Bobby Fischer

WhiZ Hearts : Estimated IQ >187

Robert James Fischer was born on 9 March 1943 in Chicago.

Bobby Fischer started playing chess at 6, and from a very young age he attended the Brooklyn Chess Club and was coached by Carmine Nigro, the club’s president.

Fischer was so preoccupied by chess that his mother, Regina, took him to the Children’s Psychiatric Division of the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital; but the doctor there, Harold Kline told Mrs. Fischer he thought there were worse preoccupations and Bobby Fischer’s zest for the game continued unabated.

 In 1955, Fischer joined the Manhattan Chess Club and then the Hawthorne Chess Club where he was mentored by Jack Collins.

In July 1956, Bobby Fischer won the US junior championship – the youngest player to do so.

At 14 years and 9 months Fischer became US Champion, a title he was to gain eight times.

As his playing continued to thrive so did his personal life grow more difficult. He fell out with his mother and his disagreements with tournament organizers were escalating.

In the mid-1960s, Fischer became involved with a sect called the Worldwide Church of G-d, which led him to refuse to play during the sect’s Sabbath.

Fischer’s run-up to the World Championship against Spassky in Rejkavik, Iceland in 1972 was extraordinary. In the Candidates quarter-final Fischer whitewashed Mark Taimanov 6-0 and then repeated the feat with a 6-0 victory in the semi-finals against Bent Larsen. To polish it off Bobby Fischer defeated former world champion Tigran Petrosian in the Candidates Final with five wins, three draws, and just one loss.

Against the backdrop of the Cold War Fischer defeated Soviet Boris Spassky in what became known as the “chess match of the century”. During the match Fischer complained about the site, the prize fund, the organizers, FIDE; even to the extent of the match having to be postponed.

Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second and then refused to play the third on the stage and insisted on playing in an ill-furnished back-room – Spassky lost the game and eventually the match.

But then Fischer withdrew from competition, and three years later, the World Chess Federation stripped him of his title for failing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov.

Since then, apart from a bizarre Fischer-Spassky rematch in Yugoslavia in 1992, which Fischer won 10-5 with 15 draws that provoked the wrath of the US government as it defied their sanctions against Yugoslavia, Fischer has not actively played chess (unless as some people including Nigel Short have posited – on the internet).

Fischer disappeared. He apparently spent several years in central Europe before moving to Tokyo.

Totally reclusive he emerged only to utter anti-Semitic rants in radio interviews and his support for the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Fischer said of ‘September 11’ on a radio show in the Philippines: “This is all wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all.”

His anti-semitism was nothing new, although his mother was Jewish. In 1962 Fischer was quoted as saying: “There are too many Jews in chess. They seem to have taken away the class from the game. They don’t seem to dress so nicely, you know. That’s what I don’t like.”

In 1984, Fischer wrote an open letter to the Encyclopedia Judaica, asking that his entry be removed, saying: “try to promote your religion on its own merits – if indeed it has any.”

In 2004, Japan arrested Bobby Fischer, wanted by the US for breaking international sanctions (his Yugoslavia re-match with Spassky).

Fischer was detained at Tokyo’s Narita airport, apparently with an invalid passport.

Eventually Bobby Fischer was released by the Japanese and taken in by Iceland. Bobby Fischer News contains an update on Bobby Fischer’s departure to Iceland.

There have been recent disclosures about Fischer’s background, with the release of FBI files on Fischer’s mother Regina. The documents seem to suggest that Fischer’s actual father was a Jewish man, Dr Paul Felix Nemenyi, and not as had been assumed a German biophysicist named Gerhardt.

It seems the most savoury thing to do is to end up by concentrating on Fischer’s great chess skills. Garry Kasparov states in his foreword to Agur’s “Fischer – his Approach to Chess”:

“Fischer’s achievement is unsurpassed – the gap between him and his rivals was the widest there ever was between a World Champion and the other top-ranking players at the time. He was some 10-15 years ahead of his time in his preparation and understanding.”

At his peak, Bobby Fischer was the strongest chess player of all time.

In January 2008, Bobby Fischer died after suffering from a long-term illness.

 

BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)

WhiZ Hearts-Estimated IQ>195

Pascal was a child prodigy, who was educated by his father. He was a mathematician of the first order. At 16 he wrote the Essai pour les coniques which was published in 1640. In 1642 he invented a calculating machine to help his father, who served as Royal Tax Commissioner at Rouen. Pascal is often credited with the discovery of the mathematical theory of probability and he also made serious contributions to number theory and geometry.

