Endgame

Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall—from America’s Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness

By: Frank Brady

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

From Frank Brady, who wrote one of the best-selling books on Bobby Fischer of all time and who was himself a friend of Fischer’s, comes an impressively researched biography that for the first time completely captures the remarkable arc of Bobby Fischer’s life. When Bobby Fischer passed away in January 2008, he left behind a confounding legacy. Everyone knew the basics of his life—he began as a brilliant youngster, then became the pride of American chess, then took a sharp turn, struggling with paranoia and mental illness. But nobody truly understood him.

What motivated Fischer from such a young age, and what was the source of his remarkable intellect? How could a man so ambivalent about money and fame be so driven to succeed? What drew this man of Jewish descent to fulminate against Jews, and how was it that a mind so famously disciplined could unravel so completely? From Fischer’s meteoric rise, to an utterly dominant prime unequaled by any American chess player, to his eventual descent into madness, the book draws upon hundreds of newly discovered documents and recordings and numerous firsthand interviews conducted with those who knew Fischer best. It paints, for the very first time, a complete picture of one of America’s most enigmatic icons. This is the definitive account of a fascinating man and an extraordinary life, one that at last reconciles Fischer’s deeply contradictory legacy and answers the question, who was Bobby Fischer?

©2011 Frank Brady (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“The Mozart of the chessboard is inseparable from the monster of paranoid egotism in this fascinating biography. Brady, founding publisher of Chess Life magazine and a friend of Fischer, gives a richly detailed account of the impoverished Brooklyn wunderkind’s sensational opening…Brady gives us a vivid, tragic narrative of a life that became a chess game.” (Publishers Weekly)

“I learned something new on nearly every page of this wonderful book. Frank Brady is the perfect biographer for Bobby Fischer, and Endgame tells the full and fair story of Fischer’s astonishing rise and heartbreaking fall." (Christopher Chabris, author of The Invisible Gorilla )

“Fischer is America’s greatest antihero. This fascinating biography is filled with hope, Cold War intrigue, the fulfillment of genius, and an explosive fall from grace that is both deeply moving and, ultimately, profoundly sad.” (Jeremy Silman, author of The Amateur’s Mind)

One of the most intriguing books I’ve listened to

This was one of the most intriguing books I’ve read. Bobby Fischer was a fascinating individual who experienced every emotion. I feel bad for the guy. He went through a lot in his life and never seemed to be able to relax and enjoy his journey.

From chess prodigy to bearded crank

Like go, chess is a game I know how to play but not well. I own books and have half-heartedly studied the game off and on, but I will never be a great or even particularly good player. Still, the beauty and logic of the game attracts me, along with all its storied lore.

Most people know that Bobby Fischer was once the greatest American player in the world, possibly the greatest player in the world period. Certainly he was one of the best players ever. This biography tells his life story by a sympathetic but not uncritical friend of his.

But of course, less interesting than his life and early beginnings in chess is the raving crackpot he became later in life. The biography of a famous chess player is unlikely to be all that interesting in itself, and Bobby Fischer's childhood was a fairly unremarkable one, the child of an impoverished single mother in Brooklyn. His mother was somewhat flaky but obviously attentive, and the author, Frank Brady, repeatedly contradicts reports that Fischer and his mother were estranged when he was older. He did suffer a teenager's usual embarrassment when his mother was trying to be too active in his life, but according to Brady, they remained close even when they were living in separate countries and did not see each face to face for years at a time.

Words to describe Bobby Fischer after reading this book: Temperamental. Prickly. Unforgiving. Control-Freak. Self-sabotaging. The author veers away from calling him "crazy" or "deranged," even as he became more and more of a screaming bigot later in life.

It's almost painful to read how the man who once had the world at his feet and turned down a ticker-tape parade in New York spent much of his later years in poverty, yet turned down opportunity after opportunity to make big bucks because there was always something just not quite right about the offer. He would not play chess matches unless he got everything he asked for, and whatever he was offered, he asked for more. He was abusive and ungrateful to everyone who ever helped him. And as he got older, he became increasingly anti-Semitic. He hated the Russians, believing they were cheaters who had all conspired against him during his matches against Soviet players. (Ironically, the Soviets were conspiring against him, as Russian grand-masters later admitted, and the Soviets had an entire "lab" devoted to studying Fischer for years, so great a threat was he to their national prestige.)

The 1972 Fischer-Spassky match is a comedy of Cold War politics and temperamental chess egos. Bobby Fischer complained about everything, forfeited several games by refusing to show up until his demands were met, and generally foreshadowed what a monumental pain he would become later in life. Of course, the Soviets responded with increasingly absurd accusations that Fischer was "chemically or electronically interfering" with Spassky, resulting in the ridiculous spectacle of security guards X-raying chairs and dismantling light fixtures. And yet, that 1972 match in Reykjavik, Iceland created a worldwide chess boom.

Then Fischer went into semi-retirement and near-poverty, living off of his mother's Social Security checks for decades, while turning down publication deals, big money tournaments, endorsements, because the money offered wasn't enough, or because someone else would profit off of it too and he didn't think anyone but Bobby Fischer should make money off of Bobby Fischer. Or because they were Jews.

In 1992, Fischer played a rematch against Spassky in Yugoslavia. This finally made him enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life. It was also his fatal undoing, as Yugoslavia was under a UN embargo at the time because of the Bosnian war, and the US State Department sent him a letter enjoining him against playing the match. Rather than appealing or just ignoring the letter, he literally spat on it, thus earning him the enmity of the U.S. government and sending him into political exile for the rest of his life.

