Bobby Fischer Meets Bob Hope -- Hilarious! 

I wish we could have seen more of this kind of Fischer, relaxed, happy and almost calm, I wish we could have had 20 more years of him. But at least his legacy lives on. RIP Bobby Fischer.

It is so wonderful to see Bobby smiling, relaxed, seemingly enjoying himself. The most surprising for me was to see him able to poke fun at himself (the "no camera" joke).

Fischer is actually really good at this, I really like how he delivers those lines.

bobby: i had a date last night bob: no kidding, how did you do? bobby: great, i beat her in 4 moves

It was fun to see Fischer just having fun Their conversation was hilarious

Who wants to bet Fischer was actually studying the position?

People complaining that this was rehearsed clearly missed the point of this video, this is not supposed to seem not staged. It's like a skit, whilst also informative about Bobby's life.

Man learned another language to read books in that language. (Russian). That’s a champion. World class.

Bob's writers gave it EVERYTHING here. This is some of the freshest lines I've heard from Bob's usually cornier crew.

This is so interesting because, in a video of him later in his life, Bobby says he wishes he would've played chess less and maybe tried other things like acting. You can tell in this video he had relief when he wasn't primarily focused on chess and instead on his acting and comedy.

Bobby Fischer was man form another planet he was genius

Bobby fisher : some call him a genius, to others he is an eccentric. But for most chess lovers HE IS THE BEST CHESS PLAYER THE CHESS WORLD HAS EVER PRODUCED

I'm obsessed with Bobby's hands as he moves pieces. There's something about those long fingers and how he slams the piece down

Can we take a moment to appreciate how incredibly cool Bob Hope is? He had to be to get Bobby Fischer to perform a skit this long, not to mention one where Bobby didn't write his own lines. Dick Cavett was also able to get to the real Bobby underneath the armor.

Fischer may not be an actor but you've gotta believe he probably looked at the script one time and memorized all the words verbatim, the page numbers they were on, the typeface, and any conventions errors.

3:55 In the morning he said "You're late", in the evening I say "checkmate"

Why oh why could we not had 20 years of "that" Bobby Fischer. Chess would be bigger than golf or tennis!

i don't even care if the whole thing was scripted, that's amazing.

That was awesome! Why couldn't this be the Fischer that went down in history.

1:37😂. Bobby was a treasure. Even the players he destroyed admitted the chess federation was the problem, not Bobby,

The best Chessmaster from all time, and one of the greatest show Master of the world

Bob Hope's prophetic use of the homonym "King" brings a chill to the very spirit of chess and the loss of it's quintessential wonder..01/17/08. RIP Bobby Fischer..not forgotten...

WOW! Never seen this before. The writing for the sketch was great, and Hope and Fischer nailed it. This is fantastic!

Fantastic clip! Shows a Fischer most have forgotten

Fantastic! Bobby finished off Spassky on 9/1/72, this Bob Hope Special aired 10/5/72. Besides Fischer, the show's other guests were The Carpenters, David Cassidy, Alexis Smith, Mark Spitz, and Les Brown & His Band of Renown. Ah, the good old days.

I bet Bob Hope was impressed that he made Bobby Fischer laugh. This shows that despite his later troubles one time he did have a sense of humor and laughed at himself.

Bobby has played most time alone, in hotel roons, and without US government support behind him. On the other side, Soviet Union has made chess its national pride. After the Second World War, all world champions were Soviet origin being the exception Bobby Fischer.

Bobby was a handsome devil in his prime...

Bobby is so charismatic, I love this video. Thank you.

0:25 Woah, just noticed Bob Hope's side is labeled "Hopesky"

Wow. How in the world did you get a copy of this??? I've read, many times over the years, that soon after Fischer won the title from Spassky in '72 that he appeared on the Bob Hope show. However, I have never seen any footage of it. I was sure footage no longer existed. It's amazing to see this little skit after all this time. Quick story: After Fischer won the title, that winter he was scheduled to appear on Dinah Shore's talk show. (You're dating yourself if you know who she is.) However, this was scheduled for a school day and I wasn't able to watch it. (My mom didn't mind if I missed school that day, but my dad said no way.) And of course I couldn't "tape" it, since this was MANY years before VCRs were invented. However, the night before it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. It snowed so much during the night all of the schools in our little town were close, since the buses couldn't get through. (For those living in the west or south, we had what is called a Snow Day.) Since there was no school that day, I was able to stay home and watch Fischer on the Dinah Shore Show after all!

The Bruce Lee of chess.

In the morning he'd say - you're late And in the evening I'd say - Checkmate. Damn Bobby, you be dropping Bars before Slim Shady. 🔥🔥🔥

Great to see footage of Bobby Fischer happy and smiling. Two meetings of 2 Bobs...one a great showman, and the other, a genius of chess. R.i.p...both gentlemen.

bring us back to these wholesome days lol. everything is so toxic now.

