Bobby Fischer: Chess Grand Master, WCG Celebrity, And His Journey Across The Tiber

 Armstrongism has had a few high-profile members over the years and two of its most known members were Dan Truhitte of The Sound of Music who played Rolf and chess Grand Master, Bobby Fischer. both of these men were exploited by the church due to their celebrity status. Garner Ted Armstrong used Truhitte in the America Listen's Campaign and the church exploited Bobby Fischer for his money and his fame.

There was an article released the other day on the Church Militant website about Bobby Fischer. It is really well written and covers a lot about Fischer I had never heard before particularly Fischer's end-of-life journey.

The article starts off with this:

"It appears that the greatest avatar of chess mastery that the world has ever known (and that, perhaps, it will ever know), the man with an intelligence quotient that dwarfed Albert Einstein's, the indigent Brooklyn-prodigy-turned-unlikely-Cold-War-hero, former world chess champion Robert James Fischer "crossed the Tiber" and converted to Catholicism in the final days of his life.

The story of Bobby Fischer's remarkable rise, enigmatic disappearance and tragic fall is one that has, for decades, captivated chess fans and chess muggles alike. It's an epic that continues to vex the world because of its sheer inimitability: There's simply nothing like the Fischer story anywhere to be found in the annals of sporting history. And now, it looks as if the legend of Fischer, once widely supposed to have resolved in bitter ignominy, ended on a note of utmost felicity — with his dying in the bosom of God's one true Church.

Perhaps the primary reason that so many sympathize with Fischer's story (aside from their admiration for his unparalleled genius on the chessboard and his lasting contributions to the theory of the game) is that, despite the disadvantageous circumstances that he was born into, he seemed to be — even during the periods of his life in which he proved to be loudly and painfully misguided (and there were many) — a sincere seeker of truth and a stickler for principle."

After a well researched and description of his life as the son of a poor Jewish mother where he got his first chess set at the age of 6, to the point he entered into the Worldwide Church of God, we get to this:

After living an arduous and austere life in an "almost monastic pursuit of the world championship" (to quote Fischer biographer Frank Brady), Bobby wanted to pursue his religious studies — he was a member of a fundamentalist church, the Worldwide Church of God, which he had given $60,000 of his world championship purse — and to meet a girl and fall in love (Frank Brady, Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall — From America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness (New York: Crown Publishing, 2011), 205)."

And then this: 

While he began his chess sabbatical with the high-minded ideals of growing in faith and seeking vocation, such noble intentions were soon derailed by the harsh realities of life in a post-edenic world. Bobby had long proudly carried the banner of the Worldwide Church of God, observing its tenets, bankrolling its coffers, even speaking frequently of the impending "Rapture" per its queer doctrines. But his faith in his church was irreparably damaged when "prophecies" about a 1972 second coming of Christ made by the church's founder, Herbert W. Armstrong, proved to be false. Fischer, realizing that he had been hoodwinked, delivered a searing invective:

The real proof for me were those prophecies ... that show to me that [Armstrong] is an outright huckster. ... I thought, "This doesn't seem right. I gave all my money. Everybody has been telling me this [about apocalyptic events that were to unfold in 1972] for years. And now, he's half-denying he ever said it, even when I remember him saying it a hundred times." … If you talk about fulfillment of prophecy, he is a fulfillment of Elmer Gantry. If Elmer Gantry was the Elijah, Armstrong's the Christ of religious hucksters. There is no way he could truly be God's prophet. Either God is a masochist and likes to be made a fool of, or else Herbert Armstrong is a false prophet. 

 

So Fischer, disenchanted with the version of Christianity he long supposed to be true, began groping for meaning elsewhere, eventually straying into irreligion altogether. Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum.

The article then goes on to describe his descent into atheism (due to his association and exploitation by the WCG) and then into his publicized anti-semitism. It then describes him meeting up with a man who once again sparks his interest in God. The article ends with this:

However, in his final days, Fischer played one last gambit, a curious move that seems to suggest that — maybe, just maybe — he found his way back home to the Barque of Peter: Fischer requested, according to officials from the Catholic Church of Iceland, that he be "buried as a Catholic." On Monday, Jan. 21, 2008, under the unrelenting blackness of the northern winter sky, Bobby Fischer's broken body was lowered into the frozen earth, in a funeral attended by five people. In accord with his last wishes, a French Catholic priest, Fr. Jakob Rolland, presided over the humble ceremony, commending Fischer's soul to its Maker and, hopefully, to the eternal light of the beatific vision. 

