An account of the 1972 chess match between Soviet chess champion Boris Spassky and American challenger Bobby Fischer offers insight into the personalities of the contenders and draws on previously unpublished records to identify the roles of Henry Kissinger, the KGB, and other forces in the match. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 35,000 first printing. By the authors of the national bestseller Wittgenstein's Poker, a riveting account of the legendary 1972 chess match between Boris Spassky, the world champion from the Soviet Union, and the American challenger Bobby Fischer In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, the Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky and his American challenger Bobby Fischer met in Reykjavik, Iceland for a chess match that held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, political intrigue, and cliffhangers. Thirty years later, David Edmonds and John Eidinow have set out to reexamine the story we recollect as the quintessential cold war clash between a lone American star and the Soviet chess machine. A mesmerizing narrative of hubris and despair, Bobby Fischer Goes to War is a biting deconstruction of the Bobby Fischer myth, a nuanced study on the art of brinkmanship, and a revelatory cold war tragicomedy. Note on the Transliteration of Russian xi Dramatis Personae xiii Glossary xix World Chess Champions to 1969 xxiii 1 Match of the Century 1(3) 2 Brooklyn Boy 4(15) 3 Mimophant 19(14) 4 Child of Destruction 33(17) 5 The Russian from Leningrad 50(20) 6 Living Chess 70 7 Bulldozer to Reykjavik 52(47) 8 Trouble in Paradise 99(23) 9 Big Contest, Little Island 122(8) 10 Bobby Is Missing 130(23) 11 Who's Sorry Now? 153(9) 12 Rage Rules 162(15) 13 Blood in the Back Room 177(9) 14 Eyeball to Eyeball 186(5) 15 A Love-Hate Relationship 191(6) 16 Smashed 197(14) 17 Middle Game 211(14) 18 Chess Contagion 225(8) 19 To the Bitter End 233(16) 20 Extra-Chess Means and Hidden Hands 249(21) 21 Adversary Partners 270(11) 22 Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears the Crown 281(32) Appendix 313(10) Acknowledgments 323(4) Selective Bibliography 327(8) Index 335