"Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How A Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine" is not a chess book in the strict sense. In fact, it only contains few chess moves. Nevertheless, this book played a pivotal role in my relation to the game of chess because it contributed to my decision to finally spend some effort to learn to play chess myself.

David Edmonds and John Eidinow describe the chess world championship showdown between Boris Spassky and challenger Robert (Bobby) Fischer that happened in Reykjavik, Iceland in the year 1972. The match is probably the most famous in chess history (so far). Before it, Soviet chess players dominated chess for several decades and at the peak of the cold war, the world was watching a chess match that was widely conceived as a battle between the Soviet Union and the USA. The epic fight over issues such as the exclusive rights to use the hotel swimming pool and accusations of unfair play was seen as "disgusting" by many chess players at the time of the match. More than 30 years afterwards, however, the story of the 1972 chess world championship seems to be just hilarious and fun to read.

The book provides a balanced view on the happenings on Iceland. The description of the psychological war between the players and their teams is complemented by well-written background material. For instance, the authors describe the development of both Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer and put it in the context of their very different environments. On one hand, chess world champion Boris Spassky, a "product" of the goverment-run chess system. On the other hand, Bobby Fischer, an extreme individualist. Not only the players but also lesser known characters such as Bobby Fischer's tireless bodyguard and driver, the Icelandic policeman Saemundur Palsson contribute to the story. The book leaves the impression that David Edmonds and John Eidinow spend a lot of time on careful research (even a page from the FBI file of Bobby Fischer's mother, Regina Fischer, is included) and in contrast to many other popular books on historic events, the book does include a bibliography and an index.

The only criticism I have is that the book contains too less chess for the taste of a chess fan. Not including a detailed account of the games played between Fischer and Spassky makes the book more readable, particularly for the general public. However, I would have liked to see the moves of the games listed in an appendix, preferentially with some annotations. You can find a PGN file with the games played between Spassky and Fischer in Reykjavik in the downloads/game collections section of this site. Overall, I can recommend the book: it is a real page turner because you never know what demand Bobby Fischer himself or his manager will make next and on the side the reader learns about cold war history.

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