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Bobby Fischer: Audio and video

Interview with Bobby Fischer on his achievements in chess, undated (pre-1972)

Excerpt from documentary "God of Gods" on Bobby Fischer's career

Excerpt from documentary "Anything to Win" on Fischer's 1972 world title match with Boris Spassky

Bobby Fischer interview with Radio Bomba, the Philippines, September 12 2001. (Warning: contains swearing and offensive language)

Bobby Fischer v. Boris Spassky, from The Times

Bobby Fischer's legendary 1972 world title match with Russia's Boris Spassky became an expression of the Cold War tensions of the time and began his reign as the only non-Soviet or non-Russian world champion in the latter half of the 20th century. Tim Jones, Times journalist, recalls his time reporting on the event in the early days of his career:

"When Bobby Fischer eventually turned up in Iceland to save the world – as he saw it – from the "Commies" by waging war against Boris Spassky over the battlefield of 64 squares, he was met by the greatest number of journalists, academics, spooks and Kremlin watchers ever to have assembled to watch a chess match.

"I was among them to witness this strange, smart, lonely and obsessive genius grind his way to the victory which broke the back of Soviet domination of the game which they had regarded as proof of the intellectual superiority of their political system.

"His hopeless lack of social graces was amply demonstrated after his victory when, I ventured to his hotel suite to congratulate him and ask for an interview. The door of his room opened an inch and in answer to my request he said: "Shove off jerk" before slamming it shut. It hardly mattered for I had witnessed a little bit of history and caught a glimpse of his tortured, troubled mind." 

Click titles below to view archive material:

Bobby Fischer, the self-appointed champion of the 'free world' - April 5 1972, The Times

"The one-time boy prodigy, who shuns company and dreams of living in a house shaped like a rook, regards himself as the natural representative of the "free world" against the evils of communism.... Fischer is conscious of the prestige he would bring to the United States if he wrests the crown. The Russians have virtually monopolized chess since the war and the acquisition of the title would be regarded by Fischer as a blow for democratic truth."

Bobby Fischer, still missing, is given a two-day reprieve - July 3 1972, The Times

"The match was officially opened last night at a ceremony resembling the Court at Versailles without the Sun King. The National Theatre was packed with Icelandic dignitaries and grandmasters from all over the world. The only empty seat was one in the front row reserved for the absent challenger... Even Americans here have given up making excuses for him and are beginning to admire the correct etiquette of the Russian camp."

Fischer gets the world title after Spassky telephones surrender - September 2 1972, The Times

"Fischer dislikes Russians and it appeared at times that he was using the opportunity to punish them through Spassky for all the injustices that he alleges he has suffered at their hands. In his hands the gentle game of chess became a weapon of retribution and the result a vehicle for telling the world: "I told you so.""

Even Everest is in shadow today

When Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, it took no less than five days for the news to spread around the world (although The Times broke the story on the day of the coronation so perhaps there was a bit of news management).

By contrast, Sir Edmund's death this morning at the age of 88 was beamed around the world in minutes and the tributes soon flooded back. A quick trawl of the online reaction to his death shows one thing very clearly: despite a lifetime in public view, this man enjoyed worldwide respect.

Britney taken away in a stretcher: deja vu?

THE Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky once said that art imitates life, then life will imitate art, then life will find its very meaning from the arts.

The latest chapter in the Britney Spears drama recalls these words, writes Ariadne Zanella.

Aerial footage from a local television station shows Spears being wheeled out in a stretcher to an ambulance, surrounded by police cars and hordes of paparazzi.

It's an eerily familiar scene.

Her music video clip Everytime, produced by David LaChapelle, shows ambulance staff taking Spears's body out in a stretcher, surrounded by police and hordes of paparazzi.

Compare the scenes for yourself:

News video: Britney Spears rushed to hospital

Everytime music video clip: