Bobby Fischer Goes to War - Softcover

Edmonds, David; Eidinow, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571214126 ISBN 13: 9780571214129

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2004

Synopsis

In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the Cold War at a pivotal point, the Soviet world chess champion, Boris Spassky,and his American challenger, Bobby Fischer, met in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown, played against the backdrop of superpower politics, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film. Thirty years later, David Edmonds and John Eidinow have set out to reexamine the story we recollect as the quintessential Cold War clash between a lone American star and the Soviet chess machine. A mesmerizing narrative of brilliance and triumph, hubris and despair, Bobby Fischer Goes to War is a biting deconstruction of the Bobby Fischer myth, a nuanced study on the art of brinkmanship, and a revelatory Cold War tragicomedy.

About this title

About the Author

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).

From AudioFile

Screwy, abrasive Bobby Fischer's 1972 triumph over chess champ Boris Spassky is depicted here in a political and psychological context that transcends the game. The authors provide only as much chessboard strategy as needed to clarify their story, one that others have told many times before, but not quite in this way. Narrator Sam Tsoutsouvas adopts a kind of "time marches on" style that in other hands would have stomped the text to death. Yet he manages to keep it light and play the humor while laying back the more sensational passages. His handsome, barrel-chested voice is a delight to listen to. Y.R. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0571214126
• ISBN 13: 9780571214129
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320