A chess book about everything else! (Bobby Fischer Goes to War - David Edmonds)

Member Name: tommy7

Product:	Bobby Fischer Goes to War - David Edmonds
Date:	14/06/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An engaging read

Disadvantages: Lack of detail of the matches

'Bobby Fischer goes to War' will not be for everyone, in fact it targets such a small market that it's hard to see how it ever got published but I found it a very worthwhile read.

It tells the story leading up to the World Chess Championship match in Reykjavik in 1972 which was between America's Bobby Fischer and the Russian Boris Spassky. This lead up actually starts from each player's childhood and provides detail of how they arrived at this match. From the title of the book I assumed that a large amount of the content would relate to the match but much to my surprise very little of it does. What the book does do, brilliantly, is provide a huge amount of detail on the politics of the match and the event as a whole, but with unbelievably little detail of the matches themselves. The book is written more as a novel than an attempt to capture the match and whilst it makes it far more readable it does leave you with a feeling of wanting to know more about the actual matches. I found that I had to go and look some of them up online, which was a bit strange when I had just bought a book about it. However, once I did I struggled to follow the matches so maybe it's for the best!

Bobby Fischer was a real chess prodigy and became the youngest ever United States Junior Chess Champion when he took the title at the age of 13. At this same age he was awarded the National Master title, again the youngest ever to achieve this at the time. At age 14 he became the youngest ever US champion, a record many believe will never be broken. Finally, at age 15 he achieved the highest title a chess player can achieve, that of 'Grandmaster', again the youngest ever at the time. This book establishes Fischer's great talent but more than that his extreme paranoia and erratic behaviour. A lot of the book relates to Fischer's demands which are more in line with a pop Diva than a chess player. A lot of his demands appeared trivial and these days would maybe be classed as mindgames but I think a lot of it originated from being a perfectionist. There is one example where it was said that Fischer could be disturbed by a slight cough in the audience but on other occasions would not notice a door being slammed.

I expected this book to be very pro-Fischer and to be anti-Spassky but if anything it may be the opposite. Whilst acknowledging Fischer's immense talent and ability Spassky is often portrayed as the underdog and I often found myself feeling a bit sorry for him. Especially when he had the weight of the USSR on his shoulders. Although Fischer had pressure on him, the USSR had, and have since, completely dominated World Chess and there was a feeling a Spassky defeat there would mean a lot more than a Fischer defeat would in the USA.

Fischer is an extremely complex character. I guess you could put it down to his difficulty in living in the real world, there are many stories of him carrying pocket chess boards with him at all times and in the most inappropriate of places. It seems like he lived his life on the board and little else mattered to him. His demands for huge sums of money were bizarre. He lived a low cost lifestyle and again it was a case of him pushing things to extremes, almost like everything he did had to involve a battle of wills. Indeed, even in his World Championship win, he forfeited one of the matches because he wasn't happy with the television camera's position and he probably would have forfeited the whole tournament had Spassky not been so accommodating.

Obviously a story like this only works if the characters are large enough to make it about them, rather than about the match; and these characters are.
The book does meander a bit too far off course at points and does kind of fade away at the end as it comes more up to date. This is partly due to Fischer disappearing off the map and partly due to the focal point being in 1972 and the book ending in 2000s.

I think it is a worthy read but its probably not detailed enough for a chess fanatic and probably doesn't give quite enough detail for non-chess fans. However, as a story of a totally enigmatic character it does all fall together. So a tentative recommendation if you have any interest in the subject but probably best avoided otherwise.

ISBN 0-571-21412-6

Summary: A worthy read if it interests you