But he was still pretty much ignored until the 9/11 attacks, when he released a series of vitriolic radio interviews from the Philippines, denouncing America, praising the attacks, and calling for a new Holocaust against the Jews. At this point, the U.S. government remembered he existed again, and went after him in earnest. Which led to his being arrested in Japan in 2006 on an expired passport and spending almost a year in a detention facility. Incredibly, Iceland, grateful for the attention he had brought to their country in 1972, went to heroic measures to offer him not just asylum but citizenship, and thus Fischer was deported to his new home in Iceland. Even more incredibly, he soon became disenchanted and began badmouthing his hosts, who had literally saved his life.

I knew before reading this book that Bobby Fischer was a great chess player and a crank. After reading it, I find him a much more interesting, and tragic, and despicable, figure. It's tempting to feel sorry for him, as he obviously spent many years lonely and bitter, but notwithstanding speculations about his mental health, he also brought all of that on himself. He was ungrateful, eventually turning on every one of his friends no matter how much they'd done for him. He was selfish and foolish -- he could have easily spent his life wealthy and famous and in seclusion if he so desired, but he had to always have things his way and no one else could get their way. And worst of all, he was a hateful bigot, turning his rage against Jews and America for reasons that probably made sense only in his own head.

Fischer was a complicated, arrogant, brilliant person, but even with this fairly kind biography, he was not a very sympathetic one. Truly his life was a tragedy, a man who could have been great remembered mostly for turning into a bearded crank and spewer of nonsense.

What a downer!!

Before I say my piece, I’ll state that the book was very well written and the reader was excellent (he had many different accents to perform, even Russian, German, Yiddish and a few others and did well with all of them, to my ear). This book is, of course, really a downer, but when you realize that Bobby Fisher’s entire life, except for a few chess highlights like winning the national championship at age 13 and the World Championship in 1972, was indeed a real downer.

I for one, being an eager chess player but a real potzer in terms of skill, learned a lot from this book – just to list a few: the fact that he was married, the fact that he was incarcerated in Japan for several months and lived for several years in Iceland when a was a fugitive, for tax evasion and some other alleged violation of sanctions against a foreign country The author made it interesting without a lot of specific move notation and no diagrams at all (at least none in the audio edition ) and I think this makes the book understandable to a much wider audience. The almost meteoric rise of Fisher to the stratosphere of the chess world was in such stark contrast to the end of his life that the book couldn’t help having not only a sad ending, but a continually depressing entire second half. I guess I always wondered what really happened to Bobby Fisher, and now I know, I’m wondering if I can ever forget it.

I certainly hope so.

I’m going to try “Searching for Bobby Fisher” next and am hoping it can be an upper.

Interesting

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Bobby Fischer's peculiar combination of genius and psychopathology is well worth knowing about, and the book is excellent.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Endgame?

Spasski's reactions

Any additional comments?

Fischer forces us to reflect more deeply on the question of reality and perception, and on how the brain works. Chess requires uncompromising logic and the capacity to see relationships correctly, yet its supreme genius could persistently err in seeing things logically and correctly in life.

great writing with absolutely brilliant narration

If you could sum up Endgame in three words, what would they be?

enthralling, moving, intriguing

What did you like best about this story?

while the story was wonderful, i think the best thing about this particular book was the narration from Ray Porter.

What about Ray Porter’s performance did you like?

THIS is the reason i love books from Audible. His delivery when speaking as various characters was brilliantly done. It felt like he was really speaking from each person's perspectives and angles. The different accents and tones he used while acting out each part was flawless.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't laugh or cry but i felt like i couldn't get enough of it, i think a big part of this was the excellent narration.

Any additional comments?

The ending was a bit abrupt and leaves you hanging, i'm surprised i haven't seen any more comments on this. The book should have probably been a bit longer to finish properly.

If you are a ‘chesser’ then obviously...

You know the games. This book fills in the human and his existence. Great performance and as far as the story goes..being a Nurse myself, I am ecstatic that nurses played such a prominent role in his life. Goddess bless his soul and the magic of his gift.

Excellent biography

Where does Endgame rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Definitely in the upper ranks. Very interesting topic/subject, and you do not need to be an expert at Chess to enjoy it.

What other book might you compare Endgame to and why?

There are parallels to "A Beautiful Mind" in that genius is no guarantee of rationality or mental health.

What about Ray Porter’s performance did you like?

I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Potter's narration - he was very expressive without being over the top.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Bobby asks near the end why one of his friends is so nice to him.

this is the best biography of Bobby Fischer

you don't have to like chess to like this book. The narration by Ray Porter is stunning. The best narration of any audible book I've ever purchased. Fisher was an interesting, fascinating guy. He was a racist in an extreme way... Sad... Dude just didn't seem to have it all right in the head. Anyway, this book has it more than right. Pure entertainment.

Fascinating

I really enjoyed the narrator and I thought this story was extremely well written. I knew so little about Bobby before taking this in. it is true with genius typically comes madness. Anyone remotely interested in chess should absorb this book when they have a chance.

Unusual Individual

The story is fascinating because Bobby Fisher was both a brilliant chess player and an extremely flawed individual. He obviously suffered from some form of mental impairment and we err in conflating that with his genius. The two are separate and distinct. Fisher should be memorialized for his chess accomplishments, but pitied for his mental failures. He was a deeply flawed genius.