Bobby Fischer: His Approach to Chess - download book

   Another book on Bobby Fischer - what for? More books have been written about him than any other chess player, so why yet another one?

   I could answer this question by pointing out that no serious book has been written about him in more than a decade and a half, or say that he, nonetheless, remains enigmatic as both chess player and person.

   Whereas the first is true, the second part is not, or at least not wholly so. Many interesting and revealing things have been written about Fischer, and as a matter of fact one of the objectives of this book was to give a panoramic impression of the player and the views held about his play by other players and critics.

   As the title indicates, there was a second aim in writing this book: 'Study' and 'Approach to Chess' - the terminology discloses that this is (a) a research work (probably the most extensive of its kind done so far), and (b) that the subject matter is not Fischer's games as such; rather they are considered in so far as they allow us insight into his thought patterns and style of play. And this, in turn, brings us to the two broader undertakings of the book.

   Besides being a study on Fischer, it is a treatise on themiddlegameat large. What I have attempted was to analyse the elements of the middle-game as they find their expression in the approach of an eminent universal chess player.

   This combination is quite instructive, I believe, in that it gives us the opportunity to learn not only about Fischer but to deduce from his games everything of relevance for any player of universal chess aspirations. I certainly hope, at the same time, that this multi-faceted mosaic does indeed give a reliable picture of the integrated chess personality of Bobby Fischer himself.

   The three years I have dedicated to the research and writing of this book were for me a time of great intellectual adventure and aesthetic pleasure. And while I strove to maintain the utmost objectivity in this study, I am afraid the reader might well detect the author's fascination with his material throughout.

   It has been my good luck thai I happen to live a couple of minutes' ride from the Royal Dutch Library in The Hague, a place which contains one of the largest collections of chess literature in the world. I could not have written the book as it is in its present form without regularly consulting the sources found in this huge treasury of chess books and magazines, and without having the assistance of its two librarians, Christiaan Bijl and Rob Verhoeven. Bijl, himself an expert on Fischer, directed my attention to a number of important sources (not least of which was his own magnificently edited collection of Fischer's games in German). Rob Verhoeven's constant guidance, advice and encouragement were invaluable to me.

   I have indicated every source I used in the text, including those places in the analyses where I borrowed from existing published material (unless the lines were too obvious or too trivial to make a mention worthwhile).

   One technical point. A cross-reference system refers the reader to all other places where the game under discussion has been handled. These references are introduced by the words 'see also'. This, I hope, will make the reading of the book more satisfying and complete.

Author: Elie Agur
Title: "Bobby Fischer: His Approach to Chess"
Released: 1992
Format: djvu
Quality: good
Number of pages: 145
Size: 2 Mb