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When Bobby Fischer died in January 2008, he left behind a confounding legacy. Everyone knew the basics of his life: he began as a brilliant youngster, then became the pride of American chess, then took a sharp turn, struggling with paranoia and mental illness. But nobody truly understood him. What motivated him from such a young age, and what was the source of his remarkable intellect? How could a man so ambivalent about money and fame be so driven to succeed? What drew this man of Jewish descent to fulminate against Jews, and how was it that a mind so famously disciplined could unravel so completely?
From his meteoric rise, to an utterly dominant prime, to his eventual descent into madness, the book draws upon hundreds of newly discovered documents and recordings, and numerous firsthand interviews conducted with those who knew Fischer best, to paint, for the very first time, a complete picture of one of the most enigmatic icons.
This is the definitive account of a fascinating man and an extraordinary life, one that at last reconciles Fischer’s deeply contradictory legacy and answers the question: ‘Who was Bobby Fischer?’
From his meteoric rise, to an utterly dominant prime, to his eventual descent into madness, the book draws upon hundreds of newly discovered documents and recordings, and numerous firsthand interviews conducted with those who knew Fischer best, to paint, for the very first time, a complete picture of one of the most enigmatic icons.
This is the definitive account of a fascinating man and an extraordinary life, one that at last reconciles Fischer’s deeply contradictory legacy and answers the question: ‘Who was Bobby Fischer?’
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Reviews
Well-researched.
Review.
A rapt, intimate book... Fascinating.
The definitive portrait of the greatest- and most disturbed-chess genius of all time.
Well-researched and enjoyable.
Rich in detail and insight...I consider this book essential reading in the effort to understand
Bobby Fischer and his place in our world.
The Mozart of the chessboard is inseparable from the monster of paranoid egotism in this fascinating biography. Brady, founding publisher of Chess Life magazine and a friend of Fischer, gives a richly detailed account of the impoverished Brooklyn wunderkind's sensational opening--he was history's first 15-year-old grandmaster--and the 1972 match with Boris Spassky, in which Fischer captivated the world with his brilliant play and towering tantrums. Brady's chronicle of Fischer's graceless endgame is just as engrossing, as the chess superstar sinks into poverty after rejecting million-dollar matches; flirts with cults; and becomes, though himself Jewish, a raving anti-Semite and conspiracy theorist.... Brady gives us a vivid, tragic narrative of a life that became a chess game.
Frank Brady knew Fischer well as a young man and has now written this biography with sympathy and skill.
Tells the full and fair story of Fischer's astonishing rise and heartbreaking fall...Brady is the perfect biographer for Bobby Fischer.
Frank Brady's superlative Endgame is a biography more than worthy of its charismatic subject ...the second half of his life is one of the saddest stories, even as this is one the year's best biographies.
(An) engaging account.
A superb storyteller.
A heartbreaking story of failed hopes and torment.
Fascinating.