Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess

by Fred Waitzkin

Book Overview

The father of a real american chess prodigy reflects on chess, competition, childhood, and his son's meteoric rise to the highest levels of global competition.

" A] little gem of a book." --The New York Times

Fred Waitzkin was smitten with chess during the historic Fischer-Spassky championship in 1972. When Fisher disappeared from public view, Waitzkin's interest waned--until his own son Josh emerged as a chess prodigy...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140230386
• ISBN13: 9780140230383
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Book For All Chess Players - Good Read

This book has the championship chess presence like "The Queen's Gambit" by Tevis and the scholastic excitement of "The Chess Team" by Sawaski - The others are fiction, but what sets this book (SFBF) apart is that it is a real story. However, the title is a hair misleading. This book really has nothing at all to do with the real Bobby Fischer (Former World Chess Champion) - but rather about chess prodigy and future chess grandmaster Josh Waitzkin. The book itself is very much different from the movie and although the movie was very well done and one of my favorites of all time, the book is outstanding and should be read even if you watched the movie. If you play chess or like to teach chess, this book is highly useful for experience. The whole work just flows nicely and you get excited for Josh on his trials and tribulations. It is a quality book, with interesting experiences and I highly recommend it to all.

Father and Son

Fred Waitzkin's "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is a fine account of the inner turmoil experienced by a mediocre chess-playing father who has a gifted chess-playing son. Mr. Waitzkin, who began playing chess when Bobby Fischer was single-handedly dismantling the Russian chess monolith, is obviously pleased (to put it mildly) when his son Joshua displays enormous ability at a very early age. Mr. Waitzkin nurtures his son's talent, most notably by hiring the acclaimed Bruce Pandolfini as his chess coach. Mr. Pandolfini evolves into a mentor and friend, and much of the book analyzes the (often strained) relationship between the son and his two fathers.Mr. Waitzkin ponders whether he is doing the right thing by encouraging his son to devote so much time and energy to a game that can become all-consuming. Chessplayers can become as obsessive as body-builders, and chess lore is filled with tales of the strange, and often downright psychotic, behavior of some of its adherents. Mr. Waitzkin recounts many such tales and also highlights the religious grandiosity the game can inspire: the mother of one young player confides that when her son is playing well she feels like "... the mother of Jesus", and a woman friend of Bobby Fischer's thinks that Mr. Fischer is "... pure, like Jesus". Whew. It is a credit to Mr. Waitzkin that he didn't blindly succumb to the "genius" blandishment routinely hung on youthful chess wizards but agonized over every important decision affecting his son. It is a further credit to him that his son has grown into a splendid young man. Joshua Waitzkin is Ivy League graduate, a world-class athlete, and a teacher. Yes, he still plays chess-he'll one day be a grandmaster-but he couldn't be further from the stereotype of the chessplayer as a myopic, stoop-shouldered, one-dimensional automaton. He is a son to make any father proud.Though the "Searching" in the title refers more to the metaphysical search by the chess world for its next boy-king, Mr. Waitzkin does make a literal, if half-hearted, search for the elusive Bobby Fischer in Los Angeles with the hope that he, a stranger, could prevail where those who knew Mr. Fischer had failed and persuade him to return to his arena. Mr. Waitzkin never gets to meet Mr. Fischer, who never defended the World Championship he won in 1972 by defeating Boris Spassky, yet does give a lucid and unsparing account of both Mr. Fischer's unprecedented triumphs at the chess board and his meglomania, paranoia, and anti-Semitism away from it. A friend of Mr. Fischer's tells Mr. Waitzkin that Mr. Fischer is "...convinced that the Jews were controlling the country and that the Holocaust was a self-serving fantasy created by Zionists". This same friend further informs Mr. Waitzkin that Mr. Fischer had the fillings removed from his teeth so he wouldn't "...pick up radio transmissions".Mr. Waitzkin is no Fischer apologist but a significant portion of the world chess community is. Mr. Waitzkin has used the Fischer s

A+ Chess Book

This was an excellent book about chess in the USA and of course the life a real chess prodigy. I myself love chess and am interested in it and this book totally fulfilled my longing for a chess novel. Fred Waitzkin does an excellent job writing this book about his son. He writes the book from a very honest standpoint, clearly shown when he talks about Joshua's chess tournaments. I totally agree with Fred about how Bobby Fischer has changed the chess world. Fred was interested in chess, so his son became interested in chess. Just as my father did, in the 1972 match between Fischer and Spassky, he became interested in the game, and I am now, I'm just not a chess prodigy like Josh! This is a great book giving you a greater view of chess in the USA and also in the former Soviet Union. This is a great book! Read it!

An inspiring book about the ordeals of a chess prodigy.

"Searching for Bobby Fischer" is a very good book with many anecdotes and milestones in the life of Fred Waitzkin, and his chess playing son, Josh Waitzkin. At first, I considered this another boring biography, but as I started reading, I was drawn by it. It's not a biography...it is a 'real' book that describes many difficulties of being a chessplayer. The 'Washington Square Park' and 'Trip to Moscow' chapters captured my attention the most. I would reccomend this book to just about anyone, whether you play chess or not.

A fascinating book about a boy and the chess world

Fascinating anecdotes and character portraits accompany the plot of a child prodigy's introduction to chess, his subsequent improvement and finally his victory at the children's national tournament. Intertwined in all of this is an eloquent story of the boy's relationship with his father. This look into the chess world was much better than the movie of the same name - a must read.