A Matter of Minutes

Here is how, in his autobiography, “Do You See What I See?: Memoirs of a Blind Biker”, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 2010, p. 237, Russell Targ, a world-renowned physicist and parapsychologist, recalled his first chess experience with his brother-in-law-to-be Bobby Fischer:

“I played my first game of chess with Bobby Fischer more than fifty years ago. I was courting his sister, Joan, and he was fourteen. He beat me, even though he was playing blindfolded, eating a bowl of chicken soup in the kitchen, and I had the pieces and the board right in front of me. But it took him more than five minutes”.

Fischer (centre) with his sister Joan, his niece Elisabeth, and his brother-in-law Targ in 1962. Photo: Carl Mydans/Life magazine.