The 2001 Fischer internet hoax

[JustinHorton]

Many people will remember the alleged appearance of Bobby Fischer on the ICC, as referenced in the article referred to here. Contrary to the article, I was under the impression that everybody now understood the appearance to be a hoax, but finding information on the internet to back this up is not so simple. I can find plenty of material from back in 2001 when the incident occurred, but nothing definitive since. As far as I'm aware nobody has ever admitted to perpetrating the hoax (I can trace references to the hoaxer supposedly being Canadian, but nothing more specific or definitive than that) but the actual identity of the hoaxer is of less immediate interest to me than the question - was a consensus ever come to that it was a hoax, and if so was that based on anything in particular, i.e. anything more definitive than "Fischer doesn't play weird openings"? Did anybody who had claimed it really was Fischer later retract, and if so why?

(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm very sure it was a hoax, but I'm also very surprised at the apparent lack of material on the internet discussing the question subsequent to the original events.)

[Jon Mahony]

Didn't Nigel Short sware blinde he was playing "Fisher" on ICC and then later retract the comment? I think the consensus that it was a hoax came about because Fisher himself denied it.

[JustinHorton]

Any of that might be true, but I'm looking for sources!

[Colin Patterson]

I believe it was a German or Austrian blogger who started the rumours. He claimed that a 'guest' logging onto ICC was revealing himself as Fischer to selected victims. The guest trounced titled players like Reprintsev and Fontaine with 1.f3 and 2.Kf2, also 1.e3 2.Ke2. That was covered in CHESS (in Aug and Oct 2001). There was a report in BCM Oct 2001 (p.549), that outlined how Short was given a code by an intermediary who arranged for 'Bobby' to turn up and trounce Short repeatedly, using the same nonsense openings. Short quizzed him online about obscure details of his past and he gave the correct answers. However, the answers could have been easily looked up on the net apparently. At this point, Short was 99% sure it was Fischer and not a computer - I'm not sure at what stage he reconsidered and retracted the claim though. I think it was a considerable time later; maybe 6 months. A fuller account of the above was given by Short in the Sunday Telegraph of September 9. I recall one of the London newspapers carried the story too - and there was a feature on CNN news.

[AlanLlewellyn]

i dont want to be banned from the chess forum again but what i know is my girlfriend arranged a match with nigel in 2001 after i beat a ton load of gms(not using a compute i hasten to add) I was not using the engines claimed i have never cheated it was before a breakdown and i was an up and coming player at the time coming second in my county to an im and having had a 2350 rating online for 4 years from 1997-2001. I was in the groove in 2001 like i said before my mental burn out. I was told to just take guest accounts but refused and chose my handles as guest71(the year of my birth) and guest2563(25 was the age i first broke down and 63 was the sanctuary of my girlfriends number of her house) i also had a handle of g-edwards and cap78red on icc. i remember playing ural in the match my girlfriend said he was nigel incognito i remember my girlfriend stating seigen 1970 to a mexican name(she must have memorised fischers opponents for some reason), i thought it was a mexican person using the nigel handle and forgot about the whole incident, my girlfriend didnt explain what she wrote. as to the use of 1 f3 2 kf2 initially it was a mouse slip the 1 f3 but then i got annoyed with myself as my girlfriend had just said 'it is nigel' and i thought i a going to get destroyed here. when i won with the bongcloud i got suspicious and thought nigel was letting me win and tested it to destruction in further matches. I didnt see myself as grandmaster winning material see.

[AlanLlewellyn]

when i spotted the handles used in the match on a video i watched on the incident, in 2020 it all suddenly became clear to me what had happened and i immediately wanted to put the story straight

[AlanLlewellyn]

it wasnt a hoax i never stated i was fischer, except i almost joked with nigel when he asked who was my favourite blitz player-my girlfriend had just said 'he thinks your fischer', i didnt take it seriously and had just read the life and games of tal, it states in it that tal was fischers most feared blitz opponent(or it is implied cant remember) anyway i wrote back a reply which sugested i was bobby but i didnt think it was actually nigel who was talking but someone othe than him using his handle- i still was confused by the mexican name given.

[AlanLlewellyn]

and to dismiss my play as an engine- sure their were engines available to governments at the time that could play human moves but the engines available to the public in 2001 were wooden and used no strategy. people that think i used an engine have poor memories of what was available.

[AlanLlewellyn]

people state in 1998 that their was deep blue available but that used the cray supercomputer which cost 1 milion pounds a second to use

[AlanLlewellyn]

although my rating is 1492(fide standard rating) thats due to my mental illness and i have made plenty of brilliant moves in proper rated games, which can be seen here http://www.alanllewellynchess.co.uk/moves.htm

[AlanLlewellyn]

I dont want to annoy or embarrass Nigel on this issue i just want the truth about the issue to be spoken and not to be smeared with accusations as i am

[AlanLlewellyn]

i am in the process of getting confirmation from the ICC about the above details, my girlfriend can collaborate i didnt use a computer engine and the details she was associated with as she acted as an observer. I am well known (Famous i hope, not infamous) on the internet chess club as cap78red handle as i have been on there nearly ever since 2000. my girlfriend can also collaborate the match took place in 2001 with nigel, unfortunately (and much to my utter misery) I am not currently in contact with my girlfriend (who was my finacee at the time).

[Matt Bridgeman]

If you can get some verification you should consider putting an article together for a chess magazine. It seems a shame for a story like that to only be aired on the Forum.

[AlanLlewellyn]

i know i havent changed the passwords i use for such things in about 20 years, to the handles. and hopefully they are the same ones i gave the icc in an email recently as some proof. Really i need my girlfriend to provide the proof. I played in the kitchen(because my girlfriend insisted) for some strange reason and in hindsight that may be because she put up a camera there.

[AlanLlewellyn]

i would need nigels permission to put together an article as well, i wouldnt like to get on his bad side.