischer as a young woman #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Plate 3. Regina and Hans Gerhardt Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Plate 4. Regina Fischer with daughter Joan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Plate 5. Paul Felix Nemenyi, young adulthood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Plate 6. Paul Felix Nemenyi, middle adulthood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Plate 7. Bobby Fischer with mentor Jack Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Plate 8. Bobby Fischer with sister Joan Fischer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Plate 9. Bobby Fischer, last known portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Plate 10. Bobby Fischer, lead pencil drawing of last known
portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

xxvii
 PRAISE FOR

A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer:

Understanding the Genius, Mystery, and Psychological Decline
of a World Chess Champion

“The era of the amateur psychologizing about Bobby Fischer is coming to a

close. Now we heed a professional. Dr. Joseph Ponterotto has applied the sci-
entific principles of his discipline to a personality that so long perplexed the
world. The controversies will not end, but any further hypotheses will need
to take Ponterotto’s work as a starting point.”
—Anthony Saidy, MD., Intl. Chess Master

“Dr. Ponterotto’s pioneering research on Bobby Fischer clears up many of

the myths and misperceptions that have long surrounded one of the world’s
most enigmatic personalities. This book is a unique blend of psychology and
reporting that will fascinate anyone who has ever wondered what explains
such self-destructive brilliance.”
—Clea Benson and Peter Nicholas, Investigative Journalists

“Brilliant, agonized; original, immature; astute, emotionally volatile; virtuosic,

enigmatic—so goes the narrative of the life and adventures of Bobby Fischer,
a man who captivated the world with both his genius and with his tormented
soul. In A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer, Joseph Ponterotto elegantly unpacks
the many contradictions that at once propelled Fischer onto the world stage
and, at the same time, led to his eventual liminalization. Ponterotto traces
Fischer’s socioemotional development from early life skillfully integrating the
many influences that helped shape the person he became as an adult. His
treatment of the tumultuous dynamics of Fischer’s relationship with his moth-
er and the psychological implications of the mystery of his paternity not only
makes for fascinating reading but poignantly sheds light on what Fischer’s

xxviii
 Praise for xxix

hidden suffering was all about. While Ponterotto explores Fischer’s life with
the eye of a scientist, he writes with the pen of one who appreciates the com-
plexity of human experience and who faithfully and compassionately strives
to follow the truth wherever it may lead. I recommend this eminently read-
able work not only to Bobby Fischer fans but to all those fascinated by the
paradoxes and pain that often lie behind genius.”
—Amelio A. D’Onofrio, Ph.D.
Founding Director and Clinical Professor
Psychological Services Institute, Fordham University

“The link between genius and mental illness is often observed but rarely
resolved. Chess genius Bobby Fischer’s oddities give way to accomplished
academician and chess lover Joseph Ponterotto’s systematic application of
contemporary psychology. Dr. Ponterotto shows us greater meaning in the
tragic life of one of the superstars of modern chess. Had proper help been
available to a young Bobby Fischer, what elegance of chess mastery might
the world have experienced? What discoveries do we lose today when fam-
ilies and children don’t get the best support and fall into the abyss of mental
illness? Dr. Ponterotto has uncovered the moves and mistakes in one trou-
bled genius to show us how we can help people play the game of life so that
there are more winners, and amazingly, fewer losers.”
—Paul Greene, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
Private Practice, New York City and New Rochelle, NY

“In reading this psychobiography of Bobby Fischer, I felt as if I was invited

along on an intriguing journey to explore both his genius at the board, and
his inexplicable behavior off the board. I have come to understand the com-
plex intermix of factors—historical, cultural, political, genetic, personal, and
family—that contributed to Mr. Fischer’s development in both healthy and
unhealthy ways. Professor Ponterotto anchors his discussion and conclusions
in serious scholarship while writing about Bobby Fischer and his family in an
accessible and respectful manner. I highly recommend taking this journey into
the mind of perhaps history’s greatest chess legend.”
—Rahul Chauhan, Ph.D.
Psychologist and Multicultural Specialist
Private Practice, New York City

