Bobby Fischer solves a 15 puzzle in 17 seconds on Carson Tonight Show - 11/08/1972

i'm sure the entire world knows the name bobby fischer by now he is uh as has proved the uh best chess player in the entire world and uh you know you read a lot of articles about bobby saying he's kind of temperamental and and demanding and uh he's not i met him this afternoon the place he designated on top of the y in the sign hollywood that's up in the hollywood hills we met on top of that why in hollywood but uh i met him briefly he seems like a charming young man and uh would you welcome please bobby fischer it is so nice to have you on this show thank you i saw you on bob hope show that you did with mark spitz one night and you were great on that show you did a sketch with bob and uh you did your lines like you'd been doing sketches all your life did you find it easy or difficult to do that uh people say well i don't know i was a little worried about i'm even watching on tv really yeah don't you like to watch something that you do unless i'm sure it's good i don't like you and you were you were very good in that now look you have you defeated boris posky now and you're the champion chess player in the entire world now what is there beyond that how do you top that uh is it now the trick is to mean not the trick the idea is to maintain the the championship yeah this is the big problem what to uh how do i top it uh but i figure if i can keep the title of 30 years just 30 years or so huh is it was it a letdown after it was all over bobby i mean it was uh well there must have been a tremendous uh it was i woke up the day after the thing was over and uh i just felt different like uh something had been taken out of me yeah it was a it was exciting to to get the reports over here uh yeah i think you said in an article you never thought you'd see the day where i think was attributed to you see where chess would be on the front page of the new york times do you ever envision that because chess uh is not the type of game that i guess a lot of people uh like like football or something they find it difficult yeah well in this country i mean around the world i've played a lot of tournaments and it's been front page news for years but uh why do you think over here that the people in this country now is very big in a rushed as you say in a very big in all your european countries and the people are national heroes and just now that's becoming uh becoming to happen over here well i just think that people have to be educated to enjoy chess whereas you can enjoy i don't know football or baseball without really understanding it's just kind of beautiful to watch the people move around but chess you really have to have some basic understanding of what the game is all about to enjoy it how old were you when you first became interested in chess and who who got your interest going uh i was sixth my sister taught me six years old six years old are obviously then capable of learning chess most people think the chess is a very requires a great intellect i think this turns a lot of people off they say oh i can't do that mathematically i can't think that many moves ahead not to play really i mean uh anybody could learn i think let's see spasky learned at five roshelski who was the champion in this country before me he learned a two or three he was giving exhibitions to six or seven playing about 20 guys at once of mine when i was six yeah but you did but you did that when you were in your teams did you not early teens where you played against 15 or 20 opponents what is the greatest and i i don't want to use the word trick what's the greatest ability one should have to play chess if it's not an intellect i mean i i don't know how to play the game i well it's some kind of spatial perception you just you see in your mind's eye that when you make this move i mean if you made this move it'll be there and he makes this move it'll be there you just sort of see the position as it could be in a few moves how far are you able to say plan ahead depending on what your opponent may or may not do or do you also analyze that when you make a move that he'll do this then if i do that he'll do this and then you go over the next set of moves it all depends i mean i think kappa blanket once said he only sees one move ahead the best move the best move but depends on the position sometimes if it's a simple position where just one line he has to make every move just the way you want him to you can see 20 moves ahead right but supposing you make a move and he has three or four replies and then you have to analyze all those replies and you have several replies to those replies so you might only be able to see two moves ahead three moves ahead i know over here occasionally a certain grand masters would analyze the play as it was phoned in from iceland and then when somebody seemed to make a mistake um were you when you when you would make a move that later on the did not prove to be the right one was that usually done in a in just a moment of loss of concentration and then looking back and analyzing it you'd say why did i make that particular move well see i only lost two real games right i didn't make too many moves that i regretted but no you sure didn't i'll give you that [Music] well that's part of being a pro you know you try to uh play the wrong move in your mind right get rid of it then play the right move right that's the idea let's really play the wrong move right in your head let's talk about the term now that's become very popular the psyching out of one's opponent when you play now the papers over here kind of got on you for a while and the people over in iceland were kind of giving you a little a little flack because they said well you came to play and then you wouldn't allow any movie cameras and then and so forth and so on was that is that something that you consciously think might uh upset somebody or is it something the way you feel when you