Beth Harmon, Bobby Fischer, Wesley So, Hans Niemann – Each is ‘a prodigy, had a rather dark childhood and is American’ and has a supportive mom. Oh and sister too.

Series : Good guys vs Bad guys – Table of Contents

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Part0 – Duplicate / Elaboration :

Happy mother’s day! Here are Wesley So, Beth Harmon and Bobby Fischer (all American prodigy chess / 9LX players with dark childhoods) and their respective moms Philippine actress Lotis Key, Alma Wheatley and Dr Regina Fischer. Lotis and Alma are adoptive moms. Alma and Regina were single moms. ( post ID ulcu4e ; date 2022May09 )

• same post in r/queensgambit – post ID ulcu2q
• Does Magnus Carlsen have something against Americans? Hans Niemann is American, like Wesley So and Bobby Fischer. – post ID xj8wi6
  • wordpress – Bobby Fischer if alive today would support Hans Niemann over Magnus Carlsen … Apparently not?! | Quote: ‘top brass in chess world is team Jew. … Niemann did cheat … Jewish conspiracy to bring down the gentile who dominated them’ | ‘None of the Indians are Jews but almost all the Russians are.’ (zs4zpf)
  • wordpress – Does Magnus Carlsen have something against Americans? Hans Niemann is American, like Wesley So and Bobby Fischer.

Now posted YouTube on 2023Jun23 – Bobby Fischer, Wesley So, Beth Harmon is ‘a prodigy, had a rather dark childhood and is American.’ – video ID 2d427ys5FrY

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Image :

Transcript :

MinasTirith8 :

Beth is a reference to him, but her playing style and openings are extremely different. I’d say Beth is more aggressive than Fischer and Fischer played a wider spread of openings including things like the English whereas Beth only plays King’s Pawn in competitive matches. I think best comparison is to Paul Morphy, who is the most similar in style (Beth plays very romantic chess for setting of QG which is a very technical era). She only really shares with Fischer the fact that she is a prodigy, had a rather dark childhood and is American.

I asked re the last sentence :

Did you just describe Wesley So? XD

So yeah they all have rags-to-riches stories and a supportive single or adoptive mom.

Actually I guess Kevin Durant re Kevin Durant MVP Speech “You Da Real MVP” fits this too – American prodigy w/ dark childhood.

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Part1 – I commented below :

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Re Lotis Key, Wesley So and Bobby Fischer:

But the most mysterious coincidence in the lives of the two men is the Lotis Key connection. She is well known to most Filipinos as the former reel and real love interest of the late Dolphy, Philippine cinema’s comedy king. She is a devout Christian, theater producer, and author who is Wesley So’s adopted mother and confidant. In a recent interview with ChessDom, she claimed that Bobby Fischer used to live in her older sister’s house in Pasadena, California.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/138796/lifestyle/zamudio-so-intriguing-life-of-gm-wesley-so

parallels between wesley so and bobby fischer confirmed? linked by lotis key? (and well eugene torre)

• also wordpress : Parallels between Wesley So and Bobby Fischer

The Wesley So interview:

• Wesley So, with adoptive mother Lotis Key, updates answer (Apr2022) to Dina Belenkaya’s question 2 months earlier (Feb2022) : What rule to change in chess? (9LX of course.)
• Dina Belenkaya asks 9LX WC Wesley So what rules to change – compilation2 (2022Apr) – video ID ShtUqtUGYSY – date upload 2022Apr08

• I believe God has a plan. I just keep working! | Wesley So | Exclusive Interview – video ID XyJu4O1OnzQ – date upload 2022Apr08

Bobby Fischer’s mom:

Bobby Fischer’s Mother – Regina Wender Fischer – video ID hNng5eukA3U – date upload idk

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Part2 – Added 2023Nov – Source of conversation w/ MinasTirith8 : ( I couldn’t get this at the time I initially posted in 2023Jun because r/queensgambit participated in those reddit API protests ; But anyhoo MinasTirith8 had already deleted h account. )

I posted The reason why Bobby Fischer doesn’t exist in the The Queen’s Gambit universe | ‘Bully Maguire Makes Beth Harmon Cry’ on 2022Apr08 in r/queensgambit – post ID tynfvh – linking to Bully Maguire Makes Beth Harmon Cry – video ID tA1QV88k5bg – upload date 2021Mar23 – by thisiszohair ( reddit ).

• Clip – 2023Nov19 – video ID 91bBhbaSAAo – ‘Beth Harmon vs 9LX creator Bobby Fischer’

Some comments below :

Part2.1 – 2022Apr08 – 2022Apr18

Transcript :

mnmarsart 2022Apr08 – Its funny cause Bobby Fischer is actually in the show itself lol

me – What?!?!!!! I thought the whole point of this show is that it’s assuming Bobby Fischer doesn’t exist in this universe with Benny as a combination of Fischer and someone else and Harmon as a combination of Fischer and Polgar or something

mnmarsart – Yea that’s what i meant by that lol

me 2022Apr09 – You got yourself a deal man. Anytime, anywhere as long as there is proctoring.

