Synopsis
At the height of the cold war, chess in the Soviet Union was a massive industry with an entire system devoted to finding and cultivating the most prodigious and preternaturally gifted young players. The ones who rose to greatness, like world champion Boris Spassky, were supported by dozens of theorists and seconds. Meanwhile, in the United States, chess was played sporadically in a few clubs and in parks and public squares. So when the wildly eccentric and tragically brilliant Bobby Fischer catapulted into the international limelight to challenge Spassky for chess supremacy, it was billed as a battle of American individualism versus the totalitarian power of the Soviet giant. The Fischer versus Spassky battle in Reyjavik has become the stuff of chess legends, but David Edmonds and John Edinow cast the tale in an invigorating new light. They spend scant time discussing the actual games, and instead focus on the public brouhaha and political machinations in both the U.S. and Soviet camps--a story bolstered by previously unreleased FBI and Soviet documents. The outlandish and exhilarating details of the tale will be a joy for both chess and history fans alike.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2005-03-01 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 342 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 11.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, the Soviet world chess champion, Boris Spassky,and his American challenger, Bobby Fischer, met in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown, played against the backdrop of superpower politics, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film. Thirty years later, David Edmonds and John Eidinow have set out to reexamine the story we recollect as the quintessential cold war clash between a lone American star and the Soviet chess machine. A mesmerizing narrative of brilliance and triumph, hubris and despair, Bobby Fischer Goes to War is a biting deconstruction of the Bobby Fischer myth, a nuanced study on the art of brinkmanship, and a revelatory cold war tragicomedy.
Industry Reviews
"This is the definitive history of Fischer vs. Spassky. Edmonds and Eidinow carefully relate the complex turns of the championship while detailing the unseen prodding of the powers behind the Cold War curtains...without allowing the match's twin plots -- the moves on the chessboard and in the political arena -- to eclipse each other."
(03/21/2004)
"Even if you think you know the story, this highly entertaining account will surprise and delight." (starred review)
(12/08/2003)
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