Customer Reviews

Bobby Fischer's Outrageous Chess Moves (Fireside Chess Library)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is more like a novel rather than an instructional chess book. The book presents no strategies or tips to learn, just Fischer's remarkable one-move responses to difficult chess problems. As with any chess book that analyses a game between two grandmasters, this book will be over the heads of beginners and even intermediate players. Pandolfini provides some details of a game that Bobby Fischer won, shows the arrangement of the pieces, offers a clue, and you have to guess what Fischer's winning move was, the answer of which is at the bottom of the page. He puts a number (1-5) at the top to indicate the difficulty level of finding the solution to the chess problem. The games don't seem to be in any particular order; I think he should have arranged them into five chapters, one for each level of difficulty. It's not the type of book I would recommend for improvement in chess, but it can help the reader to appreciate the beauty of chess and the consumate skill of Bobby Fischer. It shows you that with even the most complex chess situation, there is a simple move waiting to be discovered.

This is an excellent book! It really exceeded my expectations tremendously! Keep in mind what is meant by "Outrageous Moves"... many of the indicated moves in this book (though not all of them) are FORCING MOVES, which you have to learn to discern when to make such a move. Studying Fischer sets you on that path and Pandolfini guides the reader, assisting in gleaning Fischer's didactic ways. I think it can strike some people with less of an effect, though, if you just go through the book the way it's presented. The diagrams, clues and solutions are actually presented as best as they can be (except for the diagram to game 25, the White Queen should be on h3 instead of h4), it's just that you, the reader, would do well to take a folded rectangular slice of paper with tape at the top of it and cover the bottom part of each page as you go so you won't see the answers. That way you can set up the diagrammed position on your own chessboard, read Pandolfini's clue, and take a certain amount of time to try to figure out what Fischer figured out. To take it a step further, I suggest you don't even read Pandolfini's clue until you find that you can't figure out the solution in 10 minutes (then go back to trying to figure out the position for another 10 to 25 minutes. [Keep score as you go through the whole book])... I suggest that last part because I found that some of Pandolfini's clues were too revealing, but such clues are kept to a minimum. The level-of-difficulty indicators (1 through 5) were a big help too... but when you're looking at a position in a real-life, over-the-board game, you don't get to see a 1 or a 5 in the corner of the table. As if all of that weren't enough, when you finally do finish studying a position after you've read the answer, STUDY THE ENTIRE GAME SCRUPULOUSLY via the full notation in the back of the book (which has no commentary, but through filling in your own notes (get a 3-ring notebook)!, you'll force yourself to see even more than you thought you could)!! I think it was a sad oversight for Pandolfini to neglect to mention that the full notations for all the games are given in the back of the book; just imagine someone getting through a major portion of the book and then they discover that they could have been studying the entire games via the notation in the back of the book...! (by the way, Game 76 has another Outrageous Move [19....Bg4!] found only in the full notation). All of the aforementioned is a major shortcoming of the way this book is presented... Pandolfini doesn't instruct you TO MAKE A STUDY COURSE out of this book; maybe, he just expected every reader to have been familiar already with his "Solitaire Chess" section of "Chess Life" Magazine and to take it upon themselves to do the aforementioned anyway. I got SO MUCH out of doing it that way (on Fritz 8 Deluxe, by the way. I saved the games with my own notes [on my external hard drive] and now I have 101, little "CHESS MOVIES")! By the way, many of these games are on the Fritz 8 Deluxe (and the new Fritz 9, too, I'm sure) Compact Disc (in the "Database" folder). As for those people who lambasted this book as a cheap attempt to get paid off of Bobby Fischer's name, just realize that there will always be critics of you when you try to do something to help people tremendously. When you study Bobby Fischer's "out-of-the-box" way of thinking over a period of at least 90 days (about what it took me) you, yourself improve to an immense degree! You just have to make up your mind to do what you're going to do and address the criticism when it comes your way (the same way you do your opponent's attack in chess). You don't have to take that crap from people!

Any chess player can read this book; it briefly describes Algebraic Notation in case you're a beginner. The book gives 101 diagrams from Fischers games -all are dated and the specific place or Tournament is listed. The list of his opponents is remarkable e.g., Byrne,Tal,Geller,Petrosian,Larsen,Spassky,etc starting about 1956 to 1978. Mr. Pandolfini gives the level of difficulty from 1 to 5 for each diagram-one large diagram on each page. You cover the answer under the diagram and try to figure out Bobby's moves, there is a hint also. The answers are briefly explained, some more detailed than others. Also nice is he gives the complete game moves in the back of the book.

I like this little book. It's a good one in that you don't even need a chess set handy to work through all the possibilities in your head, as there are very few egregiously long combinations to mentally keep track of, so this ends up being a good "mobile" chess book in that it can be read and enjoyed anywhere, like Reinfeld's 1001 combinations/1001 checkmates books can.

Some of the things Fischer did were of such sublime genius that they show a level of creativity that approaches aesthetic art for the chess aficionado who craves a little beauty in his or her game. The move in game 65 is one such example (the famous rook obstruction on f6 against Benko), even if a computer would indeed see it.

That said, some of the combinations in this book are less than thrilling and certainly not "outrageous," but simply examples of good play - some of which are so obvious that beginning players with knowledge of simple tactics (forks, pins, discoveries, etcetera) will spot them instantly and probably not be too bowled over by them.