Part2.2 – 2022Jun – 2022Oct

Transcript :

Ian_W – 2022Jun04

Not really – you’d had the move away from the hypermoderns in the 1950s.

In real life, Spassky was playing the Kings Gambit against Bronstein in the 1960 USSR Championship, and you don’t get more romantic than that 🙂

MinasTirith8 – 2022Jun19

Well, I guess there are multiple perspectives and, yes, Spassky wasn’t very technical I agree. The decade was dominated by players like Petrosian and Botvinnik (mostly Petrosian by that time), both very technical players, so I suppose that is where I’m coming from when I call the 60s a technical era. But there is the other side of the coin being Tal and Spassky….

me – 2022Oct24

MinasTirith8 deleted h account?

Part2.3 – 2022Apr18 – 2022Jul09 re Judit Polgar

me – 2022Apr18

As for the playing style, yeah sure whatever, but indeed Beth, in terms of life/story, is like a combination of Fischer and Judit Polgar right?

(Actually re my other comment I can’t help but feel the author is a time traveller and based Beth off of Wesley So esp with the adoptive mom Lotis Key / Alma Wheatley thing.)

MinasTirith8 – 2022Apr18

I don’t think she has that much similarity to Judit Polgar, who had a very interesting childhood where her parents basically strived to see if they could produce more successful children through homeschooling. She and Judit are very similar in terms of playing style but I don’t see much similarity in their lives other than being women playing top level chess.

Bobby Fischer is such an odd figure I don’t know where to start. He was incredibly smart in terms of chess and other puzzles but very easily swayed by all sorts of propaganda. He was a member of a cult like religious group for a long time who he gave a lot of money to. He was also anti-semantic (to the point of basically being a Nazi) (one incident where he gave a Jewish opponent a copy of Mein Kampf might have to fact check me on that though!). I don’t see Beth as very similar to him either other than being a prodigy, which a lot of chess world champions are (you might be able to argue that Botvinnik wasn’t a prodigy as he started playing chess at the age of 14). Fischer’s childhood was sad but for different reasons than Beth, I think his family was really poor so they couldn’t afford to eat much.

I think I see Beth as a more Alekhine like figure. Alekhine did struggle with addiction for much of his life and ended up dying from alchohol poisoning I believe. I think I’d put her at Paul Morphy and Alexander Alekhine, maybe a bit of Kasparov?

me – 2022Jul08

Alekhine was a Nazi or something like Sergey Karjakin or Bobby Fischer though?

MinasTirith8 – 2022Jul09

Did Alekhine ever express pro nazi sentiments? I thought he just cooperated with them in somewhat understandable circumstances (didn’t they threaten his wife?). Also didn’t think Sergey was a Nazi, just that he supported Putin.

me – 2022Jul09

Ah I mean Alekhine had Nazi affiliations and then the other 2 had their analogous but not Nazi. Anyhoo thanks.

me – 2022Jul09

Maybe the best connection to Beth is the one made in the show between her and Paul Morphy. Although I think he just went crazy, no addictions that I know of…

Part2.4 – 2022Apr11 – 2022Oct22 re Hans vs Magnus ( more on this below )

thisiszohair – 2022Apr11

Thank you so much for sharing my edit, I really appreciate it 🙌 that means a lot ❤️

me – 2022Oct22

with the recent chess controversy please make a new chess or 9LX related video

Part2.5 – Also 2022Apr19 I posted in r/chess960 Comments in my r/queensgambit post about Beth Harmon, Bobby Fischer aaaaand of course Wesley So. Lol. – post ID u6gp9k

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Part3 – Added 2023Nov – Back to the mother’s day post

Part3.1 – 2022May10 re Regina Fischer

MinasTirith8

Very sad that Regina Fischer had to give up her medical degree 6 years in (of a 7 year course) in Russia due to World War 2, she lost everything when she decided to move to the US.

me

Oh so didn’t finish the medical degree actually? Wikipedia page says Regina actually became a physician. Idk.

Or you mean finished the medical degree but later on?

MinasTirith8

I’m actually not entirely sure.

I know she pursued one in Russia but I thought after her move to the US she studied nursing? Ah, I looked up Bobby Fischer’s wikipedia page and it says she pursued the medical degree, then nursing and later became a physician. I do know she came to the US with basically nothing since her 6 years into a Russian degree counted for nothing in the US. I think the family was struggiling so much Regina put up Bobby’s older sister for adoption but it was rejected when the adoptive family found some communist propaganda or something among her things.

Part3.2 – ok finally Hans

me – 2022Sep11

Hans Niemann future 9LX world champion: prodigy, dark childhood, American? XD https://www.reddit.com/r/HansNiemannFanClub/comments/xam2r4/welcome_new_members/inzjtio

MinasTirith8

Hans had a dark childhood?

me

Something about 16yo apartment alone and had to make rent or something.

