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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought the first edition of this book by mail order when I was about 16, and devoured it eagerly. In those days world-class chess was relentlessly dominated by the USSR, challenged mainly by other Eastern Europeans and the occasional American like Reshevsky, Evans and the Byrne brothers. Boris Spassky was soon to play "iron Tigran" Petrosian for the world title, and the only wild card seemed to be a crazy teenage genius from New York who could beat anyone at all on his day. Frank Brady's writing captured the sheer excitement of it all. For instance, in a great tournament with most of the best players in the world, Mikhail Tal expected Petrosian to crush the upstart Fischer, "but when Bobby beat the USSR champion the crowd roared".
Brady's style is journalistic - and American journalism at that. It will rub many Britishers the wrong way, but it fits his subject. This much expanded edition takes Fischer's story all the way to winning the world championship, which is probably a logical place to stop. The book is full of interesting facts that you could not read about anywhere else, and until a professional biographer turns his attention to Fischer - which may never happen, because he is about the least willing subject imaginable - it will remain the last word.
The games section is quite a different story. Only a narrow cross section are given, with notes by Brady that reveal his lack of expertise. They are only there for completeness' sake, and should be read as an extension of the biography. If you want to understand Fischer's chess, read his Collected Games, his own "My 60 Memorable Games" (which is itself very limited in scope, though superb in depth), or Elie Agur's brilliant "Bobby Fischer: His Approach to Chess".
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If 10 points will be given to a book, I will give 5 points to the biography part. For the game collection part, I just give 1 point. It's nothing but a printout of a game record. Almost all the games don't have analysis. You can't improve your skill from this book. I suggest the publisher split the book to two parts so that we can just spend 5$ to buy the biography part.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fischer's response to the author's request for chess lessons is worth the price of the book: ...."sure, for the first lesson I want you to play through every column of MODERN CHESS OPENINGS, including footnotes. For the next lesson.... i want you to do it again!"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
For the Chess enthusiast - This one is a must read!
I found this book to be very entertaining, and very revealing of not only Bobby Fischer's life and games, but of chess in general. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 1999
Looks like a piece of political propaganda
Even though it was Bobby Fischer the main reason that drove me from a rather normal childhood into a chess-infected existance, I couldn't bear the hysterical overtone that... Read more
Published on 2 Mar 1998
An excellent book on one of the greatest Masters!
Cool - the entire story, from beginning until now, about this master, and then many clearly annotated games!
Published on 22 Jan 1998
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