Chess master Karl Burger makes a move during play against one of his students at his home in Augusta.MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

Chess monk

Karl Burger loves chess, but not as much as a former student named Fischer

Web posted March 25, 1998

By Paal Vegard Hagesaether
Correspondent

Salami drippings on a chessboard.

That is one of the absurd images Karl Burger's mind is filled with from his time as a chess teacher for Bobby Fischer -- the only American to ever hold the World Chess Champion title.

Mr. Fischer's mother always brought the young player salami sandwiches that he would eat while getting lessons from Dr. Burger at the Manhattan Chess Club. Normally, consumption of food was not allowed in the club, but since Mr. Fischer was such a prodigy, an exception was made for him.

Dr. Burger, now a 65-year-old Augusta resident, found the salami drippings on the chessboard quite disgusting.

Dr. Burger (left) plays Jack Collins in a tournament in upstate New York. Mr. Collins, who also taught the young Mr. Fischer, wrote the book My Seven Chess Prodigies.SPECIAL

``Today, I have a very great hatred of salami,'' he says.

Dr. Burger and Mr. Fischer both grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1950s. Mr. Fischer was taking chess lessons in school in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah and playing against old men at Rochester Avenue Park in his spare time. The 8-year-old boy showed quite a talent and quickly became accustomed to winning all his games in the park.

Until the day 18-year-old Karl Burger came along.

``He thought he would crush me,'' Dr. Burger says. ``But I beat him very easily.''

Karl Burger was 18 when he met Bobby Fischer in a New York park. Later he taught the boy chess at Manhattan Chess Club.SPECIAL

The little boy often started to cry when defeated -- a sign that he already took the game very seriously.

Some years later, the two started meeting in the Manhattan Chess Club. Dr. Burger played Mr. Fischer and gave him lessons for several years until Mr. Fischer became a Grandmaster of chess at 15. A year earlier, Mr. Fisher had won the U.S. championship.``He was the perfect student, because nothing -- absolutely nothing else -- occupied his mind,'' Dr. Burger recalls.

Eventually Dr. Burger went on to study medicine at Columbia College in New York and Mr. Fischer became a world celebrity. Dr. Burger continued to stay with his parents while working as a physician and playing chess, eventually becoming an International Master. He has played chess in more than 20 countries and 47 of 50 United States and has scored victories against several world star players.

``Chess is the work and passion of my life,'' says Dr. Burger, who has never been married.

Karl Burger, at about age 9, playing with a pocket chess set at a summer camp in New York. He started playing chess at 6.SPECIAL

``I used to consider both Fischer and myself in a category of chess monks. And although Fischer has changed recently and is now dating girls, he wasn't always like that. He didn't even dance with anybody until he won the world championship.''

In 1967 Dr. Burger's father died aboard the Oceanic, a cruise ship going from New York to Bermuda.

After his mother died of breast cancer in 1978, the only people left in the household were Dr. Burger and the maid, Alberta Johnson. She had worked with the family for almost 30 years, and Dr. Burger was very close to her. So when she had to move to a warmer climate due to health problems, Dr. Burger moved along.

And thus they both ended up in Augusta in 1984, where Ms. Johnson had more than 150 relatives. She continued to work for Dr. Burger until she died of cancer in April 1996.

Dr. Burger now leads a quiet life in Augusta. He doesn't really know any of his neighbors, and his phone number is unlisted. His closest relatives are two cousins in New York. He socializes mostly with kings, queens, knights, bishops, rooks and pawns.

He still teaches chess. Players in the North Augusta Chess Club come to his house for lessons. And even though it's unlikely that he will ever have students as dedicated and talented as Mr. Fischer, Dr. Burger still enjoys passing on some of his knowledge to younger generations.He also keeps up with chess news via the Internet and plays games there with players from all over the world.

Bobby Fischer now is living in exile in Budapest, Hungary, after having broken U.S. sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing chess there in 1992. He would be fined $250,000 and could face up to a decade of imprisonment if he were to return.

Although his mind is still razor-sharp, Dr. Burger suffers from complications of diabetes. He had a stroke three years ago and has lost the feeling in his right hand and foot. He depends on a walker to move around his house. It has been five years since he played in a chess tournament.

Evidence of his greatest claim to fame can be found in an old picture on the wall in the Manhattan Chess Club in New York -- its main picture of Bobby Fischer.

``I'm in the background, playing him,'' Dr. Burger says. ``And everyone else is looking at Fischer.''