the Artificial problem

From The New Yorker:

"If the “best” move is simply the result of multiple calculations, why isn’t the best chess player the one whose brain is most like a computer? Why isn’t rooting for a chess player like rooting for a microchip? Commentators talk about a player’s daring or originality; but a daring or original move is worthless if it’s not also, from a strictly computational point of view, the optimal move—in which case, a computer could have made it. Since there is so little to look at otherwise, the players’ styles and personalities come to seem important to describe. But what does style or personality have to do with it, really?"

Bobby Fischer dies at age 64

From the 1957 archives of The New Yorker:

"Most of this [Bobby's] intelligence we gleaned from Robert’s mother, Mrs. Regina Fischer, when we talked with her one evening recently. We also gathered that Mrs. Fischer, though proud of her son’s triumphs, is by no means convinced that his devotion to chess is a good thing. “For four years, I tried everything I knew to discourage him,” she said, with a sigh, “but it was hopeless.” She told us that almost any evening during the summer vacation her son was to be found at the Manhattan Chess Club, on West Sixty-fourth Street—a venerable institution, with an imposing number of champions and chess masters in its membership. “That’s Bobby’s favorite hangout,” Mrs. Fischer said. “Sometimes I have to go over there at midnight to haul him out of the place.” Robert’s mother and father have been divorced for some years."

Was his genius "good" in the broader sense. Yes, he is considered by some to be one of the most talented chess players. But considering his tortured life, probably self-imposed, it was most likely not really a choice, of course, for him to pursue his talent, but should career-success usurp personal mental health in importance. ...

On a separate note, there should be more "hang-outs" like the Manhattan Chess Club.