Descripción

The Road to Reykjavik Robert James Fischer is one of the greatest and most celebrated players in chess history. Exactly fifty years since the American won the right to challenge Boris Spassky for the World Championship crown, Tibor Karolyi documents Fischer’s unique journey from precocious youngster to the chess icon who obliterated Taimanov and Larsen before convincingly beating Petrosian on The Road to Reykjavik.

This is the first volume in a two-part work on the legendary accomplishments of Robert James

(Bobby) Fischer, marking the 50th anniversary since the American grandmaster won the right to

challenge for the World Championship crown. The second volume will focus on the match itself, and

will similarly be published on or close to the 50th anniversary of the event itself. Bobby Fischer

attracted more media attention than any other chess player.

 

His 1972 World Championship final match against Boris Spassky became a page in the book of the

Cold War and he affected chess more powerfully than anyone else, virtually on his own changing the

game once and forever: he stopped the 24-year domination of the Soviets; he attracted the biggest

ever prizemoney in the history of chess, and his records can be endlessly enumerated.

 

The first Soviet champions played for little money, while all champions after Fischer became

millionaires. He achieved the strongest domination of any player by winning twenty games in a row

against worldclass opposition, a record which most probably will never be matched. It was not only

his amazing results that had such an effect; his personality also contributed a lot. Fischer brought a

new level to the board; he was more versatile than the World Champions before him.

 

The Road to Reykjavik

 

Let me tell two small stories, both of which happened decades after he conquered the chess throne,

and which describe how well-known he had become outside of the world of chess. In the late nineties

Hungarian IM Janos Rigo drove Fischer to Germany via Austria and at the border control the official

asked for their passports.

 

Rigo asked the controller whether he knew who was in the back seat of the car, and after a quick

glance the man replied: “The world chess champion.” In 2016 or 2017 I heard two Hungarians (non-

chess-players) talking, one of whom told a joke which went something like this: Two prisoners

walking in a Soviet labour camp in Siberia in 1972.

 

ne says to the other, with news arriving here so slowly, “I would like to know so much how the

Spassky – Fischer match ended.” The other replied, “I blundered a piece in the last game.” No other

chess champion has ever received such recognition outside of our world, and no one is likely to get it

in the future. Tibor Karolyi Budapest 2021

 

The second volume, Fischer – Spassky 1972, is devoted to the Reykjavik match which captivated

the entire world.

 

International Master Tibor Karolyi is a former Hungarian Champion who is renowned as both an

author and a trainer. His previous biographical works for Quality Chess received glowing praise from

chess readers and reviewers.

RoadtoReykjavik