I've never believed Fischer was as crazy as he is often portrayed. Many aspects of his life are actually very easy to explain and understand: (1) His departure

I've never believed Fischer was as crazy as he is often portrayed. Many aspects of his life are actually very easy to explain and understand: (1) His departure from professional chess after winning the world championship seems mysterious to many. Clearly he was just burnt out. He had achieved his goal: beat the Russians and get the highest title in the game. There was nothing left for him to do except repeat what he'd already done. He didn't want to do that, so he just wanted out. I'm sure there are at least some developers here who've dealt with burnout and can understand the psychology here. It's not insanity. (2) Fischer dealt with a lot of dishonesty on his way to the world championship. He wrote a Sports Illustrated article accusing Soviet players of collusion against him in the Candidates matches, and it's now accepted that he was, in fact, correct. FIDE completely restructured the matches as a result. Fischer was not being paranoid. I'm sure experiences like this contributed to his burnout in chess, especially considering that he more or less tackled the Soviet chess machine alone. (3) Fischer was abandoned by mostly any family he ever had. It's natural he would develop some mistrust of power figures, including the US government. (4) He had religious and political views that liberals would consider extreme. However, go over to /r/the_donald and tell me honestly if Fischer seems so one-of-a-kind anymore politically. He wasn't at all. There were (and are) millions of Americans who think like he did politically. (5) He actually was arrested and held in jail for no good reason, as mentioned above. (6) After playing the Spassky rematch, he really was declared an outlaw and was sought after by the US government. It wasn't paranoia. To Fischer, this was just yet another act of betrayal by a power figure in his life.