Sunday 26 September 2010

RUSSIANS V FISCHER BOOK REVIEW



I have just finished the book Russians versus Fischer,it has taken me a while to finish due to non chess reasons.
The book is published by Everyman chess in hardback,it is 462 pages long and has many photos.
The authors are D. Plisetsky and S. Voronkov.
The book gives all Fischers games against Russian players, some in detail spanning several pages, others just the game with minimal notes.
Throughout the book interviews are added from leading Russian players and Russian chess federation people about how to stop Fischer.
In one of these writen in 1975 by I. Bondarevsky a former trainer to the ill Boris Spassky (get well soon Boris),It says "The American often wins material without fully evaluating the consequences. He is not properly aware of his kings safety."
What is all that about,Fischer not aware of his king safety,my eyes nearly poped out when i read that.
The one thing that stands out for me in the book,is the Russians lack of understanding that Fischer was a fantastic player.Who was totaly dedicated to chess,first and last.
No other interests just chess,chess and more chess.
Playing over the games ,which are set out by tournament and or match,is a pleasure.
It has once again connected me to the great Fischer play.
I like this book not only for the great games,but for the lack of understanding the Russians had about Fischer for years,until it was to late.
Also this book only cost £10 from the London chess and bridge centre.

7 comments:

CMoB said...

The only (worthy of having) Fischer book that is still missing in my collection.

Tommyg said...

I often wonder if a lot what was said in print by the Russians about Fischer was propaganda that they were forced to say.

It seems that the actual players would understand more about Fischer and his talent.

From the patzer said...

Looks like an intresting book but since i already have to much dust collecting books i guess this Fisher book will be one that has to wait for a long time for me to buy it.

From the patzer said...

Btw, does somebody know why CMoB did delete all his blogposts?

chessx said...

No i do not know why CMoB has deleted all his posts.
Was it an accident? or done on purpose,is he still blogging?

Korch said...

You should take into account that these evaluations are relative - to compare with you and me Fischer was aware of his kings safety very well. But it`s generally known that it wasn`t his the most developed trait.
Take a look at 11. game of WC match 1972, for example.

Also I would like to add that Fischer won WC match in 1972 due to:

1) Careless preparation of Spassky (mostly due to his previous score against Fischer), who ignored advices given by his advisors. Bondarevsky refused to work with Spassky because he understood that it`s very likely that Spassky will lose with such a careless attitude.
2) Psychology - behavior of Fischer in the beginning of the match (with his many unreasonable demands) was really ridicilous and actually Spassky had all rights to refuse them (especially after 2nd game abandonned by Fischer). Psychological harm of such a one person`s dictate was very well described by Petrosian.

IMHO with normal attitude by Spassky and in normal psychological circumstances the result of match would be unclear.

Yes - and I think that Fischer is strongly overrated by many English speaking chessplayers.

Tyrone Ferrara said...

Excellent blog, keep up the good work. BK