“I was quickly captivated by Dr. Ponterotto’s clear, conversational style of

xxx A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

writing which made chess and Bobby Fischer both accessible and interesting
to me. I learned about the genre of psychobiography and the goals of a psy-
chological autopsy. As a psychologist (and ethics educator) I was gratifed that
Ponterotto was deliberate and transparent in his consideration of the ethical
issues and limitations involved with this undertaking, and I appreciated that
he frequently reminded the reader about the speculative nature of the diag-
nostic conclusions he was drawing. Mental health professionals will appreci-
ate the story of Fischer’s inner life that Ponterotto weaves. It is an intriguing
journey to attempt to put together the puzzle (with missing pieces) of Fischer’s
life, from a psychological perspective. Figuring out “how someone got this
way” is at the heart of the diagnostic and assessment process and is difficult
enough when the subject is a living active participant. The painstaking re-
search, the multiple interviews, the triangulation of sources, making explicit
his thought processes all serve to increase the reader’s confidence in
Ponterotto’s conclusions. (The level of detail in Chapters 4 and 5 on Fischer’s
mother and likely paternity are good examples of this rigorous research.) It
is apparent in Chapters 7 and 9 that Ponterotto is a conscientious scientist
and insightful practitioner who applied his ample skills as both a psycholog-
ical researcher and psychotherapist to unravel the mystery of Bobby Fischer.
Ponterotto has made a significant contribution to the scholarship on Bobby
Fischer by adding psychology’s voice to the speculations about the mental
health of this troubled champion.
—Suzette L. Speight, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
University of Akron, Akron, Ohio

“Through his in-depth study of Bobby Fischer, Dr. Ponterotto provides a riv-
eting case study that can serve as an educative tool for school-based mental
health professionals and administrators. Bobby Fischer was a genius, but also
deeply troubled; and as highlighted in this psychobiography, early interven-
tion by school counselors and school psychologists may have helped young
Bobby both develop his cognitive and intellectual gifts while at the same
time promoting his broader academic and social skills development. This
book was a fascinating read, and so relevant to the work I do in schools and
in private practice. I recommend it highly.”
—Ernest A. Collabolletta, Psy.D.
School Psychologist, Scarsdale Public Schools,
and Private Practice, White Plains, NY

“Ponterotto has given us a unique gift: something fundamentally NEW about

 Praise for xxxi

Bobby Fischer. His psychobiography doesn’t walk the boards paced by count-
less others before him, seeking to score academic points by picking the nits
of place, time, and motive. It isn’t a work of sympathy or damnation. Instead,
A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer provides a considered psychological portrait
of an American enigma and a necessary companion to previous traditional
biographies.”
—Thomas Aiello, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History
Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA
Editor, David Lawson’s Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess

“A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer provides a fascinating layer of information

to help interpret the complex and, in some ways, tragic life of Bobby and his
family.”
—Robert Lipton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
A PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF
BOBBY FISCHER
 Chapter One

BRIEF NOTES ON PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY,

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, AND
RESEARCH METHODS

All I want to do, ever, is play chess.

(Bobby Fischer, quoted in Rothstein, 2008, p. B1)

I wish I could fly, so that I could play chess with God.

(Nine-year-old chess player Adam Weser,
cited in Hoffman, 2007, p. 63)

ON THE NATURE OF PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY

hough much has been written about Bobby Fischer, first as a vi-
T sionary chess genius, and second, as a troubled man who lost his
way and became obsessed with Anti-Semitic and Anti-American view-
points, little is known of the inner workings of his mind that led to the
“Mystery of Bobby Fischer.” This book attempts to unveil that mystery
using the research tools of psychobiography. Put simply, psychobiog-
raphy is the psychological study of an individual person (Schultz,
2005b). The specialty and research methods of psychobiography are
well established in the broader field of psychology and there are nu-
merous models and guides to conducting and reporting exemplar psy-
chobiographical studies (e.g., see Elms, 1994; Runyan, 1982; Schultz,
2005a).
More than a biographical sketch of “who” a person was and “what”
the person accomplished in their particular field, psychobiography con-

