Customer Reviews

Bobby Fischer: From Chess Genius to Legend

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have 4 or 5 books about Fischer, but this one is different. It shows Fischer, the person. Seven contributors recalled their personal contacts with Fischer. Their encounters were first-hand, so their stories are truer. There are no deep chess analyses in this book, however they are the important games during Fischer's career. This is no problem, because I can find the analyses in other books or magazines, or even from chess programs. The interviews, stories, experience, observation that the authors shared enlighten me many points about Fischer. He is incredible, demanding bunch of money to play the championship with Spassky; then rejecting more money when having to defend his title. He turned down large sum of money when asked to write a book about the match. How could he rack up long strings of wins without allowing a single draw along? And these games were against the GMs. This book also has many good pictures along his exciting career. A nice article written by Unzicker near the end showed how fairly Fischer treated chess-fellows. This book could a short historical document illustrating the rise and fall of a chess titan.

Contrary to some of the "experts" that panned this book (eg Randy Bauer), this book is a gold mine of information about Fischer's chess philosophy and style. The many included games are annotated and related to specific aspects of his play. Included are discussions of: open positions, prophylaxis, tension, piece placement, playing dynamic positions etc. . Tweny aspects of his style are listed. This is the clearest explanation of the various aspects of his play that I've seen.
Obviously, there is some gossipy stuff, but the attention to his games is what counts. Highly recommended.

There is no doubt that the sections written by Purdy (i.e. the annotated games) make this book a worthy purchase. But later sections of the book are not written by Purdy-they are by Ralph Tykodi-and they are useless. For instance the chapter with the intriguing title "The road to 2000" is basically an advertisement for the other books in the series-very very little practical advice. It seems that if Purdy had written a chapter on how to get to 2000 rating, it would be practical and useful: he was one of the greatest chess teachers of all time. But again-the sections written by Purdy (over a hundred games!) make the book worth it.

A good book, with plenty of C.J.S. Purdy's unique insight. Good for any player below master level, but especially for the novice player.