 

While we may never definitively know if Fischer officially became Catholic, he, at the very least, fit the bill for a baptism of desire. While God binds Himself to His sacraments, He is not bound by the sacraments, and He can confer salvation — by means understood by the Divine Mind alone — on those who, by no fault of their own, die without formal incorporation into the Church. The illustrious St. Thomas Aquinas himself tells us that "when a man wishes to be baptized but by some ill chance he is forestalled by death before receiving baptism," he "can obtain salvation without being actually baptized, on account of his desire." 

 

If I were a betting man (and I am), I'd wager that Fischer found his way, at long last, into the one true Church. And, if that's the case, the patroness of chess, St. Teresa of Avila, better watch out: There's a pretty daunting new act in town.

The article is fascinating in the covering of the life of Bobby Fischer that I have not seen in other articles about the man. The article can be found here:

THE REDEMPTION OF CHESS LEGEND BOBBY FISCHER

 

"The Religion Was Soaked With Fear..."

Here is an excerpt from an entry on a "conspiracy" site that is discussing the weirdness of Bobby Fisher.  Someone responds with the following:

American Protestants were fairly enlightened until the time Armstrong came on to the scene, its all gone down hill since. Billy Graham once referred to Herbert Armstrong as "a great man of prophecy". Herbert Armstrong predicted the end of the world would come in 1972 - doesn't pay a prophet to be too specific. We jokingly refer to Armstrong's church as a "non-prophet" organization. 

For me it wasn't a conversion by choice, my father joined the religion when I was very young and I was compelled to go. I did spend about 34 years in the religion, which is not unusual, most Catholics grew up in their religion too, they didn't convert to it. In 1993 I began to see the little man behind the curtain for what he was. Then me and few friends started an internet campaign to change the organization and reveal its corruption. About half the membership left it for more productive lives. Those that remained splintered into dozens of new organizations. The parent organization is now a Karl Barth Calvinist style church. 

I won't go into all the scandals of the religion, if you are interested in the sordid historical facts of its founders they are available at: http://hwarmstrong.com/ on a web site run by a friend of mine. I am not bitter towards the religion, the experience was a mixed bag. I still maintain friendships with those that don't mind having a heretic for a friend. Somethings taught were very good, but the image they presented of God, was frankly a monster. 

The religion was soaked with fear and because the end was always near members never put away money for their children or their retirements. Fear of God, fear of the end times, fear of even your own God given reasoning and common sense were hallmarks of the religion. Armstrong practiced a self-censoring form of mind control and had studied not only Hitler, Marx and Hegel...he says just to know how evil they were. In one letter to co-workers he admits to being an FBI informant during the McCarthy era.

------

One of the lawyers on that case told me the State of California went after the wrong things. They tried to find something wrong with the books. The Church had an air tight accounting system - in fact it was state of the art - it was a real time system that gave their current cash position at any given moment (that was in 1982). It was also pass phrase encrypting on the record level. What the State of California didn't ask was what Herbert W Armstrong did with that money, and all that required was a compliant Treasury who'd sign off on it. If the State came down, he could always have plausible deniability and fire the Treasurer. Those who didn't comply did get fired. I know of two such honest men.

The rest of the comments are here: Rumor Mill News: Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer Against The World (and WCG)

New HBO documentary on Bobby Fisher includes Worldwide Church of God failed prophecies as part of Fischer's declining mental state.

Bobby Fischer Against The World 

Another Soul Touched By Armstrongism (And Not In A Good Way!)

The End Game February 2011

I have hesitated posting this because it has been getting so much press lately.  But heck, anything I can post here that gets Watchman in a dither I will do it!  :-)

Bobby Fischer: another sad legacy of Armstrongism.

Fischer was invited to Ambassador College do do a chess seminar. Once there he got caught up in the mire of Armstrongism.  He was already having lots of life issues and mental health issues. Fischer's problems only multiplied the longer he stayed in contact with Armstrongism.

Harry Sneider, former Ambassador College PE Department  trainer has his take on Fischer in this The Journal article.