I love how Fischer acknowledges his ego so well, he gives no shit about what others think of him.

This is brilliant!....never even knew this clip existed before today! .Bobby played his part very well.

Fischer had a great personality that many people never knew about.

2 genius at top of their game. One comical genius the other a Chess genius in this hilarious mock up. Bobby Fisher is without doubt the best ever.

Wow listen to that applause the audience gave him! Im so glad he was appreciated like that. Even it were only for a moment

I've been looking for this on internet for a long long time... finally! Thanks! Bobby as the national hero in 1972, the year that dramatically changed the chess life of many people. We must say thank to this great champion, he did to chess what Einstein did to the universe.

It's nice to see him like this. Relaxed, humorous, even silly. Such a damned shame that he just went crazier and crazier. He was a fairly nice fellow way back then.

Bob still makes me laugh after all those years.

Big fan of Fischer....Never knew he did this. Thank You very much!

Bobby has great comedy timing AND delivery. Held his own with Bob Hope.

I remember watching this live on TV in 1972. This is the first time I've seen it since then. I believe Bob Hope did another special the same year featuring Mark Spitz, after his record-setting string of gold medals in the '72 Olympics. Bob wanted to showcase American heroes.

Bobby was such a handsome man. Not only Genius.

Two legends the likes of whom will never again grace this planet. Just listen to that crowd when Bobby Fischer walks onto the stage. Now that is some serious reverence.

Now this... does put a smile on my face

Amazing to watch Bobby been funny !!!

I had just graduated from high school in the summer of ‘72. That chess championship in Iceland was all the rage at the time. It was all over the news, and on magazine covers worldwide. We were caught up in chess fever. My friends and I would follow the matches live, listening to radio reports as they came in. And of course, Bobby Fischer, the kid from Brooklyn, was an international celebrity - an unwitting one, and maybe an unwilling one. He’s good in this clip. Thanks!

Good stuff! Dare I say, well-acted by Bobby Fischer! Funnies on both sides, but I think Fischer got the best lines. I was a tournament chess player long before he won the World Championship, but his win really brought the game public notoriety. Now, I've not played tournaments in many years.

Omg I just wish I can go back in time and save him from insanity. He is very genious + entertaining

This is AWESOME and hurts at the same time. God I wish he could have stayed around while I was growing up in the early '70's :(.

Bobby sounds right at home here. What a natural. Doesn't act nervous at all.

Thank you for uploading. Fischer really did have an underappreciated sense of humor.

dude is nicholas cage's real dad

That was great! It was good to see Bobby having fun. What a genius! What a champion!

The American Chess Congress was the official sponsor of the BOBBY FISCHER INT’L CHESS PARK proposed to be built in Santa Monica to honor the only American to have won the World Chess Championship. Bobby had an impressive career and for many is considered the greatest in chess. He began to study chess at the age of six and became a voracious student of the game. Fischer won the United States Chess Championship at the age of fourteen and at fifteen became the youngest grandmaster at that time. In two consecutive years, he won the United States Chess Championship with a perfect score and has held the title eight times. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship with a decisive lead. In 1975, the Soviets and the International Chess Federation [FIDE] claimed the title on forfeiture in what is still a controversial issue and thus began the FIDE World Chess Championship. In 1992, Fischer emerged to play a rematch for the real title and won in good fashion. He died in 2008. The chess tables at the foot of the pier in Santa Monica, California are known of internationally. It was the former site of the old Santa Monica Bay Chess Club. Bobby first played in Santa Monica during the Piatigorsky Cup [a strong international tournament] in 1966. When Fischer lived in Pasadena in the late eighties, he would delight many with his visits to the tables. For these reasons, the tables have been selected to honor a great American chess hero.

At 3.13 Fischer said: " You have got to give up everything; make chess your whole life" He was not joking. This is why he is the greatest chess player.

Bobby did pretty good and he has a good sense of timing

This video was fantastic. I read a biography about Bobby Fischer. This video served as supplementary material for me. It seems to me that Bobby Fischer's life is covered in dot points placing significance on certain events. However, after seeing him actually animated and speaking it's easy to see how the stories about him may have been true but so much is missing because we are not able to actually hear him speaking about them from his perspective. For example, he made excellent points once he elaborated about the lighting in a chess game. A person who has put so much time and effort into becoming competitive and arguably the best chess player in the world must have sounded a bit pedantic and crazy to others when he complained about a nuance such as the lighting in a tournament. Five hours of staring at a chessboard definitely would affect a player's eyes and the lighting would have been a significant factor.

An amazingly brilliant genius and tormented soul, ... especially in later life when he quit competitive chess altogether. a true maverick all his life.