get ready to play you want everything to be right or what but i want everything to be right i didn't try to psych spassky uh you know there's no need to i'm the best player and he knew everybody see that would psych me right there i'd say good you win bob i mean he told me himself i mean i didn't tell me but i heard it through mutual uh friends mutual enemies or whatever that he appreciates me because i get the best conditions and because i fight for all the things he just has to sit back and uh he knows that the best lighting and the best chess set and the best everything will be be there yeah and he also says that he owes his apartment in moscow he gets more publicity yeah i had to give him a better apartment because he's a star international star so he came off pretty well too there weren't many people i read in the paper to greet mr spocky when they got back to the soviet union i guess they don't like somebody to lose there very well did you read that at all yeah well this is i think more for us rather than kind of making him a whipping boy showing the world that it wasn't the communist system that lost that it was boris spassky he didn't prepare or whatever for the match as he should have right but i think they're going to rehabilitate him again and fill them up again so that you know because he's the best they've got so you can play me or somebody else again how long now now do you like a fighter i think a heavyweight fighter must fight at least once a year or maybe less than that to retain his uh his championship uh how was it with chess players you are you well i'm in a good position you see i don't have to play every three years for my title i have to play for three years and the reason it's that way is because the russians had the title and when they had it they didn't want to play that open so they got the system set up they only had to play every three years never expecting to lose it i see yeah so what do you plan to do now do you plan to well to meet any takers i mean i like to play though i don't think in three years what am i going to do for three years i can't do talk shows just for three years how do you keep on track now do you have to keep on training bob i mean i may sound like a dumb naive question but well a fighter has to you know work out and keep himself in shape how do you keep in shape and who can you play that's going to give you any kind of competition to keep you sharp well there are literally hundreds of magazines coming out every month around the world and books by the dozen coming out so there's tremendous amount of literature to study i can study all the games spasty has played or since the match if he has played or whoever right and i just that's how i keep up i really don't play too much because if i play somebody i'm just giving away my tricks and we like to play you know the names of the defenses i i got a little are those names of certain opening moves named after people who invented them some of them are named after people some after cities do their name have they named any particular gambits after uh well yeah see i've come along pretty late in chess chess has been played hundreds of years so there isn't really that much left that's radically new but they've named a few lines that used to have all names after me now like there's one variation called the poison pawn variation right and they call that the fisher variants i keep taking this supposedly dangerous pawn to take i'm known as a pawn grab wrench now what about the cameras over there bob now you hear all this about you you had agreed that they could film this and then you kept changing the the cameraman must be uh in vladivostok someplace or was that what was the real story i was uh more disappointed than anybody that this thing wasn't uh televised because you know a lot of publicity and there's a lot of money involved and i wanted the people to see me in action let's face it but uh they had these these characters there who instead of having some kind of video tape films that didn't make any noise was just nobody around to operate them just sort of stationless and i just had guys there with film cameras that were worrying and they were all around me just making a racket a nuisance too much noise too much noise and visually could see them moving around are there ways you can distract an opponent in chess i mean by just little things now there must be certain uh uh i mean making moves uh very quickly or i don't use any of course but i love these tricks well i mean just we could talk about them bob i'm not saying you i'm not saying you use them i just said what are some of the little things uh uh well blowing smoke in his face if he's not a smoker no you usually practically every match they according to the reports here anyway spasky would be there on time and you would come in 12 maybe 15 20 minutes late which you have a right to do before you make your move isn't that a little bit of a psyching maneuver well i didn't do it on purpose you didn't do it on purpose i just i go to bed very late i go to bed five six in the morning yeah so i was usually getting up about half an hour before game time that's all right i come a little late sometimes so that wasn't any kind of a little no just slept late sure bob you say so bob uh let me take a break here and we'll talk some more um stay right with us we're gonna come back we're talking uh with bobby fisher uh have you been besieged with uh business offers and uh uh i'm sure you must have since you come back what are some of the ones you can talk about that are kind of strange well uh strange nothing too strange these letters i heard that you're gonna put out a chess course do you get letters well yeah of course you get a lot of letters i suppose from young lady because you're unmarried what today do they uh well most of them are you know just encouragement but some you know they go a little far uh no no comment uh but i i read somewhere that you you're