My Google alert just sent me this notification about a “supposedly” new Bobby Fischer book on ebay Canada. The catch is you have to bid for all 50 copies.
The book is entitled “My 61 Memorable Games”, a new book released by Bobby Fischer. You are bidding on THE FIRST 50 COPIES OF THIS BOOK to be released! Only bid if you intend to be in receipt of all 50 copies. The first 100 copies are marked as SPECIAL EDITION, FIRST PRINT RUN, and this auction is for books #1-50. Another auction will be for books 51-100. This book will not be made available for the public before February 2008, and all books from 101 onward will say SECOND EDITION on them. Send an email to my61memorablegames@gmail.com for more information.
Nearly four decades have passed since Bobby Fischer’s “My 60 Memorable Games” was first printed. The year was 1969. America was embroiled in the Viet Nam Conflict. Lyndon B. Johnson was replaced by Richard M. Nixon in the White House. And a group known as “Led Zeppelin” released their first album. Much has changed since then, but even modern computer analysis in 2007 indicates that Fischer’s intuition and tactical combinations were very accurate. This has made “My 60 Memorable Games” a treasure to chessplayers, and a book highly sought after by collectors. And now, Fischer’s new book has outperformed its great predecessor! It remains true to the original form: Chess analysis, objective and clear, devoid of personal attacks or other diatribe. Updated with modern Figurine Algebraic Notation, it is much easier to read than the antiquated Descriptive Notation of 1969.
The pensive, elder Fischer has annotated the games from the perspective of his accumulated lifetime of experience, an impossible undertaking for his 26-year old counterpart that penned the original tome. The new book also contains IMPROVED analysis and more commentary by the legendary reclusive World Champion. And the icing on the cake is, a new game added to the collection! For the first time ever, Fischer’s own recounting of his ‘memorable’ game 1 from the 1992 rematch with Boris Spassky. This was the Breyer Variation of the ancient Ruy Lopez opening (which dates back to 1561!) yet Fischer imparts new life to it with a move that was highly praised by Grandmasters around the world! Chess enthusiasts of all ages, strengths, and backgrounds will love this book.
What do you think? Is this real? If you click on the title of this post, it will take you to that ebay page. I personally have no idea.
Why would he do it? He doesn’t need the money.
Probably a scam from someone who’s evil like Sammi Sloanito!
A search for it on eBay doesn’t find it, so it may have been withdrawn because it was fake.
Hoax.
If the first 50 copies had a different marking, then that implies it’s a whole different run. It wouldn’t make sense to do two runs for what is otherwise one edition, unless a person is famous enough as an author for a special edition to command extra money. Probably only two or three authors could even get away with that. The difference in expense would be huge. A 50 book run?! Selling them for an extra $20 wouldn’t be enough to cover it, and they wouldn’t be worth an extra 20.
Instead, people just sign the first x number. Which only adds a small amount to the value, when anything.
Most likely a scam, especially given that Bobby Fischer had no love for algebraic notation. In fact I think he complained about one of the versions of his 60 Memorables being published in algebraic notation. Also a comment referring to the “Elderly Fischer” would cause Bobby Fischer to withdraw any offer in his name. Bobby Fischer may be older than he was previously but I can’t imagine him authorizing a product that calls him “elderly”. Finally, a comment about a product free from “diatribe” would cause Bobby Fischer to withdraw any offer in his name because he would never admit that he was guilty of “diatribe.”
Googling for “My 61 Memorable Games” gets two results – the one on eBay (which is there, by the way) and to the post in this blog. Interestingly, the GoogleBot found the reference here 47 minutes before it found the listing on eBay. Susan – you are more popular than eBay !!
Anyway, I’m in Canada too, so I emailed him/her and asked how much to ship to BC.
hmm – new eBayer – hasn’t sold anything yet … no feedback … hmmmmm….
Stu
I got an answer from the seller fast !!
here it is:
Dear my ebay name,
With packing material the entire shipment weighs about 22 kg. I
will price out all destination charges to the winner. I have no way
of computing this for every possible worldwide destination. For
more info email me at my61memorablegames@gmail.com and
thanks for your interest!