MinasTirith8

Oh, I didn’t know.

me

I’m not so sure. But I think e said that in an interview like part of the reason e cheated as a 16yo was because of needing to make rent.

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Part4 – Hans Niemann

Not sure about dark childhood but Hans did have a supportive mom, Mary Niemann (and I guess a supportive dad namely David Niemann – btw is this the same Mary Niemann? https://twitter.com/niemannmary ). But I assume Hans had a dark childhood because for some reason Hans while a teenager had ‘rent to pay’, as said in Hans’ speech on how e’s clean in OTB ( minor & adult ) and clean online as an adult ( just like how both Wesley So & Bobby Fischer are clean ) :

I was 16 years old. I don’t want to make excuses, but I was living alone in New York City. It was the peak of the pandemic. And at that – I have been financially independent since I was 16 years old. I left my family, and I was living alone at 16. I had rent to pay, and I wanted to – And I was willing to do anything to grow my stream.

• From Niemann: I Have NEVER Cheated Over The Board | Round 5 in 22:47 – 23:04 by Saint Louis Chess Club ( STLChessClub )

Or well, if not, then if being a teenager is still part of childhood, then Hans’ childhood is certainly dark now. Lol.

As for mom

This is one anecdote. When I was eight years old um I — Magnus Carlsen came to an exhibition in California, and my mom took me there. I just started — or maybe I was nine. I just started playing chess, and he was doing a blindfold simul. And there was an auction to bid on it. And uh when when they were bidding on it uh it got up to a thousand dollars. And it became too much. And my mom was like ‘No no no. If you really really want it, we’ll do it.’ You know she was going to really to make a financial sacrifice, so I could play, and I said ‘No no no mom one day I’m going to play him for free.’

• From Niemann: I Have NEVER Cheated Over The Board | Round 5 24:54 – 25:25

Alternative quote / transcript from Carlsen’s silence on withdrawal blow for fans: Kasparov – 2022Sep14 – The Times of India

“When I was eight or nine years old, Magnus Carlsen came to an exhibition in California. My mom took me there. He was doing blindfold and there was an option to be on it (with a price). When they were bidding on it and it got to 2000 dollars, it became too much. My mom said ‘if you want to we will do it’ …. she was ready to make financial sacrifice so that I could play. But I said ‘no mom, one day I will play him for free’. Instead, I got to sign a big chess piece.”

Yeah… Hans’ hero is not Wesley So or Bobby Fischer but Magnus Carlsen?

• For Bobby Fischer – Well maybe Magnus is ( was) Hans’ living / modern hero.
• For Wesley So – At the time Wesley So ( 2011 – 2012 ) was not yet a professional chess player. Actually 2012 was when Wesley So & I met in 2012Feb in Manila, as I mention in my copypasta introduction.

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Part5 – Oh and sister too…I’ll make a table

	Beth Harmon	Bobby Fischer	Wesley So	Hans Niemann	Kevin Durant (?)
Prodigy	Series was unfairly given only top 2 rank 5/6 by corrupt racist Magnus Carlsen who in turn was only the top 2 (or top 3) in 9LX	Created 9LX where Wesley So beat talentless patzer Magnus	Beat fake world champion Magnus in classical 9LX 3x in a row	Beat hypocritical cheater Magnus in classical chess	Basketball
Dark childhood	Car crash then orphanage.	‘At the time of her son’s birth, Regina was homeless and shuttled to different jobs and schools around the country to support her family.’	“Wesley So Interview: ‘Chess Was A Way Out’” by David Cox	The rent to pay. Or if not then whatever Hans went through w/ Magnus. Lol.	Real MVP.
American	Hmmm idk is Beth just regular white American & gentile?	Jewish American but well you know Gasai.	Philippine-born American of Chinese descent	Jewish American of Danish descent	African American
Evil parent	Both dads – Paul & Allston Wheatley	Dad/s? (Paul Neményi or Hans-Gerhardt Fischer) and Regina Fischer? Lol	Both bio parents – William So & Eleanor ‘Leny’ So	None actually (?!?!?!?!?!)	Dad
Supportive mom	Both moms – Alma Wheatley & Alice Harmon	Regina Fischer	Lotis Key	‘she was going to really to make a financial sacrifice, so I could play’	Wanda Durant
Sister	Jolene DeWitt	Joan Fischer later Joan Targ	Abbey Key (NOT Wendelle or Wilma So)	3 younger sister’s aka imouto’s	Briana Pratt

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Part6 – Current / Old / Next / Alternative Bobby Fischer

I guess :

• Hans Niemann – next Bobby Fischer
• Wesley So – current Bobby Fischer
• Bobby Fischer’s ghost – old Bobby Fischer
• Beth Harmon – Bobby Fischer in another / an alternate universe.

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