Frank Brady (1)Reseñas

As an avid chess player myself, this was a must read. A biography of a complex human, admired and reviled, Endgame : The Remarkable Rise and Fall is as informative as it is an eye opener. It really made me understand more about the man Bobby Fisher. I liked the beginning of the book, which rather unexpectedly confronts the reader with the “downfall” part of the book.
Then, the author takes us back in time to Bobby’s childhood, rise to world fame, and about halfway through the book, Fisher’s wilderness years, coming again full circle with at his downfall.

A fascinating memoir, even if you don't know much about Bobby Fischer or chess. (I've played the game a couple times, but my level of expertise ends at having watched Queen's Gambit on Netflix.)

I just kept thinking, as I read this book, that if Bobby Fischer were 40 years younger, he would have gotten into 4chan and become an MRA, enthusiastically voted for Trump, started a conspiracy theory channel on YouTube, and stormed the capitol on January 6th. Maybe he was just a man ahead of his time.

A sad story.

3/4/22

Many nights when I was a child, I played chess with my father. He gave me a book about the famous (well, in chess circles) 1972 world championship of Fischer and Spassky. Even though he lost, I cheered Spassky on most likely because of the cartoons in the books.

Wandering through the library, I picked up the book on a whim doubting I would ever finish this 300 page behemoth. But with my girls out of town for the holidays, I had the time to read the book. It may not have been the best combination of reading about a lonely, and eventually deranged, man while I had so much time alone myself.

It was a brilliant book. It was a sad book. I thought he disappeared and didn't realize he still made headlines a few years ago becoming America's most famous anti-semite after becoming her most famous chess player.

I do think alone a person can reach great heights, like Bobby Fischer, but without some grounding, a person can easily get lost.

This is a review of Hefner, the book, not Hefner the man. At the time it was written, Hef was one of the most successful magazine publishers, though starting to feel bolder imitators snap at this heels. Twenty years earlier, he had started with a product that no one else believed could be sold over the counter, with the aesthetic aims to set it clearly off from what was sold under the counter at the time. I was curious to know more, this was a quick read.

The problem with this biography of one of the world's greatest chess players is that at one point the author just gives up on trying to explain Bobby's wild behavior. After the candidates' matches that bring Bobby the chance to play for the world title, Bobby's behavior becomes completely crazy and we don't really learn why. Perhaps this is understandable, the author of course didn't have access to Bobby during that time (nobody did), but some psychological examination of this period of Bobby's life would make Endgame a more insightful biography.

In addition, there are other minor mistakes which nevertheless cast doubt on author's familiarity with the subjects he's describing. For example, Slovenian resort towns of Bled and Portorož feature prominently in this biography as they were the venues of Bobby's international breakthrough at a very early age. Brady claims that the locals there were oh so impressed with Fischer because he learned to sign his autograph in the native Cyrillic Serbo-Croat, which of course is ridiculous, since that is neither the language nor the writing system used in Slovenia.

The author is also prone to using a lot of rarely used bookish adjectives, so I found the Kindle's built-in dictionary quite helpful.

Other than that, Endgame provides an interesting look into life and career of Bobby Fischer and the world class chess world between 1960 and 1980. Several famous grandmasters from this era and other important chess figures play a prominent role in Bobby's life, but there is not much chess and of course no transcription of Bobby's games (this is a biography after all). A few of Fischer's most important games (such as the famous Game of the Century) are described in prose form (and in a way that even non-chess players can get the gist of it), so avid chess players looking for annotated matches of Bobby Fischer need to find them elsewhere.

Really 3 1/2 stars. Interesting, but lacking insight. I can't get over the feeling that Brady--although clearly an admirer of Fischer's chess-playing ability--doesn't understand Fischer as a person any more than I do. Fischer clearly had some emotional issues and I felt sad for him as well as irritated with him, but Brady didn't help me understand him at all. Ultimately disappointing.

