Searching for Bobby Fischer

I knew about the twelfth-hour Catholic conversions of Buffalo Bill, Oscar Wilde, and John Wayne. But what a surprise on my reading about Jewish-born Bobby Fischer, the Eleventh World Chess Champion converting to Catholicism at the end of his life. 

“Towards the end of his life, Fischer became interested in Catholicism. He bought his friend Garðar Sverrisson a copy of “Basic Catechism: Creed, Sacraments, Morality, Prayer” so Sverrisson could explain the religion better to him.[496] According to Sverrisson, Fischer talked to him about transformation of society through creation of harmony and that “the only hope for the world is through Catholicism.”[496] Fischer was also known to have read a synopsis of G. K. Chesterton‘s works in the years leading up to his death. He requested a Catholic funeral, and this final service was presided over by Catholic priest Jakob Rolland.[497][498]” Wikipedia

He was a brilliant chess master since childhood, but some thought him a rebellious, eccentric, anti-Semitic genius gone mad when he had his metal tooth fillings pulled to stop receiving radio transmissions.

In 1991, the US played petty politics by attempting to extradite him for violating a presidential order against economic activities with communist Yugoslavia. On his refusal to play that tawdry political game, he suffered twelve years of homeless persecution, fleeing to various countries to avoid deportation — finally dying in sympathetic Iceland. 

 He challenged the hypocritical political world in a vicious life-or-death tournament, winning against Satan with a Catholic conversion endgame.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

As the award-winning essayist Charles Krauthammer wrote, “The movie (Searching for Bobby Fischer) is brilliantly acted, beautifully modulated story of a young boy with a gift …struggling with the paradoxes and dangers of balancing a normal happy life against a gift so terrible….See it twice.” https://youtu.be/gghecEHT4PI


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