NEW YORK TIMESΒ BESTSELLER β’Β WhoΒ wasΒ Bobby Fischer?Β In thisΒ βnuanced perspective of the chess geniusβ (Los Angeles Times),Β anΒ acclaimed biographerΒ chronicles his meteoric rise and confounding fall, with anΒ afterword containing newly discovered details about Fischerβs life.
Β
Possessing an IQ of 181 and remarkable powers of concentration, BobbyΒ FischerΒ memorized hundreds of chess books in several languages, and he was only thirteen 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.
Β
It was merely a prelude to what was to come.
Β
Arriving back in the United States to a heroβs welcome, Bobby was mobbed wherever he wentβa figure as exotic and improbable as any American pop culture had yet produced. Commercial sponsorship offers poured in, ultimately topping $10 millionβbut Bobby demurred. Instead, he began tithing his limited money to an apocalyptic religion and devouring anti-Semitic literature.Β
Β
BobbyΒ reemergedΒ in 1992 to play Spassky in a multi-million dollar rematchβbutΒ when the dust settled,Β heΒ was a wanted man,Β transformed into an international fugitive because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite U.S. sanctions. Fearing for his life, traveling with bodyguards, Bobby lived the life of a celebrity fugitiveβone drawn increasingly to the bizarre.Β Β
Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobbyβs own emails,Β EndgameΒ Β is unique in that it limns Bobby FischerβsΒ entireΒ lifeβan odyssey that took the chess champion from an impoverished childhood to the covers ofΒ Time, LifeΒ andΒ NewsweekΒ to recognition as βthe most famous man in the worldβ to notorious recluse.