Book about Bobby Fischer released by Icelandic chess Grandmaster
Posted on03 May 2012
Helgi Ólafsson, an Icelandic chess Grandmaster and a good friend of the late Bobby Fischer, has released a book about his encounters with the American chess genius who held Icelandic citizenship.
The book, titled Bobby Fischer comes home – The Final Years in Iceland, a Saga of Friendship and Lost Illusions, talks about numerous aspects of Fischer’s life including his final years before passing away in Reykjavík in early 2008.
Ólafsson, who is six times Icelandic chess Grandmaster, took an active part in the struggle to free Fischer after he was arressted and imprisoned in Japan in 2004. Following Fischer’s bid for asylum in Iceland, he was granted full citizenship by the Icelandic Government in 2005 and consequently Ólafsson and Fischer became close.
The book discusses Fischer’s career around 1970 when he began a new effort to become World Champion. Ólafsson also strives to capture the mood around the “Match of the Century” – the 1972 defeat of Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in the World Chess Championship, which took place in Laugardalshöll arena in Reykjavík.
The book includes stories from many distiguished characters and also features events in Icelandic history, such as the eruption in the Westman Islands in 1973, which are woven into the narrative.
Furthermore, the book raises some serious questions about the life of this extraordinary man who gave up his U.S. citizenship and died an Icelandic citizen.
Source: http://www.icenews.is
Fischer is not as good as Nakamura today.
I probably think that everything about Mr Fischer has been written.
The fact that some persons impression of Mr fischer can make some money perhaps gives everyone hope in some strange way. Personally I doubt there would be anything interesting about such a book..but if people will buy it..(In this Entrtainment today) sort of culture..why not? But I doubt there’s anything there that would excite anyone. (Unless of Course Robert wore rubber underpants and stole money from the church) or some tomfoolery like that. It’s time we let the poor guy go…and move on.
Mike M
That’s true but only because Fischer is dead. It’s not such a ringing endorsement to compare a living grandmaster’s talents against those of a corpse.
Soon to be published is a book by a PhD. in psychology and psychological counselor, titled “A Psychobiology of Bobby Fischer: Understanding the Genius, Mystery, and Psychological Decline of a World Chess Champion.”
So, no, not everything has been written about Bobby Fischer.
I read this book and found it a very personal, touching and engaging description of Fischer’s final years. The 1972 match started me playing chess, so like many chess players I’ve felt a affinity for Fischer in spite of his often outrageous behavior. The book made me feel gratitude towards Helgi Olafsson for taking care of perhaps the greatest genius our game has known.