Deze biografie van Bobby Fischers leven geeft je een brede inkijk op zijn manier van denken en leven binnen maar vooral ook buiten het schaken. Hij was in veel meer geïnteresseerd dan schaken. Partijen vindt je in dit boek niet terug, wat voor de rechtgeaarde schaker wat jammer is, maar anderzijds ervoor zorgt dat het boek toegankelijk is voor een breed publiek. Frank Brady, de auteur, geeft je een unieke inkijk op Fischers zienswijze op de wereld en op het schaken. Zijn schaken bracht de wereld een haast magische hantering van de stukken, wat hem alom bewondering bracht. Na het behalen van de wereldtitel in 1972 speelde hij geen officiële partijen meer en brak in 1975 met de Fide door zijn titel van wereldkampioen ter beschikking te stellen en door allerlei te ver gaande voorwaarden die het onmogelijk maakten voor organisatoren om de titelstrijd met Anatoli Karpov te organiseren. Ondanks de geruchten dat men tot 5 miljoen dollar wou bieden voor deze tweekamp! Daarna ging het geleidelijk bergaf met hem, mede doordat hij op geen enkel aanbod wou ingaan. Eind jaren tachtig leek dit te veranderen mede door de bekende Bessel Kok maar ook dit leverde niets op. Vreemd genoeg stemde hij wel in met een verboden tweekamp in het toenmalige Joegoslavië tegen Boris Spassky. Door de sancties die op dat moment golden tegen Joegoslavië werd hem dit verboden door de Amerikaanse regering. Ondanks dit verbod speelde hij toch! Hij beschouwde dit als de re-match om de wereldtitel. Alhoewel hij meer dan 3 miljoen dollar overhield aan deze tweekamp zou deze zijn verder leven teken, er was liep nu immers een internationaal aanhoudingsbevel tegen hem. Als lezer stel je, jezelf de vraag waarom hij precies daar speelde? Hij kon op dat moment immers overal in de wereld miljoenen dollars krijgen voor een tweekamp tegen de toenmalige wereldkampioen Garry Kasparov, tegen een andere wereldtopper of tegen Boris Spassky. Na deze tweekamp ging het, ondanks het vele geld dat hij verdiende, mentaal bergaf met hem ondanks de goede momenten die hij nog had in Hongarije (o.a. bij zijn verblijf bij de Polgar's) en in Japan waar hij in 2004 trouwde met de Japanse Miyoko Watai maar later werd aangehouden op verzoek van de Amerikaanse overheid. Zijn anti-Amerikaanse en anti-semitische uitspraken werden voor zijn bewonderaars steeds beschamender, door de opkomst van het internet kon men zijn fanatieke en anti-joodse en anti-amerikaanse interviews die hij in het begin van de 21e eeuw gaf aan een Filipijns radio-station overal horen. Na het lezen van dit boek blijf je echter met de vraag zitten waarom hij zo anti-joods en anti-Amerikaans was geworden, zowel zijn moeder als zijn biologische vader waren immers jood. Alhoewel het niet duidelijk is of hij ooit geweten heeft wie zijn biologische vader was. Een andere vraag waar je mee blijft zitten is waarom hij zoveel mensen die het goed met hem voor hadden schoffeerde. Was het de spijt die hij had dat hij de tweekamp in 1975 niet speelde of was het gewoon de spijt die hij had omdat wat had kunnen zijn niet geweest is? Zowel voor schaker als niet-schaker is dit boek een aanrader voor wie graag biografieën leest, het leest als een Griekse tragedie (aldus Garry Kasparov).

Tragic.

Really 3 1/2 stars. Interesting, but lacking insight. I can't get over the feeling that Brady--although clearly an admirer of Fischer's chess-playing ability--doesn't understand Fischer as a person any more than I do. Fischer clearly had some emotional issues and I felt sad for him as well as irritated with him, but Brady didn't help me understand him at all. Ultimately disappointing.