1623-	June 19, born in Claremont the son of Etienne Pascal a minor noble and government official.
1626-	Mother dies.
1631-	Etienne moves to Paris and directs his children’s education based on the pedagogy of Montaigne. Blaise proves to be exceptional at mathematics.
1638-	Etienne goes into hiding after opposing a fiscal measure of Richelieu but leaves the children in Paris.
1639-	Blaise’s sister, Jacqueline, appears in a play before Richelieu after which he not only pardons Etienne but appoints him tax collector at Rouen.
1642-	Blaise begins to work on his calculating machine to assist his father in the computation of taxes.
1646-	Etienne is injured and is cared for by two Jansenists who convert the family to this strict form of Christianity.
1647-	Visits by Descartes and discussion on atmospheric pressure and the function of the barometer.
1648-	Pascal returns to Claremont. Writes treatise on conic sections.
1650-	Returns to Paris.
1651-	Etienne dies and Jacqueline joins the convent at Port-Royal.
1654-	November 23, a two-hour ecstatic vision leads to his conversion. The account of this vision is kept in the lining of his coat at all times.
1655-	January 7, takes a retreat to Port-Royal where he defends Arnauld against the Jesuits who sought to expell him.
1656-	Appearance of the first of the Provicial Letters.
1658-	Lectures on his apologetics to the leaders of Port-Royal.
1659-	Comes down with the illness that will lead to his death. Works in brief periods of relief from suffering.
1661-	Jacqueline dies. Port-Royal closed after official condemnation of Jansenism.
1662-	August 17, Blaise Pascal dies in the house of one of his sisters.
1670-	Publication of his Thoughts which he had worked on sporadically the last four years of his life.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

WhiZ Hearts- Estimated IQ>190-210

Indian mathematician who was self-taught and had an uncanny mathematical manipulative ability. Ramanujan was unable to pass his school examinations in India, and could only obtain a clerk’s position in the city of Madras. However, he continued to pursue his own mathematics, and sent letters to three mathematicians in England (which arrived in January of 1913) containing some of his results. While two of the three returned the letters unopened, G. H. Hardy recognized Ramanujan’s intrinsic mathematical ability and arranged for him to come to Cambridge. Because of his lack of formal training, Ramanujan sometimes did not differentiate between formal proof and apparent truth based on intuitive or numerical evidence. Although his intuition and computational ability allowed him to determine and state highly original and unconventional results which continued to defy formal proof until recently (Berndt 1985-1997), Ramanujan did occasionally state incorrect results.

Ramanujan had an intimate familiarity with numbers, and excelled especially in number theory and modular function theory. His familiarity with numbers was demonstrated by the following incident. During an illness in England, Hardy visited Ramanujan in the hospital. When Hardy remarked that he had taken taxi number 1729, a singularly unexceptional number, Ramanujan immediately responded that this number was actually quite remarkable: it is the smallest integer that can be represented in two ways by the sum of two cubes: 1729=1³+12³=9³+10³.

Unfortunately, Ramanujan’s health deteriorated rapidly in England, due perhaps to the unfamiliar climate, food, and to the isolation which Ramanujan felt as the sole Indian in a culture which was largely foreign to him. Ramanujan was sent home to recuperate in 1919, but tragically died the next year at the very young age of 32.

Ramanujan published some of his results in journals, and many are beautiful indeed. However, his working notebooks contained much additional unorganized material which remained uninvestigated until the sustained efforts of Berndt and his coworkers who systematically examined and proved Ramanujan’s sometimes vague or ambiguous statements. For anyone with a little knowledge of number theory, Ramanujan’s notebooks make absolutely fascinating reading. It is therefore a great pity that their publisher, Springer-Verlag, has chosen to price these slim volumes at the ridiculous price of about $100 apiece.

 

 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  

WhiZHeart Estimated IQ>210   

THE boy, Goethe, was a precocious youngster. At the early age of eight he had already acquired some knowledge of Greek, Latin, French and Italian. He had likewise acquired from his mother the knack of storytelling; and from a toy puppet show in his nursery his first interest in the stage. Goethe’s early education was somewhat irregular and informal, and already he was marked by that apparent feeling of superiority that stayed by him throughout his life. When he was about 16 he was sent to Leipzig, ostensibly to study law. Finally, in 1770 Goethe went to Strasburg, this time really intent on passing his preliminary examinations in law. Along with his study of law, he studied art, music, anatomy and chemistry. In 1771 Goethe returned to Frankfurt, nominally to practice law, but he was soon deep in work on what was to be his first dramatic success, Götz von Berlichingen, the story of a robber baron of the 16th century that represented Goethe’s youthful protest against the established order and his demand for intellectual freedom. Its success made its hitherto unknown author the literary leader of Germany. Goethe’s invitation in 1775 to the court of Duke Karl August at Weimar was a turning point in the literary life of Germany. He became manager of the Court Theater, and interested himself in various other activities. The writing of Faust, however, that best known of Goethe’s works, extended over practically the whole of Goethe’s literary life, a period of 57 years. It was finally finished when Goethe was 81. Faust is in reality a dramatic poem rather than a piece for the stage. While based on the same legend as Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, it far transcends both its legendary source and the English play. The latter is little more than a Morality illustrating the punishment of sin; Goethe’s work is a drama of redemption. Others of Goethe’s works which have stood the test of time include: Clavigo, Egmont, Stella, Iphigenia in Tauris and Torquato Tasso. 