Bobby was the inspiration for a lot of us to pick up the game back in the 1960's. I will always treasure his memory because of that inspiration. To see the humorous side of his personality here is a truly wonderful gift. He was a flawed genius, largely those flaws were no fault of his own but the product of a very volatile childhood upbringing. He left us way too young but by the end he was, as Hemingway said of the human condition, beaten down by the world.

THE BEST CHESS PLAYER EVER =BOBBY THE MAGIC FISCHER REST IN PEACE !!THANKS FOR SHARE

Fischer is clearly enjoying himself and this is awesome to see!

Great, fantastic and immortal Bobby Fischer, the absolutely best chess player ever!!! Respect forever!!!

At 4:44 when Bobby says," say this is an interesting position". It was quite an awkward moment for Bobby. He has to compose, and then repeat himself! He is so shocked that Hope just JUMPED his king ten spaces up the board. HA, I' m sure Bobby was shocked at such an egregious move.

"There are no cameras, are there?"

I remember watching this show. On this program, and in every televised interview I'd ever seen of him, Bobby Fischer seemed like a very likeable guy. That was long before he lost his marbles. Thanks for the posting.

I am very sad that Bob Fischer passes away some years ago. I still miss him sorely now. I followed his life and chess all my life.

I've seen Bob hope on tv hundreds of times and never even cracked a smile.

I never knew that Bobby Fischer went on the Bob Hope show. It's a classic. Thanks for posting.

I love the part were Bob said he once did a margarine commercial, hahahaha, you can see Bobby start cracking up even before he said it, lol.

Born in Dec 69 I’ll never forget the Bob Hope All American football team and watching him at my grandparents home. Seems like a much better time imo..

The world misses you Bobby Fischer. Such a brilliant, sensitive, troubled soul.

THANKYOU SOOO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!!!!!! - CLASSIC x

"thats the way I play" You can tell he improvised by the way Bobby laughed.

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time....thank you for finding and posting this Serene Thought!

If you look at point 01:29 when he sits down and puts the chess piece one the board, you can see he's in command of his world, ultra confidence.

Wow!! Never seen this before! LUVED it!!!! Fischer will always be king!!

Bobby was a troubled man but in this skit we see that he could be gregarious and even humorous. What a complex human being.

Thank you for posting this. This video is a real treasure!

This was just classic great!!!! Thank u for this!! I never knew Bobby Fischer to be such a sport..

So cool and so beautiful this one-in--a-century man. He had to create his life all by himself. No wonder he had some consciousness glitches. Incredible to think he achieved what he did without the kind of support, grooming and financial independence the Soviets showered on their own.

Great men together. Both tops in their field. Hilarious. Pity about the script !! RIP Bobby. RIP Bob.

Bob Hope one of the finest comediennes, now nothing but filth, together with the world renowned chess player Bobby. Glad I had a chance to watch it. Just good fun!

Two of my all-time favorites - Bob Hope and Bobby Fischer. Thanks for posting this, I loved it! Fischer actually didn't perform too badly, although of course Hope ran circles around Bobby because Hope had the show biz background.

It's amazing how tall, handsome, stylish, and compelling a presence Fischer was in his day! And so tragic how decrepit he seemed to become once he expatriated.

Wow, I'm surprised he's so cool with the jokes about his Spassky match demands. Definitely a lot more chill than he's often made out to be.

We Love It. Mr Fischer he has so happy for the first time in his life.

these two great guys have their own masterpiece!!!

there are many chapters in Bobbys life. so sad he ended up the way he did. This is the Bobby that we should all remember

this was an amazing skit they did and they really brought the humor out of chess

TY for posting. Bobby with his best Brooklyn accent.

Just discovering this bit now, very well done!

It is, to me, quite amazing to see this very amiable and jovial side of Fischer. Then quite sad to see what he became in terms of personality and ideology in his latter years of life. Still, one can only admire his genius of the game of chess -- one of the all-time best. // Thank you so much ST for placing this remarkable and rare video here!

2 LEGENDS!!

Thank you so very much for putting this "The Bob Hope Special" Bobby Fischer segment video on @. I remember watching this segment in the early 1970s. The Memphis City chess club I went to, experienced a huge increase in chess players coming there before, during and after the Bobby Fischer vs. Spassky 1972 World Championship Match in Reykjavik, Iceland. I remember what happened at the end of this "The Bob Hope Special" show. Bob Hope told the audience something to the effect of recognizing these Americans, including Mark Spitz who won at the 1972 Olympics seven Swimming Gold Medals there with Fischer on stage with Bob Hope, for making us so proud. Those were the days in some ways. Good Karma For You For Putting This Excellent Fischer Segment on @ Robert

Thanks for sharing this