Saturday, August 22, 2026

Phone Calls from Heaven

In an article of his for ChessBase.com, titled “Quo vadis, Fischer Random Chess? (1)”, Frederic Friedel recounts his phone conversations about Fischerandom chess with its inventor, 11th World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer. The content is particularly interesting, as it confirms that, even shortly before his death, Fischer dreamed to play a Fischerandom chess match with Viswanathan Anand sponsored by ChessBase — but the German company was not willing to fulfil Fischer’s financial requests.
Friedel put forward various proposals to make Fischerandom chess more suitable to the average woodpusher’s understanding, including Garry Kimovich Kasparov’s suggestion to downsize the number of opening positions from 960 to 10. At first, Fischer was receptive, probably out of etiquette, but as soon as he knew who the idea came from, receptivity immediately turned into hostility: “No, there’s a trick. He has preparation for special positions or something”.
A must read!

Fischer featuring the worldwide launch of his trademark Fischerandom chess at Pasaje Dardo Rocha in the city of La Plata, Argentina, on July 11, 1996. Photo via Baron Rich.

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