Bobby Fischer Goes to War

by David Edmonds

  Finally, we would like to pay tribute—for their support and superb professional skills—to Julian Loose, Charles Boyle, and Angus Cargill at Faber; Jane Beirn and Julia Serebrinsky at Ecco; our copyeditors, Ian Bahrami and Sona Vogel; and Jacqueline Korn at David Higham.

  About the Authors

  DAVID EDMONDS is and JOHN EIDINOW was with the BBC; both are award-winning journalists. Their hugely acclaimed debut book, Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers was a number-one national bestseller and was published in more than a dozen languages.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

  A number of books were of particular assistance to us at the outset. On Fischer, especially helpful were Frank Brady’s excellent biography and Brad Darrach’s fly-on-the-wall account of the match itself. In understanding Soviet chess, the works by D. J. Richards and by Andrew Soltis were invaluable, together with Genna Sosonko’s illuminating accounts of leading figures.

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  Fine, Reuben. Bobby Fischer’s Conquest of the World’s Chess Championship. New York: McKay, 1973,

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  We plundered the archives of many newspapers, especially Corriere della Sera, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Los Angeles Times, and The Times (London). In Moscow, the archives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Izvestia, Pravda, Vecherniaia Moskva, Shakhmati v SSSR, and 64 were essential reading. We are grateful to the London Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

  NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF RUSSIAN

  In general, we have transliterated Russian names and other words in accordance with the Library of Congress system. However, where we feel an established version of a name is so familiar that changing it might disturb a reader, we have retained that version—for instance, Spassky and Dostoyevsky. We have similarly made changes to assist readers’ pronunciation.

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  THE AMERICANS

  Bobby Fischer—World championship contender

  Pal Benko—Grandmaster, enabled Fischer to enter world championship rounds

  Robert Byrne—Grandmaster, coauthor with Ivo Nei of book on match

  Fred Cramer—Chief assistant to Fischer in Reykjavik

  Brad Darrach—Life reporter and member of Fischer’s Reykjavik team

  Andrew Davis—Attorney to Fischer

  Ed Edmondson—Executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation and mentor to Fischer

  Larry Evans—American grandmaster and former second to Fischer

  Regina Fischer—Bobby’s mother

  Chester Fox—TV producer with exclusive rights to film the match

  Victor Jackovich—Junior diplomat in U.S. Icelandic embassy

  Henry Kissinger—U.S. national security adviser

  William Lombardy—Roman Catholic priest, grandmaster, and second to Fischer

  Paul Marshall—Attorney to Fischer

  Paul Nemenyi—Allegedly Fischer’s biological father

  Richard Nixon—U.S. president

  Anthony Saidy—Chess player, gave sanctuary to Fischer

  Don Sch
ultz—Fischer aide and future president of the U.S. Chess Federation

  Frank Skoff—Fischer aide and president of U.S. Chess Federation from August 1972

  Ken “Top Hat” Smith—American chess and poker player, helped Fischer prepare

  Theodore Tremblay—U.S. charge d’affaires in Iceland

  Various attorneys, journalists, chess players, commentators, and acquaintances of Fischer

  THE SOVIETS

  Boris Spassky—World champion

  Lev Abramov—Former head of Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport

  Sergei Astavin—Soviet ambassador to Iceland

  Yuri Averbakh—President of the USSR Chess Federation and of the Trainers’ Council, grandmaster

  Viktor Baturinskii—Director of the Central Chess Club; head of the Chess Department, chief trainer, and inspector of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport; former colonel and deputy chief military prosecutor

  Yevgeni Bebchuk—Journalist and former president of the Chess Federation of the Russian Federation (a republic of the USSR)

  Mikhail Beilin—Former head of the Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport

  Isaac Boleslavskii—Grandmaster

  Igor Bondarevskii—Grandmaster and trainer to the world champion

  Mikhail Botvinnik—Former world chess champion

  Valeri Chamanin—Soviet embassy interpreter

  Piotr Demichev—Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee secretary responsible for ideology

  Anatoli Dobrynin—Soviet ambassador to Washington, D.C.

  Efim Geller—Grandmaster, second, and trainer to the world champion

  Viktor Ivonin—Deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport, in charge inter alia of chess (deputy sports minister)

  Anatoli Karpov—Future world chess champion

  Nikolai Krogius—Psychologist, grandmaster, second, and trainer to the world champion, future head of the USSR state chess organization

  Ivo Nei—Second and tennis partner to the world champion