"Endgame" by Frank Brady

Just yesterday I finished reading Brady's brilliant biography of Bobby Fischer--"Endgame." I have been a Fischer fan (though not fanatic) since he was aiming for the WCC in the early 70s, and I think I've read everything I saw about him.

But Brady's book went into so much more depth, giving so many different perspectives on him, that I felt I was reading about him for the first time. Everything is in here, from his introduction to the game at age 6, to the exhumation of his body by those contesting their rights to his estate after his death. There are, however, no games. Brady wanted this book to be accessible to the widest possible audience, and so he wisely kept the book free of even a single diagram or move. His thinking was that, if you're a fan of the games, they're available all over the place.

What did I come away with? The man was a towering genius, and a tragic victim of himself. I think, if I had to BE Bobby Fischer to be the WCC, I'd run far and run fast.

I found it an utterly compelling read and finished it in 3 days. Do yourself a favor and try to get hold of it. You'll be glad you did.

Have you by chance read his Profile of a Prodigy book? I've read a copy of that and wondered if the additional material and edits were valuable enough to get Endgame.

The two books do not overlap. They are both worth reading.

Oh. For some reason I thought they had some of the same material. Ran across a used copy at one point and didn't pick it up because of that. :(

  Those two and "B Fischer Goes To War" by Dave Edmonds.

It's an excellent book. I read it when it first came out, and I re-read it about six months ago.

It's a somewhat sad read, in that we learn just how miserable a person Fischer actually was. He was obviously a brilliant chessplayer, of course.