by Glenn Statile

(1)  Remembrance of Games Past

            A little over a century ago a famous if not scandalous Irish playwright by the name of Oscar Wilde informed the throng of officials and journalists gathered to celebrate his arrival upon American soil for a whirlwind lecture tour of the United States that he had nothing to declare except his genius.  The life and games of the American chess genius, Robert James Fischer, who was not exactly a stranger to firing off such self-saluting salvos himself, are the subject of the series of lectures being presented at this symposium. I might add that Fischer’s death at the age of sixty-four, while no occasion for joy, at least strikes a chord which resonates with the natural chess order given that it equals the number of squares on a chessboard.