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Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness
Crown
February 2011
On Sale: February 1, 2011
416 pages
ISBN: 0307463907
EAN: 9780307463906
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Endgame is acclaimed biographer Frank Brady’s
decades-in-the-making tracing of the meteoric ascent—and
confounding descent—of enigmatic genius Bobby Fischer. Only
Brady, who met Fischer when the prodigy was only 10 and
shared with him some of his most dramatic triumphs, could
have written this book, which has much to say about the
nature of American celebrity and the distorting effects of
fame. Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently
released FBI files, and Bobby’s own emails, this account is
unique in that it limns Fischer’s entire life—an odyssey
that took the Brooklyn-raised chess champion from an
impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life and
Newsweek to recognition as “the most famous man in the
world” to notorious recluse.
At first all one noticed was how gifted Fischer was.
Possessing a 181 I.Q. and remarkable powers of
concentration, Bobby memorized hundreds of chess books in
several languages, and he was only 13 when he became the
youngest chess master in U.S. history. But his strange
behavior started early. In 1972, at the historic Cold War
showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he faced Soviet
champion Boris Spassky, Fischer made headlines with hundreds
of petty demands that nearly ended the competition.
It was merely a prelude to what was to come.
Arriving back in the United States to a hero’s welcome,
Bobby was mobbed wherever he went—a figure as exotic and
improbable as any American pop culture had yet produced. No
player of a mere “board game” had ever ascended to such
heights. Commercial sponsorship offers poured in,
ultimately topping $10 million—but Bobby demurred. Instead,
he began tithing his limited money to an apocalyptic
religion and devouring anti-Semitic literature.
After years of poverty and a stint living on Los Angeles’
Skid Row, Bobby remerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a
multi-million dollar rematch—but the experience only
deepened a paranoia that had formed years earlier when he
came to believe that the Soviets wanted him dead for taking
away “their” title. When the dust settled, Bobby was a
wanted man—transformed into an international fugitive
because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite U.S.
sanctions. Fearing for his life, traveling with bodyguards,
and wearing a long leather coat to ward off knife attacks,
Bobby lived the life of a celebrity fugitive – one drawn
increasingly to the bizarre. Mafiosi, Nazis, odd attempts
to breed an heir who could perpetuate his chess-genius
DNA—all are woven into his late-life tapestry.
And yet, as Brady shows, the most notable irony of Bobby
Fischer’s strange descent – which had reached full plummet
by 2005 when he turned down yet another multi-million dollar
payday—is that despite his incomprehensible behavior, there
were many who remained fiercely loyal to him. Why that was
so is at least partly the subject of this book—one that at
last answers the question: “Who was Bobby Fischer?”
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