WhiZ Hearts : Estimated IQ >160 ( But amazing Transcedental Thinking)

Albert Einstein:

Around 1886 Albert Einstein began his school career in Munich. He studied mathematics, in particular the calculus, beginning around 1891.

In 1894 Einstein’s family moved to Milan but Einstein remained in Munich. In 1895 Einstein failed an examination that would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Following the failing of the entrance exam to the ETH, Einstein attended secondary school at Aarau planning to use this route to enter the ETH in Zurich. While at Aarau he wrote an essay (for which was only given a little above half marks!) in which he wrote of his plans for the future.

Indeed Einstein succeeded with his plan graduating in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics and physics. Einstein tried to obtain a post, writing to Hurwitz who held out some hope of a position but nothing came of it. In 1901 he was writing round universities in the hope of obtaining a job, but without success.

He did manage to avoid Swiss military service on the grounds that he had flat feet and varicose veins. By mid 1901 he had a temporary job as a teacher, teaching mathematics at the Technical High School in Winterthur.

Another temporary position teaching in a private school in Schaffhausen followed. Then Grossmann‘s father tried to help Einstein get a job by recommending him to the director of the patent office in Bern. Einstein was appointed as a technical expert third class. While in the Bern patent office he completed an astonishing range of theoretical physics publications, written in his spare time without the benefit of close contact with scientific literature or colleagues. Einstein earned a doctorate from the University of Zurich in 1905 for a thesis On a new determination of molecular dimensions. He dedicated the thesis to Grossmann. In the first of three papers, all written in 1905, Einstein examined the phenomenon discovered by Max Planck, according to which electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating objects in discrete quantities. Einstein used Planck‘s quantum hypothesis to describe the electromagnetic radiation of light. Einstein’s second 1905 paper proposed what is today called the special theory of relativity. As a second fundamental hypothesis, Einstein assumed that the speed of light remained constant in all frames of reference. Later in 1905 Einstein showed how mass and energy were equivalent. The third of Einstein’s papers of 1905 concerned statistical mechanics. He made important contributions to quantum theory. By 1909 Einstein was recognized as a leading scientific thinker and in that year he resigned from the patent office. He was appointed a full professor at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. In fact 1911 was a very significant year for Einstein since he was able to make preliminary predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the Sun, would appear to be bent slightly, in the direction of the Sun. This would be highly significant as it would lead to the first experimental evidence in favor of Einstein’s theory. About 1912, Einstein began a new phase of his gravitational research. Einstein called his new work the general theory of relativity. He moved from Prague to Zurich in 1912 to take up a chair at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Einstein returned to Germany in 1914 but did not reapply for German citizenship. What he accepted was an impressive offer. It was a research position in the Prussian Academy of Sciences together with a chair (but no teaching duties) at the University of Berlin. He was also offered the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin which was about to be established. During 1921 Einstein made his first visit to the United States. His main reason was to raise funds for the planned Hebrew University of Jerusalem. However he received the Barnard Medal during his visit and lectured several times on relativity. Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 but not for relativity rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect. Around this time he made many international visits. Among further honors which Einstein received were the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1925 and the Gold Medal of the Royal in 1926.Indeed Einstein’s life had been hectic and he was to pay the price in 1928 with a physical collapse brought on through overwork. However he made a full recovery despite having to take things easy throughout 1928.By 1930 he was making international visits again, back to the United States. A third visit to the United States in 1932 was followed by the offer of a post at Princeton. The following month the Nazis came to power in Germany and Einstein was never to return there. Offers of academic posts which he had found it so hard to get in 1901, were plentiful. What was intended only as a visit became a permanent arrangement by 1935 when he applied and was granted permanent residency in the United States. In 1940 Einstein became a citizen of the United States, but chose to retain his Swiss citizenship. He made many contributions to peace during his life. In 1944 he made a contribution to the war effort by hand writing his 1905 paper on special relativity and putting it up for auction. It raised six million dollars, the manuscript today being in the Library of Congress. By 1949 Einstein was unwell. A spell in hospital helped him recover but he began to prepare for death by drawing up his will in 1950. He left his scientific papers to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a university which he had raised funds for on his first visit to the USA, served as a governor of the university from 1925 to 1928. One more major event was to take place in his life. After the death of the first president of Israel in 1952, the Israeli government decided to offer the post of second president to Einstein. He refused but found the offer an embarrassment since it was hard for him to refuse without causing offence. One week before his death Einstein signed his last letter. It was a letter to Bertrand Russell in which he agreed that his name should go on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons. It is fitting that one of his last acts was to argue, as he had done all his life, for international peace.

