Book Description
"The years after the Second World War saw international chess dominated by the Soviets [Mikhail Moiseyevich] Botvinnik, [Vasily Vasilyevich] Smyslov, [Mikhail] Tal, [Tigran] Petrosian and then [Boris] Spassky held the world crown, treating it as if it were almost an integral part of their country s heritage. There were occasional flashes of brilliance in the West - [Samuel] Reshevsky, [Miguel] Najdorf, and later [Bent] Larsen but no one really mounted a serious challenge to the Russian hegemony. Then, in the mid-1950s, a lone genius from Brooklyn emerged. Obsessed with chess, all his waking hours became devoted to finding truth on the 64 squares. It was an unrelenting, sometimes frustrating quest, but he persevered, eventually emerging as perhaps the greatest natural chess talent ever. Now, for the first time, every single one of his tournament and match games is presented with insightful explanations and analysis. Almost 1,000 annotated games are supplemented by crosstables of every major tournament and match in which Fischer participated, dozens of archival photographs, along with brief comments and observations putting the play of the great champion into historical perspective."--Publisher description