Ambassador Reports had this information about him in it's first magazine issues

Chess Champion Bobby Fischer had quite a lot to say about
the Armstrongs. In an interview with the Ambassador Report
editor, Fischer said, "I was trying to buy God." From 1967
through 1974 he gave a total of $94,315 to the Worldwide Church
of God. In 1972, the year he won his championship by defeating
Soviet champion Boris Spassky, he donated $61,200 to the Church.
He said, "This idea of Herbert's that you can't trust your own
thoughts - that's the key doctrine that I think has to be blasted
out. I would say that if there's one thing that is the whole
essence of Armstrongism, that is it. That's how he screws up your
mind, that's how he hangs on to people." He said further
regarding Armstrong's prophetic failure, that the Church would be
taken to safety in 1972, "Like the Bible says, when a prophet
makes prophecies that don't come true, then that guy is not of
God and you don't have to be afraid of him. Yet Church members
are afraid of him (HWA), and he's failed umpteen times. This guy,
Armstrong, in terms of religion, is the world's biggest loser....
But I was really upset in 1972 when Herbert Armstrong refused to
apologize. He could have just apologized and said, 'I became
overly enthusiastic. I wanted Christ to return so badly.
Everything seemed to fit. Please excuse me. I won't do that
again.'"
Fischer had not become disillusioned with God, but as he
came to realize that his relationship with Christ was a spiritual
one and was not dependent on massive contributions to a
self-proclaimed apostle, he did become disillusioned with Herbert
Armstrong. He said, "Herbert Armstrong has a way with words. You
know, he seems so sincere. He has all the right principles:
dedication, hard work, perseverance, never giving up. He's
dogged: he's persistent. You know, from reading his stuff and
listening to his sermons, you'd think he was very interested in
God. But when you meet him personally, there is nothing there at
all. I find Armstrong to be an egomaniac. He sitteth in the
temple of God saying great things as if he were God. He
apparently wants to leave his permanent mark on all he comes in
contact with and can bring into submission. He is simply a madman
who would love to rule the world."

(Obviously with the fame Bobby Fisher had, as the world's "chess
champion," he had met HWA, and you've just heard what he said,
"...you'd think he was very interested in God, But when you meet him
personally, there is nothing there at all." --- That says it all.
If you ever meet me, and I do have a little fame of sorts from
this Website, I hope you'll never be able to say such words as
Fisher said about HWA - Keith Hunt)

He gave over ninety thousand of dollars to to the church.  This was a time that Armstrongism was using it's two celebrity "member's" as tools for better publicity.  They were also exploiting Dan Truitte from the Sound of Music.  GTA was trumpeting him out during the America Listen's Campaigns.

He got arrested by the Pasadena Police Department and shares his tale of woe here: I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse

He renounced his US citizenship, and was delighted when the World Trade Center was attacked. He despised Israel and the Jews.

Instead of playing tournaments, Fischer retreated to the protective cocoon of the Worldwide Church of God, an apocalyptic cult that predicted the end of the world every four to seven years and whose members tithed up to 30 percent of their income. Such protection came at a steep price. It was reported that out of his $200,000 income that year he donated $61,200 to the WCG. "They cleaned out my pockets," he later said. "Now my only income is a few royalty checks from my books. I was really very foolish." To show its appreciation for such a generous contribution, the WCG treated Fischer almost as if he were the very deity the Church's members had been waiting for. He lived in WCG-owned apartments, was entertained at fancy restaurants, and flew to exotic spots in the Church's private jet. And Fischer was set up on the first dates of his life, with attractive WCG members. A fellow WCG member, Harry Sneider, says that this hedonistic lifestyle had a detrimental effect on Fischer: "He got pampered and got a lot of attention. It made him soft."

Fischer's relationship with the WCG, like all the others in his life, didn't last. In 1977, after a bitter falling-out that led Fischer to claim that the WCG was taking its orders from a "satanical secret world government," he cut all ties with the Church. Then he crawled even further into his own netherworld. He began dressing like a hobo. He took up residence in seedy hotels. He began worrying about the purity of his bodily fluids. He bought great quantities of exotic herbal potions, which he carried in a suitcase, to stave off the toxins he feared might be secretly put in his food and water by Soviet agents. According to a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated, Fischer medicated himself with such esoteric remedies as Mexican rattlesnake pills ("good for general health") and Chinese healthy-brain pills ("good for headaches"). His suitcase also contained a large orange-juice squeezer and lots and lots of vitamins. He always kept the suitcase locked, even when he was staying with friends. "If the Commies come to poison me, I don't want to make it easy for them," he explained to a friend. Perhaps the most telling sign of his rapid mental deterioration was that he insisted on having all his dental fillings removed. "If somebody took a filling out and put in an electronic device, he could influence your thinking," Fischer confided to a friend. "I don't want anything artificial in my head."

The low point of Fischer's California sojourn came on May 26, 1981, when two Pasadena police officers stopped him for an ID check. By then he had unkempt hair, a scraggly beard, and tattered clothes, and looked like an aging hippie down on his luck. He also generally fit the description of a man who had recently committed two bank robberies in the neighborhood. He refused to answer questions and was taken to jail, where he spent forty-eight hours. "All he had to do was tell the police he was Bobby Fischer, the chess player, and the whole thing would have been over," a friend says. "But he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Submitting to authority is a foreign concept to Bobby." A year later Fischer privately published a fourteen-page pamphlet titled "I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!" The pamphlet, which became a surprise best seller in chess shops across the country, is a melodramatic account of Fischer's confinement. The subheadings say it all: "Brutally Handcuffed." "Choked." "Isolation & Torture." "Sick Cop." The Atlantic