Einstein was cremated at Trenton, New Jersey at 4 pm on 18 April 1955 (the day of his death). His ashes were scattered at an undisclosed place.

 

WhiZ Hearts : Estimated IQ>205

 

 

1450

 Leonardo is born in Vinci, April 15, 1452

1460

• Childhood in Vinci
• Goes to Florence, is an apprentice in the studio of Verrocchio (1469)

1470

• Becomes a member of the corporation of painters (1472)
• Completes his first known drawing, “La valle dell’Arno” (“The Arno Valley”) (1473)
• Paints an angel in Verrocchio’s “Baptism of Christ” (1475)
• Paints “The Annunciation” (1477)
• Portrait of Ginevra de’Benci (1478)

1480

• Paints “San Gerolamo” and “The Adoration of the Magi” (1481)
• Leaves Florence for Milan, in the service of Ludovico Sforza (1482-3)
• Paints the “Virgin of the Rocks” (1483-6)
• Begins to explore human flight (1486)
• Anatomical drawings in the manuscripts (1488-9)

1490

• Designs a flying machine (1492)
• Works on the giant equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza (1493)
• Studies the resistance of various types of arcades (1494)
• Paints the second “Virgin of the Rocks” (1494)“
• Paints “The Last Supper” (1495)
• Meets mathematician Luca Pacioli, with whom he studies Euclid (1496)
• Paints “Madonna and Child with St. Anne” (1499)
  Leaves Milan (1499) to return to Florence, stops in Mantua and Venice (1500)

1500

• Cesare Borgia assumes Leonardo as military engineer (1502)
• Designs war machines and draws topographical maps (1502-3)
• Draws studies for “The Battle of Anghiari” (1503-6)
  “
• Paints “Mona Lisa” (1504?)
• Studies the flight of birds, designs flying machines, and tries to square the circle (1505)
• Studies fluid elements: water, air and fire (1506-8)
• Returns to Milan (1508)
• Paints “St. Anne” (1509)

1510

• Undertakes detailed anatomical research (1510)
• Goes to Rome seeking the patronage of the new pope, Leo X (1513)
• Constructs a mechanical lion for the incoronation of Francis I, King of France (1515)
  Paints “Self-Portrait” (1515)
• Goes to the court of Francis I, Amboise (1516)
• Designs a palace in Romorantin (1517)
• Dies in Amboise, May 2, 1519

 WhiZ Hearts : Estimated IQ >205 

German philosopher and mathematician. Leibniz was born in Leipzig, where he attended university from the age of 15, and submitted a thesis for the degree of doctor of law at the age of 20. In 1667 he entered the service of the Elector of Mainz, where he remained until 1672, engaged largely in political writing. He traveled to Paris in 1672, partly to try to persuade Louis XIV to expel the Turks from Egypt; here he also met Malebranche, Arnauld and Huygens. He visited England in 1673, and again in 1676, at which time he had completed his discovery of the differential calculus. In this year he traveled to Amsterdam and met Spinoza, and became librarian to the Duke of Brunswick at Hanover, a post he held until his death. He worked on among other things hydraulic presses, windmills, lamps, submarines, clocks, carriages and water pumps. Between 1680 and 1697 he was working on his own system of philosophy. Leibniz was the greatest polymath of modern philosophers, making contributions to mathematics, jurisprudence, and history, as well as philosophy. He corresponded with extensively with all the major learned men of the time, and was the founder of the academy of Berlin. In 1711 he met the Russian czar Peter the Great. He died November 14, 1716 in Hanover.

Works

• On the art of combination (1666)
• New Physical Hypothesis (1671)
• Discourse of Metaphysics (1685)
• The New System (1695)
• New Essays on Human Understanding (1705)
• Theodicy (1710)
• The  Monadology (1713)