Most Recent
Forum Legend
Following
New Comments
Locked Topic
Pinned Topic
For anyone interested in Bobby Fischer, one book you should definitely own is "Russians versus Fischer." http://www.amazon.com/Russians-Versus-Fischer-Everyman-Chess/dp/1857443802
The Soviets spotted Fischer as a threat to chess supremacy when he first vivited Russia as a teenager. This book details their efforts to deal with the "Fischer Problem" over the years. The book written reports by all the top Soviet GMs, giving their personal impressions of Fischer and their assessment of his strengths and few weaknesses. It beomes apparent that some of them enjoyed very friendly relations with Fischer, while others, particularly Botvinnik--who comes across as an extremely vindictive old man--really disliked hiim. All of their chess and psychological analysis illuminates aspects of Fischer's play and personality in new ways. There are also many well annotated games, showing his clashes with all the Soviet players. A great read!
I received this book in the mail today, and it was so engrossing that I read it one long sitting (all the prose and the game commentary, but not going through the moves carefully). It's a really wonderful, unique book. There is more analysis of Fischer's chess in that single book than in all the other books I've ever read about Fischer combined. It was fascinating to read what the Soviet players were writing privately about Fischer in the '60s and leading up to the match in '72. I really recommend the book to anybody with an interest in Fischer or chess history of his era!