– newfischerbook
I have good reason to believe this is real, not a hoax.
And here is a link to the Ebay.CA item:
Fischer’s new 61 book
GeneM
Why would Fischer include a game from 1992, and not include any of his brilliant and memorable games from the period 1968-1972?
But who knows if it is actually by Fischer? Anyone could print such a book at $5/copy – there are several services that do that. The analysis could come from any number of sources, and as someone said, Fischer doesn’t like algebraic notation.
It seems strange to me that he would add one game from the 1992 Spasky match and none from the Taimanov, Larsen, Petrosian, and Spassky matches of 1971-72.
If it’s real, how did this guy in Kanata (which is a suburb of Ottawa) get it?
And why does googling it get only two returns?
Most publishers do a little more than this to get their authors’ books out there!
Stu
One thing to consider – who is the publisher? If this is based on “My 60 Memorable Games”, I think Simon & Schuster would be involved, or at least give their approval.
The Simon & Schuster website doesn’t list it.
It just all doesn’t add up, for many of the reasons already listed. Guess we’ll see how it turns out soon 😉
I heard Fischer was hospitalized in Iceland with kidney problems. I hope he is doing ok and that he recovers well.
I have offered $100 for a first edition copy. If we get 49 other buyers we might have a deal
Ed Trice the guy who tryed to organise a Gothic chess match between Karpov and Fischer earlier this year, commented on The Robert James Fischer kibitz page at Chessgames.com a week or so ago about Fischers new book. All Ed said was “hint think Roger Maris”. We’ll Roger Maris was a famous baseball player who played for the New York Yankees and broke Babe Ruths record of 60 homeruns in a season with 61, curiously the same number as in the proposed Fischer book, My 61 Memorable games. Is Ed Trice who has had correspondence with Mr Fischer, who didnt deliver on his super hyped match Karpov Fischer, to be believed? stay tuned.
Heck I just bid 200@ Even if its a Vanity Press sort of thing..as long as it has all the original material…I think I’m ok with that.
“vanity press”?
When John Nunn uses his own publishing company, Gambit, to publish books he authors, is that too vanity press?
Holy cow!!! The bidding is over 500!
Now its over a thousand!!!
I can’t tell you how I know…..but …it’s real.
I asked the seller which company was publishing it and he gave a long reply but didn’t answer the question. My guess is that the book was done by Fischer but it is some cheaply-produced book (like one of those that will print low-quality copies for $5 each).
The seller says that the ISBN number is 0-9666673-0-1. If you know how ISBN numbers work, that probably means that it is the first book by someone that is self-publishing.
Check out that ebay listing’s two sample pages versus previous editions of the book. Any clues there?
Also, for us non-ebayers, can someone post that lister’s non-truncated answers to the shoppers’ questions? Thanks.
From
http://www.fast-print.net/faq.html#Anchor–%20I-35203
ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is an international code assigned to a particular title and edition of a book published by a specific publisher. Allocation of ISBNs is done by the International ISBN Agency in Berlin through the National Centre of a country.
Example of an ISBN: ISBN 978-0-3399557-0-5 or ISBN 978 0 3399557 0 5
Structure
Every ISBN consists of thirteen digits, which is preceded by the letters ISBN printed in bold. The thirteen digit number is divided into five parts of variable length, each part being separated by a hyphen or space.
The four parts are:
Part I. Currently 978 prefix.
Part II. Group Identifier. This part identifies the national, geographic or other similar grouping of publisher.
Part III. Publisher Identifier. This part identifies a particular publisher within a country or group.
Part IV. Title Identifier. This part identifies a particular title or edition of a title published by the publisher.
Part V. Check Digit. This is a single digit or alphabet X at the end of the ten digits of the ISBN. It is an automatic check by the system on the correctness of the ISBN.
OF the two sample pages, some of the text and analysis is the same as in the original book, some of it is different.
I’m still waiting for the musical version of “I Was Tortured In the Pasadena Jail”.
