"I don't like to dwell on the past.
I'm interested in Fischer Random now.
I am working on a new clock."

FISCHER CLOCK STILL TICKING

"My clock was moving along quite well, finally getting near completion,
until the illegal arrest and brutalisation."
~ from Japan prison, August 2004

To Orwell Today,

We would like to inform you that the new DGT960 clock is available for delivery now. This unique foldable chess clock (with move timer, game timer, delay timer and Fischer timer) has a built-in Chess960 randomizer.

For more information do not hesitate to contact me, or look at: DGT960 Digital Chess Clock - The first chess clock that automatically and at random will generate 960 starting positions. The display shows symbols indicating in which position the pieces have to be placed on the board. It brings many chess-lovers back to the chessboard. The aspect of having a lead through knowledge of theory about chess opening moves sequences makes way for creative thinking.

This idea of former World champion Bobby Fischer, who recently passed away, has been the most important improvement in chess since 500 years. This chess clock is a gadget that every chess player would wish to have.

Kind regards,
Albert Vasse, DGT CEO, The Netherlands

Greetings Albert,

Thanks for sending the info about your clock which contains Bobby Fischer's timer and a randomizer, a project (working on his clock) which was a huge part of his life, along with the creation of Fisher Random - his new way of playing Chess (as I learned from listening to his radio interviews* over the years). See UNCLE SAM FINDS BOBBY FISCHER

It's a tragedy Bobby Fischer isn't alive to receive your bulletin about your new clock incorporating his two passions.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

Listen to Bobby Fischer. Chess Base
In emotional phone calls from his detention cell in Tokyo in August 2004 ex world champion Bobby Fischer gave a Philippine radio station two lengthy interviews. Fischer is facing deportation and incarceration in the US, and voices his nightmare fears: "I will be tried, convicted, sentenced, imprisoned, tortured and murdered..."

Anchor: I was told that you are really a "super grandmaster" who beat your opponents, all grandmasters, in 20 straight games.

Fischer: I don’t like to dwell on the past. I’m interested in Fischer Random now, I am working on a new clock, I’m trying to make chess a more exciting game today. I am not interested in sitting in my rocking chair thinking what I did 10, 20 or 30 years ago.

Boy Pobre: What are your plans if you get out of this? Play chess with the super-stars?

Fischer: No, I don’t play chess anymore, I play Fischer Random. It is a much better game, more challenge. Chess is a dead game, it is played out. Fischer Random is a version of chess that I developed or invented, you could say, where you shuffle the back row of the pieces, not the pawns. Each side has an identical shuffle, so that everything is symmetrical, just like in the old chess. There are just a couple of rules: one rook has to be to the left of the king, one has to be to the right of the king, one bishop has to be on a light-coloured square, and one on a dark-coloured square. That’s basically it. You can learn the rules in two minutes. It’s a great game, and can become the standard for chess.

*MP3 Audio

Anchor: How is your chess clock?

It was moving along quite well, finally getting near completion, until the illegal arrest and brutalisation. Maybe it was one of the contributing reasons. See, whenever I’m about to complete some kind of project, like the book I was working on about the prearranged match, 1984-85 between Karpov and Kasparov, they robbed all my files....

Bobby Fischer, inventor of Fischer clock, dies. Intellectual Village, January 17, 2008

Inventor: Bobby Fischer
Invention: Fischer Clock
Inventor’s Location: Born in USA (now in Iceland)

Bobby Fischer (Robert James "Bobby" Fischer), the inventor of Fischer clock, died today. He was [64]. Not many people know that he invented the Fischer clock. He is more famous as the only American player to become the official world chess champion. He won the championship in 1972 by defeating Boris Spassky. He was well-known for his controversial remarks and actions during the last two decades.

Game clocks are used while playing chess tournaments to keep track of the total time taken by the players for their moves. In 1988, Fischer filed for U.S. Patent 4,884,255 for a new type of digital chess clock. Fischer’s digital clock gave each player a fixed period of time at the start of the game and then added a small amount after each move. For example, if the delay is five seconds and the player has ten minutes remaining on his clock, when his clock is activated, he now has ten minutes and five seconds remaining. Time can be accumulated, so if the player moves within the delay period, his remaining time actually increases. This made sure that the players would never be desperately short of time. Also, games could be completed more quickly, thus eliminating the need for adjourning matches. Fischer’s invention had a synthesized voice announcing how much time the players have, but this is not used in the Fischer clocks used for tournaments.

The patent application filed for the invention provides this summary:

"A game timing apparatus and method for simultaneously timing events for two players is disclosed. The method involves presetting a pair of clocks for respective initial time periods, starting one of the clocks to time a first player’s move, simultaneously stopping one clock and starting the other, and incrementing or decrementing each of the clocks by a time interval once for each move or a group of moves. The apparatus includes a pair of clock means, a pair of start switches for starting and stopping the clock means, and a compensation means for incrementing or decrementing each clock means by a time interval.”

...The patent for the invention expired in November 2001. But Fischer clock is still being used in many top chess tournaments.

CHESS MEN STRIP FISCHER and FISCHER MAN AGAINST MACHINE and UNCLE SAM LOST BOBBY FISCHER and BOBBY FISCHER IN ROOM 202 and BOBBY FISCHER A WINSTON SMITH and UNCLE SAM FINDS BOBBY FISCHER

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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