Did Bobby Fischer have Aspergers Syndrome?

I have reason to believe that Bobby Fischer had Aspergers Syndrome.

1. His reactions when in an unstructured environment such as running as fast as he could from cameras or not turning up (that was Bobby Fischer's way of getting away from his unstructured environment.)

2. His ability to cope in an structured environment such as an interview (his coolness in a structured enviroment)

3. His inability to understand feelings as well as other people.

4. An intense fascination with an activity (in Bobby Fischers case, chess.) 

5. Limited empathy with peers

6. Poor social ability

7. Failure to develop friendships

Interesting post. You may be right. 

I have also wondered about Reactive Attachment Disorder. 

The HBO documentary highlighted the child being left alone. Given his mother's personality, perhaps even when she was there, she wasn't there.  

Tom, its an intelligent post and would be worth debating attribute by attribute.  

He had only superficial relationships, and a seemingly inability to have empathy towards others.  HIs radio rant after 911 made that clear.  The HBO show also highlighted earlier signals of paranoia, which may be attributed to early childhood fears when left alone. 

He made certain in his adult life that no one would ever get close enough to him to abandon him.  

What was his IQ?

Peter

I guess his IQ was about 190 but I could be very wrong

He definitely had Ass syndrome.

I suspect you may be right. But why would it matter if Fischer had Asperger's or not? Of what use is this knowledge?

Maybe Tourette's as well.

 tryst---You're pretty sassy for a lady with a Vagina syndrome.  You are a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Its not very becoming missy.

Fischer was an ass. Sometimes other asses sympathize with him, Raul72.

Well, I've read this four times and I still don't understand what you're saying

What? No. It's because your English is impossible to understand in that post. I read foreign posts all the time, but your post#10 is a bloody mess

Probably.

No one knows for sure (obviously) but I would say OCD for sure. If you look at lot of the things he did were OCD like.

I don't think his mother treated him bad. Where's the evidence?  He was just a natural born a hole.

Why does a thread about Bobby Fischer almost always degenerate into diatribes and hate mongering?  Is it jealousy, spitefulness, racial hatred, blindness of the human condition, lack of understanding of how the human mind can become mentally ill, etc., etc.  There is a saying: about the dead don't speak badly.  Let the soul of Bobby rest in peace.  Let us, who love chess give credit to him for all he did for chess and how it has helped all of us become better players.  Enough already! 

Hilarious! Yes, yell at all the people who do have feelings, because they're alive, but cry over some dead jackass who thought exterminating people and making them suffer was great? That's pretty loony thinking, VLMJ.

Charming reference to recent news.

I think it's very likely he did.

   Another little supporting thing - for all his problems, Tal said: "It is also important to remember that he was a real chess gentleman during games. He was always very fair and very correct." People with Asperger's tend to have a clear sense of moral order/fairness, Fischer was a gentleman over the board and indignant at the Soviet approach to the game which he became paranoid about. His inflexible view of the US after its conflict with him fits with this type of black and white morality. Later mental health problems could have grown out of this, as people with Asperger's have a higher incidence of other mental health problems.

   I think chess is well represented by people with autistic traits, as are maths and the sciences (please note I don't mean that in a negative way, and would include myself). It's a spectrum, and is viewed by some psychologists as being at the "male" pole. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_Spectrum_Quotient

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers.html

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

And also his hand-writing is classics for Aspergers. Fancy being able to play a game this good and write this messily: