What sucks is that this amazing story is being exploited by all kinds of people to get attention and further their own agenda, including some who should really

What sucks is that this amazing story is being exploited by all kinds of people to get attention and further their own agenda, including some who should really know better. Two days ago we had Garry Kasparov adding his two cents in the Washington Post, including this choice paragraph: "This heart-warming tale is also a quintessentially American one. Despite his family’s conditions, Tani learned to play at a good chess program in an excellent Manhattan public school. His mother took the initiative of getting him into the school chess club, reminding any true chess fan of a similar letter written by the mother of future U.S. world champion Bobby Fischer. (All praise to assertive chess mothers like my own!)" (1) With all due respect to Mr. Kasparov (or more likely, to his ghostwriter, Mig Greengard), linking Bobby Fischer to Tani does a disservice to both players and to the larger chess community. First, there is nothing about Fischer’s story that is “heartwarming”. Fischer grew up not just without a father but without even knowing who his real father was. He struggled from the very beginning, getting expelled from school before finally dropping out, then becoming one of the greatest chess players of all time, captivating the world for a few years before cracking under the pressure and descending into paranoia and anti-Semitic delusions. Fischer’s story is a straight up tragedy. Chess players should stop using it as a shining example of the transformative positive power of chess. Second, to praise Fischer’s mother Regina as an “assertive chess mother” is just wrong. A more appropriate term would be “absent”. She literally moved out of the home and left Fischer alone at age 16, writing the following to a friend: ““It sounds terrible to leave a 16-year-old to his own devices, but he is probably happier that way” (2) Yes, the chess community can make good things happen in the world, as proven by Tani getting a home. We should celebrate this. But it can also take in vulnerable people, simultaneously glorify them and drive them towards madness, and cast them aside. If we want more of the good, we need to stop pretending that the bad things didn’t happen. And we really shouldn’t be rewriting one of the greatest tragedies in chess history as a heroic tale of success, just to cash in on all the excitement about the most positive thing to happen in the chess world in years. 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-heart-warming-tale-of-the-8-year-old-chess-champion-is-quintessentially-american/2019/03/22/7a2fdf92-4cd9-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html?utm_term=.582131ea4083 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-heart-warming-ta... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer#Drops_out_of_school https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer#Drops_out_of_sch...