Bobby Fischer goes to war

I recently read and reviewed a book about the Fischer-Spassky match. While reading that book, I came across several references to another book on the match. So in order to properly commemorate the match, I decided to read one more. It is also considered to be one of the best books on the match, so I thought it should be worth it.

If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details.
Become a Patron!

What can you expect from this book?

If you are looking for a book on the Fischer-Spassky match, look no further. That is, unless you're looking for a book on the chess itself. Because this book has hardly any chess in it whatsoever. This means that the book does not require any knowledge about chess.

Bobby Fischer goes to war is a pure biography on the world championship match of 1972. The book covers the events before, during and after the match.

Unlike The Match of All Time, this book does not give a history of chess or the world champions. In the beginning of the book, there is a list of all champions up to 1969. Just names and years, that's it.

The book begins with a short biography of both players and then covers the tournaments that paved the way for Fischer's opportunity to challenge Spassky for the crown. The rest of the book is about the drama surrounding the tournament and the aftermath. The book describes not only what happened to Fischer after the match, but also how the outcome affected Spassky, which is quite interesting.

Overall, the book is has a logical (and chronological) structure, and it is well-written. So if you are looking for a book on the drama around this famous match, this is probably the book for you. But if you are looking for analysis of the chess games, you will not find it here.

Who should read this book?

This is a book for anyone who is interested in the history of chess, and especially the famous match between Fischer and Spassky. It is really well-written and quite entertaining. I can recommend it to anyone who is interested in the drama around what has been dubbed the match of the century.

About this book

Author:	David Edmonds and John Eidinow
Title:	Bobby Fischer goes to war
Type of book:	Biography
Level:	Any

Comments

Popular reviews

Stop and reassess!

In my very first post on this blog, I reviewed The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman. That was my first step to understand chess strategy. And I actually bought another one of Silman's book at the same time, but for some reason, it took me more than ten years to read. I finally decided to go through it and now I am ready to share my thoughts with you. (It feels like I've written this before.) If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Before writing this review, I had a few candidates. I am always reading several books in parallel, and I have a number that I'm about to finish. So I asked the Twitter community for input on which book they would like me to review as number 50. And this came out on top. So far I have reviewed 49 books on #patzersreview . Which one should be number 50? My candidates are: - Silman: Reassess your chess workbook - Nunn: Solving in...

Chess tactics for champions

Chess is 99% tactics. At least, that’s what some people say. Whether that is correct or not does not really matter, because either way you slice it, tactics is a central aspect of chess. Especially at the patzer level, games are often decided by a missed tactic. Working through a tactics book can extend your chess vocabulary and can be great for establishing and reinforcing patterns until they become a part of your chess intuition. So for a chess player, tactics training is like going to the gym. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? As many readers probably know, Susan Polgar was born in Hungary and is currently living in the USA. Susan and her younger sisters Judit and Zsofia were all famously trained by their father László Polgár as an educational experiment as kids to become chess prodigies. And, the experiment was a success. Susan is the former women’s world ch...

Learn chess tactics

Where should you turn for tactics training? This is a frequently occuring question, not only from beginners, but also from intermediate players. Which books are suitable for your specific level, and which ones should you get? In this review, I take on a book that I suggest you do get - at least if you're at or near the beginning of your chess development. This was actually my first tactics book back in the day, and I recently reread it in order to give a proper review. I remember that I liked it the first time around and that my tactical skills improved. Although rereading it didn't contribute all that much to my learning, I still have a good impression of it. Please read on for more details. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Learn Chess Tactics is written by the one and only John Nunn, and (as the name implies) it is a tactics book. I would go as f...

Dynamize your chess

Some books are worth waiting for, and this one is exceptional in terms of waiting. When I ordered the book, it took over 6 months before it was delivered. When I finally got around to reading it, I realized that I should probably read more basic books on chess strategy in order to get more context on this one. So I put it away for a while. The result is that it has taken almost two years from when I ordered the book until this review was done. Is it worth the wait? Read on to find out. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? In How to study chess on your own , Davorin Kuljasevic recommends that you should "dynamize" your tactical training. Dynamic chess strategy is a good book to get you started on that track. And it is also one of the books that Kuljasevic references repeatedly throughout his book. But what exactly does it mean? Well, that's one of the ma...

Judgement and planning

Some books "fly under the radar" and do not get the same attention as the evergreen classics. But sometimes, there is gold in old mines. And I found a little golden nugget while shopping for used books. A book written for amateurs, by (arguably) the best amateur of all time; former world champion Max Euwe. Sounds promising, right? If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? In my previous review of Chess Fundamentals , said that few world champions have written books for beginners and intermediate players. Capablanca is, of course, one exception. And another is Max Euwe. Euwe is not the most well-known world champion. He was in his prime in the 1930s and 1940s, most notably in 1935 when he dethroned none other than the great Alexander Alekhine. Although many have suggested that Alekhine only lost because of heavy use of alcohol, beating him is no small feat (rega...

Patzer's review

Search This Blog