After 200 pages I finally admitted defeat and quit reading. I was mainly interested because of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, but quickly found myself disliking the subject. Perhaps it is because I am not old enough (I was 2 when the famous Spassky match took place), or because I am not a chess player. However, I think it is because Fischer comes across as an egotistical jerk (as I phrased it for my nephew: he was the Kanye West of chess)… and from the synopsis, it was apparent he only grew worse over the years as he descended into full-blown mental illness… I couldn’t take it.

No matter how talented - not someone I want to spend time with.

This mesmerizer is phenomenally engrossing, but phenomenally flawed. The details of Fischer's life, from his genius to his anti-semitism to his obsession with dominating everything around him are fascinating. So fascinating, in fact, that in the right hands, a biography of his would easily be a masterpiece. In the wrong hands, however, it would merely be a very good book. The author does a poor job of getting anywhere near the inside of Fischer's pysche, completely observing him from afar without even getting close. We get no insight whatsoever. Also missing are details of his games and chess itself. There are no annotations, no discussion of the rules. Here too, the reader is kept at bay. "He made a strong move" and "he made a weak move" is sloppy storytelling. Massive gaps are missed, and continuity is a problem. Fischer goes from being piss-poor to a multimillionaire in the span of two paragaphs. It doesn't even explain why and how Spassky was so close to him. We learn of his grief when Bobby passed (and it aches to read it when the legend does), but don't know what it was based on. The book has them meet twice and talk on the phone twice. The book also re-introduces characters as if we're meeting them for the first time. That's called shoddy editing. Nevertheless, despite this all, the story of Bobby Fischer's is incredible, memorable and practically legendary. Would that this book could have been a masterpiece. I'll go read Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games" so I can enjoy what I missed.

I have no idea how 'unauthorized' this book may be, but although it's favorable to the subject, it doesn't spare Hefner some criticism in his handling of personal relationships. Overall a look at a how a self-made magnate became wealthy and famous.½

4 1/2 stars: Super, couldn't put it down.

From the back cover: At first, all one noticed was how gifted Fischer was. Possessing an IQ of 181 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 US 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 of what was to come.

Arriving back in the US to a hero's welcome, Bobby was mobbed wherever he went. 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 Skid Row in Los Angeles, Bobby reemerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a multimillion dollar rematch--but the experience only deepened the 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 figure because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite US sanctions. Fearing for his life, travelling with bodyguards, and wearing a long leather coat to ward off knife attacks, Bobby lived a 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.

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With a description as thorough as the one above, I don't have much to add. (It does leave out his fugitive last few years, which included a one year stint in jail in Japan for travelling without a passport--which the US had not extended, due to their wanting him returned to the US. He finally found sanctuary in Iceland, where he lived until he died in 2008.

Frank Brady knew Fischer personally and played chess with him. The book contains very extensive notes. It was engaging and fascinating to read. I couldn't put it down. Fischer was a latch key kid from a very early age, and ultimately left on his own with no formal education, little socializing and even less guidance.½

With Endgame, Frank Brady has penned one of the most evenhanded accounts of Bobby Fischer – the chess genius who became the only American world champion by staring down the Soviet chess machine at the height of the cold war. However, that is only one facet of a life filled with contradictions. While Fischer was unflappable at the chessboard, he was insecure in the rest of his life. He was a voracious reader, he self-educated himself – often times with treaties by neo-Nazis and religious charlatans.

Brady goes deep into the conditions that spawned a great champion and ultimately condemned him to paranoia and madness in later life. The book pulls no punches, but Brady never treats his subject unfairly. You won’t get a simple answer to the complicated man that was Robert Fischer. Instead, you will gain a better understanding of Fischer’s complexities and see how his unique attributes served him so well in chess and so poorly in life.

