Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess [Paperback]

Fred Waitzkin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 1, 1993

The fascinating story of Fred Waitzkin and his son Josh, from the moment six-year-old Josh first sits down at a chessboard until he wins the national championship. Now a feature film starring Ben Kingsley, Max Pomerenc, Joe Mantegna, and Larry Fishburne. (Penguin)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Searching for Bobby Fischer is the story of Fred Waitzkin and his son Josh, from the moment six-year-old Josh first sits down at a chessboard until he competes for the national championship. Drawn into the insular, international network of chess, they must also navigate the difficult waters of their own relationship. All the while, Waitzkin wonders about and searches for the elusive Bobby Fischer, whose myth still dominates the chess world and profoundly affects Waitzkin's dreams for his son.

From Publishers Weekly

Ever since he started playing tournament chess at age seven, Josh Waitzkin, an athletic, fun-loving, not overly studious boy, has been among the top-rated players of his age group in the U.S. He is now 11. The troubled relationship between son and father, a talented but amateur chess buff, torn between ambitions for the prodigy and guilt at exploiting him, develops here against a background of chess clubs, seedy game parlors and Washington Square populated by a colorful gallery of Manhattan chess loversmasters, hustlers, Russian emigre teachers and doting parents. In marked contrast, notes the author, is the hero status of chess champions in Russia and the palatial setting of competitions like the Moscow Hall of Columns where he and his son attended the 1984 Karpov-Kasparov matches, which may have been not only state-supported but politically controlled, he contends. What, the author wonders, will become of Fischer's legacy of a promising generation of young American players following their idol's premature retirement from chess and society? First serial to the New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Mti Rep edition (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140230386
• ISBN-13: 978-0140230383
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Fred Waitzkin is a journalist and author of the acclaimed nonfiction bestseller Searching for Bobby Fischer, as well as the books Mortal Games and The Last Marlin. Additionally, he's an avid blue water fisherman and is an Afro Cuban drummer. You can find more on Fred Waitzkin at www.fredwaitzkin.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/fredwaitzkinauthor.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Young Fischer January 8, 2006

A Kid's Review

Format:Paperback

Ever since the elusive disappearance of chess genius Bobby Fischer, who beat Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 for the world championship, the only American to do so, parents all over the United States have wondered if their little sons and daughters would someday have the potential to be the next Fischer. Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin is the true story of Fred and his son Josh. In New York City, the only place for serious chess players in the US, Josh discovered chess one day in Washington Square Park. Soon after he began playing he was pronounced a prodigy and taken under the wing of one of the best chess teachers in the country, Bruce Pandolfini. Fred is infatuated with his son's potential and gets drawn into the crazy and obsessive world of chess. The book chronicles the years from when Josh begins playing until he wins the national championship. Along the way Fred travels to Moscow to watch the long awaited match of Karpov and Kasparov, two chess titans, and opposite sides of the same coin. Fred realizes the truth of what being a professional player means and how hard it is the US. He's confused about his longing for Josh to be a great player and how he obsesses so much over it. Deep down he knows Josh is not as good as Fischer, and even if he was how can you compete with these Russian players who are exposed to the game forty to fifty hours a week? Throughout this journey Fred discovers both the glory and failure in being a chess parent of a talented player, and shares his worries, fears, and hopes for his son. I highly recommend this groundbreaking story.

This book captures all the feelings and emotions of being the parent of a precocious child. On one hand, you want them to live a well-rounded life. But on the other hand, your thoughts drift to untold glory and tournaments to be won. You want the child to study and work hard and it's easy to get caught up in immediate results. Then you worry your kid's not having fun or you've pushed them too hard. Especially for chess, a parent has to wonder, why do I care so much about my child's gift, I've seen professional chess players and the dreadful lives they lead. Even the very best players cope with miserable conditions. Unlike a tennis prodigy, for a chess player there's no pot of gold at the end. But week after week these parents take their brilliant kids to tournaments and spend a weekend holed up in a stuffy hotel. They cannot understand their feelings or why they do this, but what if their son or daughter is the next Bobby Fischer?

Searching for Bobby Fischer is not only about chess. It describes the delicate relation between Fred and his son. At first, Josh is a genius. He can do no wrong and wins everything. Kids tremble when they play him. At the nationals, he'll be ranked number one. He is unstoppable. And then Josh loses at the nationals to a little kid with a much lower rating. He crushes Josh in less than twenty minutes. Fred and Bruce cannot understand what went wrong. Fred is confused and wonders why he pushes his son so hard. For six months Josh doesn't want to play and Fred fears this is the end. He feels awful about liking his son more when he wins and thinking how boring Josh's life would be without chess. Soon Fred and Bruce realize what needs to be done and the following year Josh wins the national championship. Fred starts to begin understanding the feelings he has about Josh and chess.

