A New Fischer Book

[Wayne Komer]

A month or so ago I became aware of a new Fischer book:

The Greatest Secret of Bobby Fischer
The Final Truth About the Greatest Chess Player of All Time
By Nenad Nesh Stankovic
Everly Book Publishing Co, New York
First Edition, 2010 (but printed Feb. 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-1481252232
ISBN-10: 1481252232
xiii, 288 pages, pb

It covers the time from when Fischer started preparing for the match with Spassky at Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, Yugoslavia in July 1992 to his stay in Budapest in September 1993.

I was prepared for a mostly fabricated “best friend” account à la Dimitri Bjelica. What I found, was a sympathetic account, which made me rather like Nesh and think less of both Bobby and Boris!

Nesh was to be available twenty-four hours a day to support Bobby and be his guardian. He was paid by Vasiljevic, the organizer and sponsor of the return match. All this was played against the background of the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Bobby started his preparations for the match with the help of Svetozar Gligorich at a villa in the exclusive residential area of Dedinje in Belgrade.

The first order of business was to get him new clothes to replace the worn out ones he had brought from America. A seamstress was brought in and Bobby ordered four shirts each in white, blue, ochre, green and pink. The elegant lady took his measurements and carefully listened to his specifications down to the last detail. At the first fitting Bobby wiped the smile off her face with his complaints that the model she offered him was tight in the waist, even though everything was done according to the agreed measurements. There was another fitting in two days after alterations had been made but now the shirts were too loose. Fittings went on day after day and hour after hour for more than a month. When Fischer finally said, “thank you, now it’s fine” every gave a sigh of relief, especially the tortured designer who cried for a long time after these words, left Sveti Stefan forever for Belgrade.
This search for perfection reminded me greatly of the way Steve Jobs treated his staff when they were on a new project.

In the villa, Bobby was working on his new chess clock as well as his daily preparations. Nesh carefully screened visitors. He would read the newspapers with Bobby every day and they would discuss events and politics. In the next months three women were very important in his life. These were Zita Rajcsanyi, his nineteen-year-old Hungarian girlfriend; later there was Miyoko Watai whom he eventually married; and finally, Bobby’s sister, Joan Fischer Targ. He treated the latter coldly and let Nesh squire her around Belgrade without him.

“Even though she was very young, Zita was absolutely dominant in their relationship... The very arrival and appearance of Miyoko showed me a different man. It was the expression of a mature male who was aware of his worth; he was holding a gem and he wanted to preserve it.”

We see Bobby on a more personal level than in any of the other books about him. I shall give one tantalizing quote, “You know, Nesh, that I’m mostly worried about what Mossad or the CIA might do to me, but I have on other great fear..” What that thing is, is given on page 204 and I won’t spoil the surprise. I should offer a prize to anyone who guesses!
+++++++

It is a riveting book, which rings true. It is worth getting for the inside history and the personal insights of the 1992 match.

Strangely, it is also worth getting because of its terrible production! The photos are sort of grey on white and can’t be made out. I thought it was some sort of artistic statement until I came across only one with good contrast. That showed me the others were just badly done. It’s like that old story from Dear Abby: I was married to Bill for three months and I didn't know he drank until one night he came home sober.

There is just one chess diagram, which purports to show the move 36.g4! in the first match game. Except that the white pawn isn’t there. It’s as if Fischer is holding it above the board and will put it down when you turn the page. See

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1129672

And Stankovic’s purple prose is often too much to take, even though I like the man. Imagine what he wrote about Bobby but spoken by Michael Palin in a Monty Python sports announcer skit with Michael in a red blazer and having a pencil moustache:

“And at the chessboard - the boy from Brooklyn, the hero from Reykjavik, the pauper from Pasadena, the Serbian and Montenegrin rebel, the Japanese prisoner and the Icelandic resident of Valhalla!”

It’s a lot of fun, like a wild roller coaster ride.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: A New Fischer Book

A few more snippets from the book

Bobby said to me, “You know, Nesh, “that’s what he called me, “you’re the only person to spend so much time with me.” Then he looked over at Philippine Grandmaster Eugene Torre and Hungarian-American player of the old school Pal Benko, who were keeping us company that evening, and he burst into laughter and added, “I mean, the only one who lasted that long.” He continued by adding the story of his “strange” friend Sam Sloan with whom he cruised Manhattan for six months, covering every inch of the heart of New York. They spent time together every day during that period, but then “poor Sam” disappeared without a trace. I liked the story, but I did not feel like laughing, because I myself was fairly worn out and exhausted after something more than a year with him.
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At that time, the summer of 1992, Jezdimir Vasiljevic, popularly called “Big Daddy Jezda”, was considered to be an exceptionally successful business man, one of the most powerful Serbs. It was said that his empire was growing at a fantastic rate and that the wealth of this “Serbian Onassis” was already so vast that he was numbered among the more famous word financial moguls. His ownership of the Sveti Stefan resort and of a part of the coast in Budva, his purchase of the Belgrade racing track and many other spectacular investments that were mentioned in the press gave all these stories an air of reality. The fact that this business man had invested five million dollars in the award funds of the upcoming match contributed to the fact that his name appeared all over the world with the news of Fischer’s return.
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Apart from his daily routine, Bobby was waking up quite early and as early as seven, he would ask me to bring him copies of all the most important Yugoslav newspapers. (snip)
I was quite surprised by Bobby’s ability to read and understand the language of the land of his hosts. The explanation could be found in his relatively frequent and long stays in Yugoslavia, even though they had taken place long before, in his association with Yugoslavs, especially Mr. Gligorich and Mr. Bjelica, but also in his fantastic ability to remember words quickly and easily, to understand their meaning and connect them into a logical whole. In addition, he also had a powerful desire to learn and to perfect his linguistic abilities, not hesitating to freely check his newest acquisitions with everyone, regardless of whether it was in conversation with a famous person, or if he was just ordering food in a restaurant. It is certain that, thanks to these character traits, he had managed to learn Spanish perfectly and he understood German and Russian well.
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(After the match) the list of Fischer’s potential opponents was long, with different material eventualities and places of play, and the names in circulation were Judit Polgar, Anatoly Karpov, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Nigel Short, and finally, or primarily, Kasparov…
The move to Budapest did Bobby a world of good, even chesswise. Now, together with Eugene and Pal, he spent much of his time training and analyzing. However, there was no doubt that the main source of Bobby’s motivation was the Polgar family. The champion’s inspiration and desire for company stemmed from the irrepressible need for acceptance and security. Visits to their home became accompanied by the visible effort and hospitality of the hosts, but also the increasing importunacy on behalf of the guest.
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..chess books and brochures were my only sources of information (when I was seven or eight).
From the owner of the store where Joan bought the chess set, right there in our neighbourhood, I got my first introductory chess book as a present. I took it everywhere, and I paged through it hundreds of time and soon learned it by heart.

It is pure speculation on my part but looking through the items owned by Fischer in David De Lucia’s Bobby Fischer Uncensored, the book that would fit the description above would be

Chess The Easy Way by Reuben Fine.