gonna put out a that may be premature and maybe you don't even want me to mention this a chess instruction course uh certainly i might add a record but uh i'm not certain i mean uh they want it out by the christmas market i don't know if i can hustle it out that fast can anyone learn to play chess anyway it's really easy sure i'm gonna have to learn and if somebody told me you were very good at uh at puzzles was that yeah well that's how i got interested in chess cause i was playing all the other games and they just were too easy if somebody told me there was one puzzle that they were going to try to get did they get it and yeah what was the name they got it you mentioned it 15 puzzle on the back it's right there no i don't i'm not familiar with this yeah what is this well you try and get get them all aligned you know one two three four five there's little squares in there and there's one thirteen fourteen fifteen and you try to get them yeah yeah is that difficult no it's very easy you know i'm the fastest in the world at this i don't like to boast but well we'll see about that bob because i used to do this i'm pretty good at puzzles myself well they're all another they're all mixed up now well they're not too well mixed up well one and two are close two seven four eight one six three twelve eleven fifteen let's mix it up a little better um i used to go bananas with that one how long does it take you to do it well this is not really a good it's not not all oiled up it's not a real good set so it might take me 30 seconds or so but it's a real good set a real good sell i can do about 20. you don't like i said huh i suppose we won't be able to photograph now while we do this uh i'm trying to mix okay does that look make stop a little harder yeah okay ready ready now those are all mixed up all right go all right this was not very well mixed up i want to say that it wasn't well mixed up oh 17. no well they didn't mix it up too well it takes about 30 seconds you want to mix them up a little for me be kind mix it up good bob i might make it make it difficult i gotta go one two three four five six seven eight right to 15 like like you did there okay i think that's pretty good you want to do a commercial present get it out of the way don't let him psych you out johnny okay let's see now i've got to get this one clear over to here and there's two over there well you put the one bob i didn't have my your one down there you you ready i'm ready go [Music] you got three seconds to nail them okay i got the one up there i was kidding [Applause] i used to do this myself bob i'm just holding off on you there you are okay let's go ahead now you get a shot of that bob right off our home audience and for our home viewers all in order right i could be here till tomorrow at this time and could not get those things that is incredible i see you have to know how to do it yeah for about seven years you should do it that is incredible that is incredible what's what what's your average day like uh what do you do when you're not playing chess what do you like to do i know you um at least the articles i read on you one they had in life so you watch a lot of television you do a lot of reading yeah listen i like to study some chess and listen to the rock and roll in the background very leisurely i don't like now how can you study chess and listen to rock and roll in the background bob i thought you couldn't have that distraction there oh that's when i play you know serious chess but when i study it gets a little boring playing all these people's games and i'm not really not that good their games most times so music that kept me up keep me interested yeah so you study chess mainly during the day yeah have you considered i don't want to ask you something personal but uh have you considered marriage at all or do you think that would interfere with being a good chess player no well i mean you know it might break your concentration i don't know what i'm talking about i'm considering marriage now i mean uh it'll hurt my game a little bit but i feel so much better and now i'm at the top yeah i can afford to let up a little bit just a little bit you are the best chess player in the world without a doubt aren't you yeah right that's great [Music] i i think that's great when you come out to say that yeah that you have to have what drove you what really drove you was it because you felt that the russians were kind of playing games for a while and wouldn't let the the championship out of their country well at first just the love of the game it's a boy right loving to win and all but ass i had all these troubles with the russians and they tried to block me from playing them for a title match and all this and they kept writing that i wasn't that good i wasn't even the type i wasn't even in the top 10 they said i wasn't you know i was just a big talker i had you know i just got publicity because of antics and all this really over the board there was no comparison between the russians so you had to go prove it huh you know this is really what kept me on if they had just shut up and ignored me and uh you know i said i'm he's a very fine player i might not have gone for the title because it didn't matter to me that much i knew i was the best but they kept saying this all the time they're putting me down they got me mad they sure did uh now you're at the top of your form now can you get better as you get older i think it's a question of a physical stamina really if i keep myself in good physical shape i think i could be champion that's what a lot of people don't understand that's interesting you'd think that you would not have physically to be in such great shape to sit at a board well you're sitting there for five hours and if your concentration just slips up for a split second and you make their own move that's the game it's interesting we will take a break here from one of our sponsors and we'll be back with dom deluise jose feliciano you

