Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008

Bobby Fischer, the 11th world chess champion is dead at 64. He died in Reykjavik, Iceland where he moved in 2005 after being released from prison in Japan. An article at Chessbase tells the story here.

Fischer beat Boris Spassky to take the crown as the first perhaps "world-famous" chess champion. At the height of the cold-war between the United States and the Soviet Union, I remember learning chess from my dad when I was 4-5 years old, right around the time Fischer was making newspaper headlines. My dad was in his early 20's, and was playing chess and listening to jazz with a lot of other young men.

Thanks to Dad for teaching me the great game, which turned out to be a big deal for me. I was the best player in my peer group perhaps till I reached high school, and I developed a love for gaming from my early encounters with Dad on our Sunday night sessions after our family study.

Games played in 2007...

I shocked myself when printing this list. It really seems like 2007 was an "off" year for gaming. Here's my list of games and played:

Travel Blokus, 9
Carcassonne, 6
Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles, 5
Alhambra, 4
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, 3
Coloretto, 3
GIPF, 3
Puerto Rico, 3
TAMSK, 3
Great Space Race, The, 2
Hey! That's My Fish!, 2
Nexus Ops, 2
Pinochle, 2
Settlers of Catan, The, 2
Through the Desert, 2
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, 1
Antike, 1
Carcassonne: The City, 1
CATAN 3D Collector's Edition 1
Caylus 1
Caylus Magna Carta 1
Cities and Knights of Catan, The 1
Civilization, 1
Formula Dé, 1
Mare Nostrum, 1
Mykerinos, 1
Niagara, 1
Railroad Tycoon, 1
Saint Petersburg, 1
Star Wars Miniatures, 1
Ticket to Ride, 1
Traders of Genoa, The, 1
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, 1

That's 69 games played, and 32 different titles. Compare that to 140 games played in 2006, and 40 different titles.

Sorted by TIME, the list would look something like:

Twilight Imperium, 1 game, 9 hours
Caylus, 1 game, 4 hours
Pinocle, 2 games, 12 hours
Star Wars Miniature Starship Battles, 5 games, 10 hours
Puerto Rico, 3 games, 8 hours

Still... it was an off year for gaming. But the trend was obviously towards few, but longer games in 2007.