Rex Sinquefield purchases Bobby Fischer's chess collection

A collection of valuables and belongings of Bobby Fischer, which appeared as an item on eBay several times in recent years, was yesterday purchased by Rex Sinquefield, founder and board president of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

Photo © Bonhams

On May 27th we reported that a remarkable item could be found at the website of auction house Bonhams: a collection of valuables and belongings of Bobby Fischer.

The item comprised over 300 chess books in various languages, approximately 400 issues of chess-related periodicals, "nine personal floppy disks (unexamined)‚ three sets of proofs for Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games (published 1969) and "four volumes of bound typescript detailing the match history of Boris Spassky from the 1950s to 1971 and fifteen volumes of ring- or string-bound manuscript notebooks with notation of the games of Mark Taimanov and Tigran Petrossian [sic] from the 1950s-1970, various hands".

In our report we expressed some small doubts about the story, since the same item appeared on eBay several times in recent years but was always mysteriously removed again within a couple of days.

But this time it was for real. Yesterday, June 10th, Fischer's belongings were purchased by Rex Sinquefield, founder and board president of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis where this year's US Championship was held. We received the following press release:

St. Louis, June 11 -- Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield have purchased the chess library of the legendary Bobby Fischer, including notebooks he prepared for his 1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky. The Sinquefields acquired the collection through San Francisco-based auction house, Bonhams and Butterfields.

Rex Sinquefield

"I am thrilled to have this collection from arguably the greatest chess player in history," said Rex Sinquefield, founder and board president of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. "I have been a lifelong fan of Bobby Fischer."

The reclusive Fischer died in January 2008 at age 64. The collection purchased by the Sinquefields includes 320 books on chess; about 400 issues of chess-related periodicals; three sets of proofs for Fischer's 1969 book, "My 60 Memorable Games"; and a number of bound volumes detailing the match histories of several chess masters, including Spassky.

The Spassky-related works centers on Fischer's preparation for his historic 1972 match, won by Fischer. The victory ended 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Championship.

The collection also includes a copy of "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess," with a note indicating that Fischer planned on suing the publishers.

Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, who are retired investment company executives, said they weren't sure of their plans with the Fischer collection. "I am thinking right now about how to display it and to make it available to scholars," Rex said.

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center was founded in 2007 with funding from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. It recently hosted the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship, which was won by Hikaru Nakamura. The center also will host the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship from Oct. 2 to Oct. 12.

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 organization. For more information, please visit www.saintlouischessclub.org.

As he spent the last decades of his life outside the US, Fischer had placed many of his valuables and belongings into a storage unit in Pasadena (California). At the end of the 1990s the storage company decided to sell the contents of the unit after payment of the rent had stopped.

In December 2005, Fischer’s memorabilia suddenly appeared as an item on eBay. It wasn’t the first time, and it wasn’t the last either. The seller claimed that he had bought the material at a flea market.

It's a relief to know that Fischer's belongings are in good hands, and that the collection will soon be where it should: on display, and accessible for future generations.

Update: Macauley Peterson of the Chess.FM blog writes: It was all over in seconds. Bobby Fischer’s library filled three glass cases in on the Mezzanine level of Bonhams nd Butterfields auction house on Madison Avenue in New York. The hundreds of chess books in various languages, issues of chess-related periodicals, proofs for Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games, and assorted notes and other miscellanea were sold in one lot for a 'hammer price' of USD $50,000, plus a $11,000 Bonhams commission...

Video by Macauley Peterson

This video is published under a Creative Commons license ("BY-NC-ND"), meaning it can be freely re-posted and shared, with attribution.

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