3
4 A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer

cerns itself with the “why” of a person’s behavior. What was the inner
life, the psychology that drove the person to his or her thoughts, feel-
ings, and actions? What were the underlying mechanisms that made
the person tick? In this book, I provide one window into the life of
Bobby Fischer by using my lens as an academic researcher and prac-
ticing psychologist to explore the inner psychology of this legendary
and enigmatic icon.
An individual’s behavior should be considered within the context
of their time—the political and historical period of their lives, their
genetic predispositions, the family’s immigration and migration histo-
ry, religious and cultural experiences and influences, socioeconomic
conditions, academic experiences, the specific characteristics of the
career in which they engage, and their significant friendships and rela-
tionships at critical points in development. A comprehensive psycho-
biography should address all of these facets of an individual life.
In his edited Handbook of Psychobiography, Schultz (2005b) outlined
the characteristics of quality psychobiographies. First, they are persua-
sive in that the reader follows the researcher’s logic and methods,
understands the conclusions made, and finds the interpretations and
explanations offered to be credible and accurate given the data re-
viewed. Second, the “story” is logically laid out, with conclusions and
interpretations following the presentation and evaluation of the evi-
dence. Third, comprehensive treatment of the person and the context
of the person’s life enhances the credibility of the psychobiography.
There may be multiple interpretations of a single event, and they all
should be explored and then examined in relation to other events to
identify common threads of behavior or thought.
A fourth characteristic of good psychobiography emphasized by
Schultz (2005b) is what he called “convergence of data” (p. 7). Multi-
ple sources of information relating to the same event enhance the ac-
curacy of interpretation. For example, Regina Fischer, Bobby’s moth-
er, figured very prominently in his life. One source of information on
Regina Fischer is a 994-page FBI dossier on her. If one were to base
her or his opinion only on this source, a narrow (and more negative)
picture of Regina and her parenting skills would emerge. However, if
one were to “triangulate” the FBI data with perceptions of Regina held
by her family (e.g., her son Bobby, her daughter Joan, and her son-in-
law Russell Targ), and her friends, a more balanced, and likely accu-
 Brief Notes 5

rate picture on Regina Fischer and the nature of her relationship to son
Bobby would emerge.
Schultz’s (2005b) fifth characteristic of good psychobiography is
elucidation and sudden coherence. With careful interpretation based
on multiple data sources, what may have been previously confusing or
incoherent now makes sense when contextualized within a deeper
understanding of the subject. With regard to Bobby Fischer, one might
ask what led to his obsessive hatred of two particular segments of the
population: first, Jews, and second, the United States government? A
coherent and comprehensive psychobiography ultimately arrives at a
reasonable answer to this question.
A sixth aspect of a quality psychobiography is that the argument
presented throughout is logical and sound, and free from researcher
self-contradictions. Seventh, interpretations within psychobiography
should be consistent with broader knowledge of human development,
cultural expectations, and the specific career in question. Finally, sound
psychobiography withstands the test of time and remains a viable
explanation for an individual’s actions even as other interpretations
are introduced (Runyan, 2005; Schultz, 2005b).
In this psychobiography of Bobby Fischer I have strived to meet
the first seven criteria for strong biographical research and reporting
outlined by Schultz (2005b). The final criteria, credibility of my expla-
nations over time, will be judged in the years to come. I leave it to my
readers to weigh the value, validity, and impact of this psychobiogra-
phy on Bobby Fischer.

ON THE PLACE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL

THEORY IN PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY

Psychobiographies can be anchored in a single theory, in multiple

theories, or in no theory in particular. For example, both Dr. Ernest
Jones’s (1951) analysis of Paul Morphy and Reuben Fine’s (2008) an-
alysis of Bobby Fischer is exclusively anchored in Freudian psychoan-
alytic theory. By contrast, Todd Schultz’s (2011) recent psychobiogra-
phy of Truman Capote is anchored in attachment theory and script
theory. My view is that to view a historic figure within the lens of one
theoretical model is potentially very limiting. Jones’s psychoanalytic
treatment of Morphy was harshly criticized (e.g., Lawson, 2010; Philip-