“HE CHANGED THE ENTIRE CHESS WORLD”: BOBBY FISCHER’S GAMES OF CHESS, FISCHER’S FIRST BOOK, SIGNED BY HIMFISCHER, Bobby. Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959. Slim octavo, original gray paper-covered boards, original dust jacket. $7000.First edition of the chess prodigy’s first book, written when he was 15 years old, signed by him in a later hand.At age six, Fischer and his older sister taught themselves chess from the printed instructions that came with their first chess set. At age 13, Fischer became the youngest national junior chess champion in the United States; the following year, he became the United States’ youngest senior chess champion. In 1958, at the age of 15, he became the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess. The pinnacle of his chess career was his defeat of the U.S.S.R. champion Boris Spassky for the world championship in 1972. This volume, Fischer’s first book, covers 34 games that he played between the ages of 12 and 15 years old, against such seasoned opponents as Arthur Feuerstein, Samuel Reshevsky, Pal Benko, Bent Larsen, Mikhail Tal, and Tigran Petrosian. Fischer would write only two other chess books: 1969’s My 60 Memorable Games and 1972’s Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. “In chess, the question of who is the greatest American player of all time is easily answered: Bobby Fischer. Bobby Fischer not only became World Champion, he changed the entire chess world in the process. Fischer’s games can teach you almost anything you need to know about the game of chess” (chess master Eric Schiller, Learn from Bobby Fischer’s Greatest Games, 7).Book fine. Very light edge wear to fine dust jacket. A fine copy, scarce signed.
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