Here is the book’s foreward per the ebay listing…What does everyone here think: Does this sound like it was written and/or approved by Bobby Fischer?:
FOREWARD:
“It is no secret that I have withdrawn from competitive chess. This book will not focus on that subject. Certain views that I have expressed publicly in the past, through radio and the inter- net and other forms of communication, are likewise not mentioned anywhere in this book. The only quarrels featured on these pages will be the silent battles of the two minds playing the game of chess. I know many of the readers seek answers to probing questions regarding the Bobby Fischer of 1972. That person no longer exists. The questions I will answer are: Why did I write this book? Why now, after all these years? I’ve wanted to release an official version of my book updated in algebraic notation, with a few minor corrections. (Editor’s note: Unauthorized versions of Mr. Fischer’s book from 1969, My 60 Memorable Games, do exist.) I also have a few things to say to others that have written about my games that I strongly disagree with, to put it mildly. It’s about time that I addressed these issues. And why now? The United Bank of Switzerland has taken almost all of the money from my 1992 rematch with Borris Spassky. For those who are unaware, this is over $3,000,000. My ongoing battle with them is getting nowhere despite International Law clearly being on my side. So I bring to you my previous 60 memorable games plus one from the event that has indirectly caused me so much trouble, in the hopes that the sales of this book will reverse that situation. It was tempting to add many important games from the path leading up to and including the 1972 World Championship, but that was simply too big of a project for now.”
END OF FOREWARD
This is most likely a hoax. Bobby Fischer is mentally ill. His hateful words should never generate the veneration, “chess genius” or not, that he ever did.
If Hitler had been a chess GM, would everyone ignore his crimes if he had been, say, a former WCC?
Fischer is a disgrace. He is a rascist, intolerable, disgusting, anti-semitic, hateful soul.
All he ever needed, most likely, was to take medication. Yet, medication doesn’t cure racism.
Plus, he is a fugitive. He deserves to spend his last few months in a prison cell.
Chess is such a miniscule part of the human panorama. Just because some guy named Fischer can choose good moves doesn’t make him any better than any other criminal or rascist. Period.
He is a disgrace to chess. And, for those that defend him just because he can “see” the chess board in a different and better way than others, is no excuse for his history of hatred.
There are more important things in life, on Earth, and in the area of morality that transcend Fischer.
Those that defend him are no better than the racist hateful words that come from his vile mouth.
If you look at the pages from the ebay site, there is something obviously wrong on one of them. The diagram does not match the text (e.g. Nxb7 is not a possible move). This makes it seem like a hoax, since Fischer would never allow a book with obvious mistakes to go to press.
I wrote to the seller (on December 18) and got this answer:
“There is a strong chance that Bobby Fischer does not even own the
rights to his own book, “My 60 Memorable Games”, so he may not have
had permission to initiate this project. It is tough to know about Mr.
Fischer since he has many “minions” that contact the outside world for
him. He may have conceived of this whole project, the adding of one
new game, to circumvent a legal loophole so that he could come out
with this new book.
But it appears that may not be enough to satisy Faber & Faber, the
publishing house that does have the distribution rights.
As of this moment, the books are sitting in my basement. My husband
advised me to get rid of them. He wants me to take them to a nearby
mall, when the weather is nicer, and just put a sign on them: FREE
CHESS BOOKS, TAKE AS MANY AS YOU WANT.
Personally, after what I have been through, I want to just burn them all.
People keep contacting me telling me not to do this, but I just don’t
care about chess and it looks like Fischer is just screwing everybody,
like he always does. Some people did a very nice job on this book and
it looks like much effort was wasted.
I will make my decision in the next couple of days.”
For those interested, seller’s email (taken from the original eBay listing) is my61memorablegames@gmail.com
Appears to me that Fischer isn’t the only one “mentaly ill”. Someone else posting here has some serious issues.
Adolf
It was all a scam by that charlatan Ed Trice: http://www.labatechess.com/61_games.html
Please visit this link to stop the fraud.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-my-61-memorable-games-book-fraud