Alternative topics 2: Was former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer autistic?
This month is Autism Awareness Month, but as I have said before it should in fact be Autism Acceptance Month. Which takes me to the topic of undiagnosed autistic people from the past.
Robert "Bobby" Fischer (1943-2008),World Chess Championship from 1972 to 1975, was coincidentally born in the same year Leo Kanner first coined the name autism. According to "Bobby Fischer's Greatest Chess Games" (, Bobby only wanted to make friends with neighbourhood children who could play chess to any reasonable standard. Whether he was autistic has been speculated not only by chess players but also by psychologists, including Roy Grinker III (whose older daughter is autistic) as it is widely believed Bobby is the unnamed autistic person Dr Grinker refers to in his book "Unstrange Minds".
But let us look at it from both sides of the story:
Arguments for Bobby Fischer having been autistic:
He had an intense fascination with and an extraordinary talent with chess, pursued irrespective of social consequences; he dropped out of school simply to concentrate on it despite his high intelligence.
He had problems socialising and empathising throughout his entire life, not just at the height of his career. Despite his worldwide fame he did not marry until the age of 61.
He made many eccentric demands which he tried to logically justify, not realising how unfair they might have seemed to chess at large. These became prominent at the 1967 Interzonal and the 1975 World Chess Championship, both of which he forfeited; the latter after being unable to compromise with FIDE when he demanded a format that would have given him an unfair advantage and potentially allowed the match to continue for much too long.
In a 1960s game, he wrote down a particular move (Rd1) which would have kept him in good stead to win, but instead played a different move (Qa6+) and went on to lose. When subsequently asked by his opponent about not playing the move he originally wrote down (NB: the laws of chess have since changed and writing down your move in advance is now a breach of FIDE rules), he replied, "You laughed when I wrote it down", meaning he mistook the laugh for an implication he had made the wrong move.
Arguments against Bobby Fischer having been autistic:
The reasons behind some of his antics are more compatible with paranoid personality disorder or schizophrenia than autism, especially his beliefs regarding USSR chess grandmasters in relation to tournaments.
He did not have any noticeable deficits with daily living skills.
"Retrospective diagnosis" is very difficult at best and can only go so far but it is easier with regard to people who were around during the time autism was diagnosed and recognised. Regarding historical figures who lived long before autism was even named as a condition, retrospective diagnosis is usually too unreliable to be significant and valid, and detailed accounts which could definitively prove or disprove the theory that figure was autistic are harder to find.
However, looking at the main pieces of evidence, I can conclude in this case that overall, yes, Bobby Fischer was definitely on the autistic spectrum, despite the fact he also had traits that are more co-morbid with paranoia.
Robert "Bobby" Fischer (1943-2008),World Chess Championship from 1972 to 1975, was coincidentally born in the same year Leo Kanner first coined the name autism. According to "Bobby Fischer's Greatest Chess Games" (, Bobby only wanted to make friends with neighbourhood children who could play chess to any reasonable standard. Whether he was autistic has been speculated not only by chess players but also by psychologists, including Roy Grinker III (whose older daughter is autistic) as it is widely believed Bobby is the unnamed autistic person Dr Grinker refers to in his book "Unstrange Minds".
But let us look at it from both sides of the story:
Arguments for Bobby Fischer having been autistic:
He had an intense fascination with and an extraordinary talent with chess, pursued irrespective of social consequences; he dropped out of school simply to concentrate on it despite his high intelligence.
He had problems socialising and empathising throughout his entire life, not just at the height of his career. Despite his worldwide fame he did not marry until the age of 61.
He made many eccentric demands which he tried to logically justify, not realising how unfair they might have seemed to chess at large. These became prominent at the 1967 Interzonal and the 1975 World Chess Championship, both of which he forfeited; the latter after being unable to compromise with FIDE when he demanded a format that would have given him an unfair advantage and potentially allowed the match to continue for much too long.
In a 1960s game, he wrote down a particular move (Rd1) which would have kept him in good stead to win, but instead played a different move (Qa6+) and went on to lose. When subsequently asked by his opponent about not playing the move he originally wrote down (NB: the laws of chess have since changed and writing down your move in advance is now a breach of FIDE rules), he replied, "You laughed when I wrote it down", meaning he mistook the laugh for an implication he had made the wrong move.
Arguments against Bobby Fischer having been autistic:
The reasons behind some of his antics are more compatible with paranoid personality disorder or schizophrenia than autism, especially his beliefs regarding USSR chess grandmasters in relation to tournaments.
He did not have any noticeable deficits with daily living skills.
"Retrospective diagnosis" is very difficult at best and can only go so far but it is easier with regard to people who were around during the time autism was diagnosed and recognised. Regarding historical figures who lived long before autism was even named as a condition, retrospective diagnosis is usually too unreliable to be significant and valid, and detailed accounts which could definitively prove or disprove the theory that figure was autistic are harder to find.
However, looking at the main pieces of evidence, I can conclude in this case that overall, yes, Bobby Fischer was definitely on the autistic spectrum, despite the fact he also had traits that are more co-morbid with paranoia.
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