To be fair, as other reviewers have pointed out, these easy ones rate a "1" on Pandolfini's difficulty scale, but as an example, what's so outrageous about Fischer's capitalizing on Taimanov's blunder in game 21 with Qd4, setting up a rook and king fork? Answer: Nothing outrageous. Any run-of-the mill pub player with enough talent to think for a moment before making the next move would spot this one almost reflexively, despite Taimanov missing it - that's why they call it a blunder, and everyone makes them from time to time, including grandmasters. It's still not genius to see it, and this problem is filler to make the 101 number, as far as I'm concerned. There are a few other examples.

Again, it's not my place to nitpick this book apart or to be some arbiter of genius versus not genius or outrageous versus pedestrian. The book does show a wealth of things that are truly surprising and inspiring to those who wish to improve their tactical play, and it reinforces the axiom time and again that we should "see the whole board."

The last word here is that I only halfheartedly recommend this despite giving it a 4-star rating and my enjoyment of it. All of these outrageous moves are covered in other Fischer books that have substantially more text and instructive value. The book is tiny, and again because of this it is very good for portable enjoyment, but it's only 101 positions plus the games they come from at the end sans any annotation. Easy to learn flat out what the move is in no time at all, rendering it something like a short video of - say - Pele's greatest goals. Alburt's pocket chess books, though not about Fischer, have 3 times the number of positions for the same size and better instructive value as pattern recognition exercises with explanations, though are more expensive, so there's that.

I found this a refreshing change from the usual chess problem or instructional book. Here you can play through the book and score yourself to see how well you do. Then you go back through them again to see how you can improve with better understanding. It's also good for returning to after a good time has passed, and see if you do better or worse.

The difficulty levels are randomized so you will find problems of varying difficulties throughout the book. I think this is good as you don't know what will be coming on the next move until you get there. If someone wants to do them in order of difficulty, it could be done simply by going through and doing all the ones first, then the twos, etc. Also while it might not be most helpful to one's own game to experience only what occurs at those critical moments, one can practice through how Fischer actually developed the opportunities for these outrageous moves by checking the entire games out in the back of the book.

While the other more standard problem and instructional books remain important, I wish more like this one were published.

Any book covering the games of Bobby Fischer is always met with enthusiasm; and it really ought to always be that way. Fischer exemplified pure genius in his games and incredible tactical imagination. Bruce Pandolfini has collected combinations from 101 of Fischer's games complete with clues to help you try to discover what Ficsher came up with as well as brief commentary on each combination.

Fischer's moves really were the epitome of what makes this game of chess so beautiful. Any of us would be so lucky to gain even a fraction of the genius Fischer demonstrated on the chess board. In lieu of that, Pandolfini's book permits us to appreciate his ideas by attempting to solve them ourselves - well worth the time for any chess player.

This book is both challenging and fun. Through this complilation you see the genius of Fischer, and can be done in about five minute intervals. This book is perfect for reposing Roden's The Thinker. For intense study, the applicable games are transcribed in the back of the book. BUY THIS BOOK

I really enjoy this book very much. I like the relatively large chess diagrams and the format of the book. I play chess for fun but I am always trying to improve my game and this book has helped me to see a little more deeply into some positions. This book is an excellent example of the use of different tactics such as decoys, deflection, sacrifices etc. Besides the use of tactics what I also learned from this book is that Bobby Fischer had a very keen ability to detect even the most subtle weakness in an opponents position and how he exploited it. Very entertaining.

Three stars are for this book:
1) Good selection of games and clear diagrams.
2) Better analysis than those Schiller's books, (even the book is 15 years olds, I got '85 edition.)
3) Provide the complete games at the end of the book so we can see the turning points of the games. (Even so, if we want a complete collection of Fischer's games, Lou Hays' book is better, and then we would miss out the "expert" analysis, right? So this book is a good bridging stone.)
Most of Fischer's games in particular, and current and ex-champions and GMs in general, have some defining turn-points; especially when the players steer the games to the tactical aspects. Often than not, they prefer to keep the game in positional struggles, so the more patient and skillful players usually come out victorious after many long deep-thought moves. We don't see much "outrageous" moves in their (GM) games. However, when the combinations present, surely they grasp them and start the fireworks. That is what Pandolfini again wrote the book "One-Move Chess by the Champions". Fischer is a fearless attacker; therefore most of his games contain those "Outrageous" moves. Any 40-50 of Fischer's winning games from Hays' book can make some "Awesome Games of the Ultimate Chess Champion", or the like. With that abundance of impressive games, Fischer chose to write "My 60 Memorable Games", and he included some of his "memorable" losses too!!!
As we see, most books written about Fischer's games will have at least 1/3 of his games in "60 Memorable Games" (other 2/3 is to try avoid 'copycats'), and as we all know Fischer's analysis is always more superior.
Now, let's make some money, by buying Hays' book and using Fritz 8 (another small investment) to analyze Fischer's games. After that, with some good story-telling co-writers, we can produce "60 Winter Days in '64 U.S. Championship the Ultimate Chess Champion Created the Most Classical Game Record in the Most Prestigious Event of All Times", or something similar.

I find a lot of negative comments about Fischer on the web, but this book shows you the genius of Fischer. I'm only able to get around 20% of the answers correct. It's not a book that will teach you openings, endgames, etc, but it is a fun book to see how you compare to Fischer in solving tactical problems from his games.