Our Daily Dead

American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer passed away Friday at a Reyjavik hospital at the age of 64. Fischer’s spokesman Gardar Sverrisson confirmed the chess genius’ death, but did not provide the cause of the death, although Fischer has been ill for some time.

Fischer is best know for beating world chess champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in 1972. His victory occurred at the height of the Cold War. The chess matches were ironically held in Reyjavik, which led to Fischer being proclaimed the U.S. first world chess champion in over 100 years.

The chess prodigy was born in Chicago, raised in Brooklyn and became a U.S. chess champion at 14 and grandmaster at 15. You can try your skills using this Chess Grandmaster Game or at the Grand Master Corner if you are so inclined.

Controversy hounded the American chess champion over the years. Fischer lost his title when he refused to defend it versus Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union. He became a recluse afterward and was only heard whenever he made political statements, centered on anti-Semitism.

In 1992 Fischer reemerged by wining an exhibition match against Spassky at Sveti Stefan, a resort island in Yugoslavia. But he violated an international sanction to punish then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. He became wanted in the U.S. for violation of the sanction, renounced his American citizenship and was naturalized by Iceland in 2005 to avoid deportation to the U.S.

Before he moved to Iceland, Fischer lived undetected for several years in Japan.

If you are thinking about a pilgrimage perhaps stop in at Travel Iceland - “…not only closer than you think, but far different than you ever imagined.” Or maybe you should read through the Iceland forum over at the ODD friend Trip Advisor.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: chess grandmaster, Bobby Fischer, chess, Boris Spassky, Reyjavik

From the Left Coast, Dan at Infospigot and SFGate.com comes word that Jack Kirk, aka The ‘Dipsea Demon’, was a renowned runner, curmudgeon died recently.

The legend of Jack Kirk began one day in 1933 or 1934 on a steep slope called Steep Ravine in Marin County during the famous Dipsea Trail race.

The runners were tired as they headed toward Stinson Beach when suddenly a man appeared out of nowhere tearing down the slope, sliding and leaping over brush, passing other runners like they were standing still.

“Boy,” one runner said, “that guy runs like a demon.”

From that day forth, Jack Kirk was known as the “Dipsea Demon,” and he lived up to the nickname, running the arduous 7.1-mile trail race out of Mill Valley 67 consecutive times. He didn’t quit until he collapsed at the top of the grueling 1,362-foot elevation Cardiac Hill — at age 96.

This summer, the upper flight of the Dipsea stairs will be totally rebuilt. Engraved bronze plaques installed in the risers will carry the names and messages of supporters who donate $1,000 or more to finance the construction. And the bronze medallion on the very top step will read: “Jack Kirk/The Dipsea Demon.” See a picture of the stairs about half way down the main Dipsea.org page.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Left Coast, Jack Kirk, Dipsea Demon, curmudgeon, Marin County, Dipsea Trail, Stinson Beach, Mill Valley

By way of ESPN … Jack Lang, a Hall of Fame baseball writer who for two decades had the pleasant assignment of telling players they’d been elected to Cooperstown, died Thursday. He was 85.

“A fixture on the New York scene who covered Jackie Robinson’s major-league debut, Lang was honored by the Hall in 1986 with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award ‘for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.’ At his speech in Cooperstown in 1987, he poked fun at his talent.”

“I’m sure there are an awful lot of English teachers … in my early years that must be whirling in their graves at the thought that I won an award for writing,” he said.

Many elite players knew Lang for another reason.

“As Billy Williams said, ‘You’re the good-news man,’” Lang said in his speech.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Hall of Fame, Cooperstown