The Key to the Upper Room

Brussels, Belgium, April 27, 1990. Enjoy a gourmet dinner at the Italian restaurant “Il Carpaccio”. From left: Marina Yurievna Shcherbachova, Boris Vasilievich Spassky, Robert James Fischer, the then Chairman of the GMA Bessel Kok, and the Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand. Photo: Gennadi Borisovich Sosonko/Chess-News.ru.

Grandmaster Jan Timman recalled, “In the spring of 1990, Bessel Kok invited Fischer to Brussels, the city where Kok then lived and the GMA had its headquarters. Spassky was serving as the go-between. Fischer was to stay for a week. He had been checked into the Sheraton Hotel under the name of Bobby Brown, the title of a Frank Zappa song (which later became known as “Bobby Brown goes down”). (Jan Timman, “A Breathtaking Model”, New In Chess, 2/2008, pp. 30-35).

Robert James Fischer in Brussels. Photo: Gennadi Borisovich Sosonko/Chess-News.ru.

On the last night of Fischer’s stay at Brussels, Bessel Kok, Jan Timman, and Gennadi Borisovich Sosonko decided to took him to a nightclub. In his article “Мимофант (Mimofant)”, Chess-News.ru, December 19, 2015, Sosonko recalled the events of the long night. Fischer drank champagne and wooed an attractive Hungarian girl with beautiful brown hair. He looked like Marlon Brando when he told her: “I am Bobby Fischer and I am the World Chess Champion”. Sosonko was shivering, but, to his astonishment, the girl burst out laughing, wrapped her arms around his neck in a maternal hug, and tenderly whispered, “Sure, honey. You are Bobby Fischer the World Champion, and I am Sophia Loren”. To Sosonko’s greater astonishment, Fischer didn’t get angry. He kindly asked to his Mona Lisa if she wanted to spend the night with him. She said yes and both quickly disappeared into the night.
The morning after, Sosonko awaked just in time for picking Fischer up at the Sheraton and accompanying him to the airport. “It was a wonderful night”, Bobby said before saying byebye.

• Gennadi Borisovich Sosonko, Мимофант (Mimofant), Chess-News.ru, December 19, 2015