Bobby Fischer Had His Fillings Removed To Prevent His Mouth Being Used As A Radio Transmitter

One of the craziest and most widespread stories about Bobby Fischer is that he had his fillings removed to prevent the Soviets from using them to transmit manipulative radio signals. One of his biographers admitted that while Fischer did have them removed, it was for (what Fisher deemed) traditional periodontal reasons. However, other acquaintances had a different perspective. Ron Gross, a former chessmaster and friend had this to say about a conversation he had with Bobby while traveling through Mexico:

“He looked terrible... clothes all baggy, wearing old beat-up shoes... Then I noticed that he was favoring his mouth, and he told me that he’d had some work done on his teeth; he’d had a dentist take all the fillings out of his mouth... I said ‘Bobby, that’s going to ruin your teeth. Did you have him put plastic in the holes?’ And he said, ‘I didn’t have anything put in. I don’t want anything artificial in my head.’ He’d read about a guy wounded in World War II who had a metal plate in his head that was always picking up vibrations, maybe even radio transmissions. He said the same thing could happen from metal in your teeth.”