Bobby Fischer Goes to War: The most famous chess match of all time
By (Author) David Edmonds
By (author) John Eidinow
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber
1st July 2005
5th August 2004
Main
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Biography: general
794.159092
Paperback
320
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 23mm
285g
Since 1948, the USSR had dominated the World Chess Championships - evidence, Moscow claimed, of the superiority of the Soviet system. But then came Bobby Fischer. A dysfunctional genius, Fischer was uniquely equipped to take on the Soviets. His every waking hour was devoted to the game and he had steamrollered all opposition to reach the championship. When he became increasingly volatile, Henry Kissinger telephoned Fischer and urged him on to fight for his country. Against him was Boris Spassky: complex, sensitive, the most un-Soviet of champions. As the authors reveal, when Spassky began to lose, the KGB decided to help him to fight back.
David Edmonds is a senior research associate at Oxford's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and a multi-award winning radio producer for the BBC World Service. He co-founded the popular philosophy podcast Philosophy Bites with Nigel Warburton and has published several titles associated with that podcast, along with his works co-authored with John Eidinow. John Eidinow was a presenter/interviewer for BBC Radio 4 and World Service radio, working in news and current affairs and making documentaries on historical and contemporary issues. He has published three books with his co-author David Edmonds, and one - Another Day, alone. Their co-authored books are the best-selling Wittgenstein's Poker (2001), which was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and translated into over thirty languages, Bobby Fischer Goes to War (2004), which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. Their most recent work is Rousseau's Dog (2006).