Channel: Johnny Carson

Views: 2,100,854

Rating: 4.9184852 out of 5

Keywords: episode, best, funny, youtube, funny videos, comedy, laugh, funniest, stand up, comedian, hilarious, stand up comedy, johnny carson, tonight show, humor, sketch, johnny carson bloopers, johnny carson show, johnny carson animals, johnny carson monologue, johnny, carson, tonight, show, funny video, best of johnny carson, funniest moments johnny carson

Id: QxvnEwvgfeI

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ImRickJameXXXX]

That game is how I explain being a busy general contractor

16 spaces, 15 tiles and one free space.

[u/slappychappy04]

Carson had such great comedic timing

[u/girlwithatightass]

To everybody reading comments about how Fischer was a terrible person: Please know and understand that Fischer suffered from serious untreated mental health issues. He had an extremely rough life and had devoted himself completely to chess. In this interview he might seem as a normal-ish person, but the truth is that he couldn't do anything besides chess. He didn't understand the world outside chess at all. When you read something like "Fischer hated jews" you could get the impression that he was some sort of far-right person or something like that. He was not. He was crazy. If he had been shown love and affection, if he had grown up in a safe environment and if he had received adequate help for his issues he would have been a completely different person. His opinions were not political - they were just him reacting to his own paranoia and inability to cope with the world.

Please note that none of the above excuses his remarks or makes them acceptable in any way. I would just like to clear up some misconceptions that I have encountered numerous times. Namely that Fischer was a sort of rational person with detestable opinions. He wasn't. He was a deeply irrational (outside chess) person with crazy opinions to match.

If you are wondering why he is famous then I can also shed some light on that. His chess was far superior to any of his contemporaries. Indeed his ability was perhaps greater than that of any other player ever. To this day there are many top grandmasters who say that Fischer is the greatest player ever. In the 70s the Soviet Union was dominating the chess world (and had been for decades) with every world champion being a Soviet. Therefore the match became a sort of microcosm or metaphor for the cold war - the west versus the east. When he won the world championship in 1972 he became a recluse. His whole life had been building up to that moment and when he had achieved the crown he had absolutely no idea what to do with his life. He got more and more crazy and it was in this later part of his life that you get the really crazy remarks about how jews were conspiring against him, how USA deserved 9/11 and so forth.

[u/Dumguy1214]

His resting place is in a country cemetery 100km from Reykjavik

[u/uses_irony_correctly]

hang on this isn't /r/AnarchyChess

[u/Doji]

I spent 2 days practicing this and now get times in the 30 - 60 second range. I'm not a genius. So it's just not as hard as it seems. Try yourself: https://15puzzle.netlify.app/

[u/OffsidesLikeWorf]

Fun fact, this dude really, really hated Jews.

[u/brmmbrmm]

I love how JC casually takes a drag of his cigarette right in the middle of it. Different times...

[u/JerodTheAwesome]

Also Fischer: “They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man. There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat.”