Bobby Fischer for Beginners: Most Famous Chess Player Explained

by Renzo Verwer

Everything you always wanted to know about world chess champion Bobby Fischer, complete with easily accessible examples of his chess playing style, in one compact and very readable volume. His youth in Brooklyn, his astonishing career, his many conflicts, his girlfriends and his tragic death in exile in Iceland in 2008: it is all there. You don't need to be an accomplished chess player to be thrilled by the triumph and the tragedy of this lone genius.

Genres: Chess

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2010

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short book that goes over the rough outline of Bobby Fishcer's life and provides a few breakdowns of a couple of his famous games.

There's no psychoanalyzing or inferences made, just really a good short story of the man's life with the facts that are publicly available.

There may be better books out there about his life, and having read this one I'm not too interested in finding them. But I think there could have been more depth and research to the story, or more depth to the controversies Bobby wound up in.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short, should be classed under junior section.

[maarten mellegers]

erg makkelijk leesbaar en toegankelijk

[Doppelganger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty enjoyable recount of the life and achievements of Robert James Fischer. The book itself is well written, very easy to read and quite informative. I felt the author did a good job of telling Bobby's tale, from his successes on the chess board, to his controversies and personal life that few knew much about. Although I feel I got a hell of a bargain on the e-book at .99 cents on Amazon, I may have felt a bit cheated had I paid full paperback price. This is because the book, while already short, seems to "end" virtually in the middle. The last half of the book is mostly full of recounts of the authors top 10 Fischer games, which span many pages. While this may interest some, I felt it to be a bit too much of a filler that ate up what could have been some further detail regarding Fischer's tale. Personally, I felt a list of the authors top 10 most notable Fischer games with a quick summary of each would have been fantastic! Instead, were treated to multiple pages with diagrams, notation and captions of notable moves. It just took up way too much space imo and wasn't what I was looking for from this book.

Overall, this is a very quick and enjoyable read; something I would recommend to people interested in the interesting character that was Bobby Fischer or to chess fans in general. Find it at a bargain though, as the full price of entry for a paperback would not be worth it imo.