Just started reading the book a few days ago---read about 100 pages. There are many things new in the book so far. For instance, by the time Bobby was eight the family had moved 10 times. I knew they moved a lot but no one had put a number on it before. Ten times, once in a homeless shelter! That kind of nomad existence could screw up any kid.
The fact that at 13 he excelled at blindfold chess and speed chess. Whenever Bobby and the Collins family walked down to the Silver Moon Cafe Bobby always insisted they play blinfold chess. I learned that even more than being a chess champion, young Bobby wanted to be Duke Snyder the legendary center fielder of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The book goes into a lot more detail about his mothers life than the first book. Brady describes the apt's they lived in, the rent that paid and occasionally how they lived on the 22 dollars a week unemplolyment check.
From the time he was six until he was twelve, Bobby spent every summer in a camp somewhere in the tri-state area. He says when he was eight he found a chess book at camp Patchogue---Tarrasch's Best Games of Chess by Reinfeld. he learned notation from this book. His first game against a master is retold. Max Pavey was one of a number of masters who gave simuls that day at the Grand Army Plaza Library. Pavey was good, he was quick and won Bobby's queen in just a few minutes. One spectator at the exhibition that evening was Carmine Nigro, the newly elected president of the Brooklyn Chess Club. He started talking to Regina and asked Bobby to join the club. Regina took Bobby to the club the very next day. It was located in the old Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Club had many books and Bobby went on a quest to read every one.
Due to time constraints I have to quit this rehash of the book at page 18 and Bobby is only eight at this stage. Believe me there is much that is new and interesting in the book. I am quite convinced that Brady knows more about Fischer than anybody.
See ya
Anybody had a chance to read through this Fischer bio? Nothing really new that I can see. Some new photos of the young fischer and a general rehash of his career. My general impression is that Fischer was a very unhappy person, always looking for that certain "something" to complete his life and, although proud of his accomplishment of winning world chmpship, also feeling that the lifelong effort had made him neglect his personal development, cultural and social. Maybe it was because of his absent father. I don't know. His mother certainly looked out for him as much as possible, raising a very bright, stubborn youngster as best she could The book itself isn't badly written, but it's no War and Peace either. I guess the most revealing aspect to me was the poverty Fischer emerged from, his mother barely making ends meet. And when he did get his hands on a lot of money after the championship, he either gave much of it away to the World Wide Church of God or squirreled it away and lived a life of poverty. I guess the lesson is that the family is the most important part of anyone's life, and nothing can be a substitute, neither fame, skill, ideology or man's invention (churches) can replace it. I'm reminded of the movie Citizen Kane, when they took the little boy away from his poor parents to be brought up by a rich man, but ruined his life in the process. Anyway that's my take on the book and his life.