Bobby Fischer: The Wandering King

by Hans Bohm, Kees Jongkind

Chess devotees simply can't get enough of Bobby Fischer. Every facet of his personality and his play unfolds in this biographical study. In addition to analyzing his exceptional talent, it captures and puts into perspective his tough youth, anti-social tendencies, fights against the chess authorities, and growing mental illness. There's also extensive information from recently opened FBI files about Fischer, and a discussion of a low when Fischer cheered the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Genres: Chess

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2005

Reviews

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was put together by some Dutch guys that made a documentary about Fischer. Its an interview style book where various people give their recollections and thoughts on Fischer. Most of them were people who only had fleeting encounters with Fischer. There is also a lot of the predictable "Fischer was nuts because he said bad things about the Jews" in this, both from the interviewees and the people who put this book together. In spite of that I thought this was a reasonably good book mainly due to Fischer himself being such a fascinating character.

Fischer of course was a little nutty. What can you say about a foaming at the mouth Jew hater whose Mother, and possibly his Father were Jews. However he did have reason to be paranoid and angry. He was watched by both the FBI and the KGB. Éven his Mother had been watched by the FBI for years because of her Russian Jewish background and left wing activism. He was being pursued by the US Government and he did get financially ripped off numerous times, including having all his possessions confiscated from a storage unit where he was late on one payment after years of paying on time. So like I said the guy did have reason to be paranoid and angry. The definitive biography on Fischer has yet to be written. Till then books like this are of interest.