Originally posted by: "Everett" Apologies, I mistyped my last statement. I believe that most American's DON'T care about recognizing Fischer's work as a possible blurring characteristic regarding his "natural" talent. I am making the assumption that those who voted for Fischer were mostly American, and this is why the "hard work" aspect is ignored by those who voted for Fischer.
If someone works so very hard on chess, it seems impossible to determine what "natural" talent one could have.
To the contrary, I don't give "credit" at all to a person's natural intelligence. What matters is what they DO with it. Sure, a person with average intelligence is not going to become world champion (although anyone can have great fun at chess with the endowments they have). Fischer was obviously gifted and reportedly had an IQ near the limits of what is meaningfully measureable, but his accomplishments speak for themselves. He went beyond mere "hard work" - he was totally obsessed with chess starting at age 6. It is a shame that he stopped competing while still in his prime. It is even more tragic that he went insane.
11/20/2008 5:49:04 PM | MsgID: 10359452 Apologies, I mistyped my last statement. I believe that most American's DON'T care about recognizing Fischer's work as a possible blurring characteristic regarding his "natural" talent. I am making the assumption that those who voted for Fischer were mostly American, and this is why the "hard work" aspect is ignored by those who voted for Fischer.
If someone works so very hard on chess, it seems impossible to determine what "natural" talent one could have.
11/13/2008 9:49:23 PM | MsgID: 10318122 A joke that many consider Fischer the most naturally gifted when the amount of WORK he put into it was second to none. His effort impossibly obscures whether he was "naturally gifted" more or less than others.
