I would imagine #1 is without a doubt My 60 Memorable. Another good one that comes to mind is Bobby Fischer – The Career and Complete Games of the American World Chess Champion by Karsten Müller. Also, I've heard very good things about Ellie Agur's Bobby Fischer: His Approach to Chess. Another common book is Profile of a Prodigy but I'm not sure how good it really is. I've read in some places that it tries to give an image of Bobby that it just isn't true.
These are a few of the titles that come to mind but I'm not certain if they would make the top 5. My criteria for a good book is the games selection, the quality of the annotations, big number of games, etc.
So tell me what's your personal top 5 for Fischer books (written by him or another master)?
I have read How Fischer Plays Chess by Levy and Bobby Fischer Rediscovered by Soltis, and thought they were both excellent.
Soltis's book is an easier read. My copy of Levy's book is an old hardcover in English descriptive, and is a great candidate to be redone in algebraic.
I think space should be made for the old Batsford (1972 originally) collection "The Games of Robert J Fischer", edited by Bob Wade. It was in descriptive notation, but included all the tournament games (an impressive feat of compilation for those days) with a good selection of notes from a variety of sources, and some interesting essays.
The Agur book is highly recommended too.
On Fischer's personality, I don't know if the definitive book has been written.
On second thoughts, as you've linked to his wikipedia page I guess it must be on there.
What pricks human beings can be eh? Bullying others for a reason so ridiculous.
And having read the wikipedia page I can see I've gone off half cock again. I assumed it was the bullying and taunting for his sexuality that had led to his suicide.
Originally posted by PacMan Do you know he killed himself.
When I met him he hadn't come out as gay (that was a few months later), and there were about 5 or 6 few beautiful women with him (not talking among themselves!). They all looked very unimpressed when he sat down at the scruffy chess players' table for a chat and a few games rather than give them some attention. I didn't follow football much (and still don't), but I knew his name from the sports pages and assumed that his career was on the slide if he was now playing for Leyton Orient.
At first I was quite jealous of him as he was tall, athletic, handsome, very personable and had a host of beauties following him around, but once I realised that I was a much better chess player than him I felt we were about equal on the gifts from god front.
My 60 Memorable
The Career and Complete Games of the American World Chess Champion by Karsten Müller
How Fischer Plays Chess by Levy
Garry Kasparov on Fischer My Great Predecessors, Part IV by G. Kasparov (London, 2004)
The Games of Robert J Fischer", edited by Bob Wade
Surprisingly nobody's mentioned Kasparov's book on Fischer. I'm pretty sure most of you own and have read it. What does he talk about in the book. Is it a must have in your personal chess library? By the way, it came out in 2004 and Bobby must have read it. What did he think about the book Gary wrote on him? I haven't read it myself but I will assume it's good.
So that's the top 5 Fischer books. What do you think? Does that represent a thorough collection of knowledge to have in your personal library or should we make it a Top 7-10 in order to make it more complete?
P.S. Bobby was one of those gifted endgame player (as Capablanca and Karpov), wasn't he? As far as you know, is there a book that focuses on this aspect of Fischer's game?
The Top 5 Bobby Fischer Chess Books
17 Nov '14 00:52
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