The chapters about Moscow and world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov are fascinating. Karpov is loved by the Soviet Union and has many powerful political connections. Kasparov is more the rebel, outspoken against Karpov and the government. Half of the battle for the title is political and psychological. Rumors that Karpov would poison Kasparov at any cost abound. It is well known in a previous match Karpov employed a hypnotist to sit in the third row and during the game hypnotize his opponent. Kasparov argues bitterly against Karpov having his team of seconds and trainers offer him drinks during the game. He says the drink could contain a message, such as they found a winning line and he should adjourn the game (in those days adjournments for very long games were allowed, meaning the game would be stopped and continued in a few hours), or a long struggle was ahead and he shouldn't drink anything to make him crash. Also, people say Karpov would regularly bribe Kasparov's seconds and trainers to give his team their opening secrets or just rob Kasparov of a critical trainer. Due to his smaller team, instead of preparing Kasparov would have to get on the phone to block Karpov's latest move. Just for the record, Kasparov won the match after six brutal months.

Searching for Bobby Fischer is a fast and thoughtful read. Fred movingly conveys his hopes and dreams for his son, and opens a world up that many people didn't even know existed. A truly good book.

A.M.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring book about the ordeals of a chess prodigy. September 1, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

"Searching for Bobby Fischer" is a very good book with many anecdotes and milestones in the life of Fred Waitzkin, and his chess playing son, Josh Waitzkin. At first, I considered this another boring biography, but as I started reading, I was drawn by it. It's not a biography...it is a 'real' book that describes many difficulties of being a chessplayer. The 'Washington Square Park' and 'Trip to Moscow' chapters captured my attention the most. I would reccomend this book to just about anyone, whether you play chess or not.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Father and Son September 20, 2002

By Smoten

Format:Paperback

Fred Waitzkin's "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is a fine account of the inner turmoil experienced by a mediocre chess-playing father who has a gifted chess-playing son. Mr. Waitzkin, who began playing chess when Bobby Fischer was single-handedly dismantling the Russian chess monolith, is obviously pleased (to put it mildly) when his son Joshua displays enormous ability at a very early age. Mr. Waitzkin nurtures his son's talent, most notably by hiring the acclaimed Bruce Pandolfini as his chess coach. Mr. Pandolfini evolves into a mentor and friend, and much of the book analyzes the (often strained) relationship between the son and his two fathers.

Mr. Waitzkin ponders whether he is doing the right thing by encouraging his son to devote so much time and energy to a game that can become all-consuming. Chessplayers can become as obsessive as body-builders, and chess lore is filled with tales of the strange, and often downright psychotic, behavior of some of its adherents. Mr. Waitzkin recounts many such tales and also highlights the religious grandiosity the game can inspire: the mother of one young player confides that when her son is playing well she feels like "... the mother of Jesus", and a woman friend of Bobby Fischer's thinks that Mr. Fischer is "... pure, like Jesus". Whew. It is a credit to Mr. Waitzkin that he didn't blindly succumb to the "genius" blandishment routinely hung on youthful chess wizards but agonized over every important decision affecting his son. It is a further credit to him that his son has grown into a splendid young man. Joshua Waitzkin is Ivy League graduate, a world-class athlete, and a teacher. Yes, he still plays chess-he'll one day be a grandmaster-but he couldn't be further from the stereotype of the chessplayer as a myopic, stoop-shouldered, one-dimensional automaton. He is a son to make any father proud.

Though the "Searching" in the title refers more to the metaphysical search by the chess world for its next boy-king, Mr. Waitzkin does make a literal, if half-hearted, search for the elusive Bobby Fischer in Los Angeles with the hope that he, a stranger, could prevail where those who knew Mr. Fischer had failed and persuade him to return to his arena. Mr. Waitzkin never gets to meet Mr. Fischer, who never defended the World Championship he won in 1972 by defeating Boris Spassky, yet does give a lucid and unsparing account of both Mr. Fischer's unprecedented triumphs at the chess board and his meglomania, paranoia, and anti-Semitism away from it. A friend of Mr. Fischer's tells Mr. Waitzkin that Mr. Fischer is "...convinced that the Jews were controlling the country and that the Holocaust was a self-serving fantasy created by Zionists". This same friend further informs Mr. Waitzkin that Mr. Fischer had the fillings removed from his teeth so he wouldn't "...pick up radio transmissions".

Mr. Waitzkin is no Fischer apologist but a significant portion of the world chess community is. Mr. Waitzkin has used the Fischer saga to portray his own paternal angst and he has done it well.