Few people knew Bobby Fischer for as long or as well as Frank Brady did. It is unlikely that anyone understood him better or could have revealed Fischer’s life as completely and expertly as Brady has with Endgame. Never dry and never cliché, Endgame is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the mystery that was Robert Fischer.

Most of the information in this book should be familiar to those who followed Fischer's life and career, but the final couple of chapters on his imprisonment and life in Iceland are very interesting. Brady does a fine job of writing a compelling account of Bobby, but I don't care for how he invented dialogue and some very specific situations (despite that he apologized for it the book).

Speaking of apologies, Brady is a Fischer apologist of the first order. He of course doesn't ignore the problems Fischer had, but many are rationalized away, and he even at one point states that a specific doctor casually diagnosed Fischer at the end of his life as not mentally ill (or at least not schizophrenic). If he wasn't mentally ill, then he was maybe the biggest asshole that ever lived.

Also, I am shocked he did not even mention(!!) the press conference upon his return to Iceland from Japan. During that event, Fischer got into it with reporter Jeremy Schapp over disparaging remarks Fischer made of Schapp's father, Dick. It is an incredible exchange, and one of the truly iconic images of Fischer's life. Disappointing it was left out of the book.

Book avoided technical chess that would have bogged it down and instead focused on biography. Well done.

The fascinating story of Bobby Fischer. Brought up by a poor single mom, acquiring an obsession about chess, becoming the world champion after much self-inflicted trouble. Fischer was not an intuitive player, but meticulously prepared, though aggressive in play. He studied all the chess literature he could get his hands on, and put in very long hours. I found this part of his story much more interesting than all the scandals he later caused, mostly over money and anti-semitic remarks.

Frank Brady’s depiction of the hot mess that was Bobby Fischer’s life- from childhood prodigy to enfant terrible of the chess world to reclusive and paranoid anti-Semite—is an impressive high-wire act that somehow manages to simultaneously inspire disgust, sympathy, awe, and pity in its subject.

In clear, crisp, page-turning prose Brady shows us that Fischer was a crucial figure of his times while still keeping a firm eye on the man’s inner life. There are staggering reveals in every chapter and one need not be a chess enthusiast to find interest in the brief descriptions of individual games and tournaments.

This is my favorite commercial biography in years!

I found this book incredibly sad. It's well known that Bobby Fischer became a paranoid racist in later life, but by the end of this book I could understand why. Even though Brady works hard to be non-judgmental to all parties, it's clear that Fischer was exploited by those around him from a very early age, and left to fend for himself when very young. Heart-wrenching.

This is the book that turned me into an obsessed fan of Orson Welles. It gives a great chronological view of the life of Welles concentrating mostly on his professional projects rather than his personal life. I especially enjoyed the chapters covering his early life and his early career during the radio years of entertainment. I'm not sure there's a better biography available on Welles.

Humans have evolved brains that are great at problem solving. Chess is the problem solving game par excellence. A chess master can identify and solve problems that will happen 20 or 30 moves ahead of time.. The master can do this playing 20 or 30 separate games simultaneously. He can memorize and critique games that were played 200 to 300 years in the past. It's phenomenal. But here's a problem that's hard for a chess master to solve: why do bad things happen to him? Using the tools that make him such a tremendous problem solver, the chess master comes up with a solution that sounds something like this: there's a global Jewish, Communist conspiracy to make bad things happen to him. "How can I be wrong?", the chess master asks himself; "I can beat anybody in the world at chess, therefore I must be right and anybody who disagrees with me is a Jew." It's so clear. It's so tragic.½

Good book about chess master Bobby Fisher.
Made me sad that after 1972-Iceland it seemed to me that due to his seemingly mental illness he could not find any steady ground any more.

A fascinating book on the life of chess champion Bobby Fischer. He turns from hero to antihero after the championship, and this book gives the most convincing reasons why, if there are any. I only rate this 4.5 stars because the real question of why Fischer only played one public match after 1972 remains a mystery.½