Rating: 
Summary: ITs a great story...
Review: Its a really interesting clash of cultures. Here you have Boris Spassky, from the more structured USSR, being the more cultured and open person. On the other side you have Fischer, the brash spoiled egotist coming from the USA making ultimatums and demands that threaten the very championships he wanted to attain. You would think it would be the other way around, but once you get into reading the book, you realize that this was about so much more than just a couple of chess games in Reykjavik. A very enlightening, quick read. For those who don't know much about chess or even want to know, the authors to an exceptional job at downplaying the actual games and making important points only when necessary--and when they do they describe it in such terms anyone could understand.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sad Story Retold
Review: Okay, IF YOU ARE A CHESS ENTHUSIAST, and you already have read everything about Bobby Fischer, but you still need a Bobby Fischer fix, then maybe you'll want to read this book. However, for the most part, Frank Brady's excellent biography does an adequate job of covering this match, and many others, and it provides annotated games that will allow you to replay, and better comprehend the nature of Bobby's brilliance. Also, IF YOU ARE A CHESS ENTHUSIAST, then you already understand something about the sad and troubled character that Bobby was, and continues to be. So, the sordid details of Bobby's interactions with all of the major and minor players in this drama really are kind of pointless. Well, actually "depressing" would be a better word. Nonetheless, this book does provide insight into the character of Boris Spasky that I have not seen elsewhere, but in truth, I haven't searched. It also provides a brief post-match summary that covers developments to date. Lastly, it drops hints that maybe Bobby is out there on the internet waiting to play any one of us. Do you really think that is likely? Hmmm, well maybe. IF YOU ARE NOT A CHESS ENTHUSIAST then I'm not sure why you'd want to read this book. If you are seriously interested in "cold war" related histories, there have got to be better references than this one.
Rating:
Summary: yeah yeah bobby fischer is a jerk
Review: thankfully (for me) this book was short on the chess. frankly the only chess i'm interested in is the old computer game "battle chess" and that was mainly because the chess pieces actually "came to life" and battled each other and stuff. for example if you were going to "eat" the other dude's king with the queen, the queen piece would offer the king a little potion and the king would drink it and die. if, conversely you took a queen with the king she would attempt the same move except this time the king would fake his death (!) and clobber her over the head with the chalice. genius. if you never played this game i feel sorry for you. anyway, about the book, if you already knew that bobby fischer was a jerk, an anti-semite, and more recently anti-american (the latter widely publicized in an Atlantic article a couple of years ago) then you arent going to learn much more about him from this book. the book presents a rather caricatured fischer, and of course, its quite possible that fischer was a caricature, as his life seemed to solely revolve around chess. spassky, the defeated russian, is far more likeable, and this book cant quite decide whether to paint them as startlingly similar foils or total opposites. this is representative of te fact that the book presents varying, and sometimes conflicting viewpoints (probably due to the fact that the book relies on interviews and quotes from different time periods.) the book never quite synthesizes these into a cohesive picture of each character - as the quotes are cut and pasted according to the point the authors want to bring across on a particular page. (cf. p.30-31 describing Fischer's chessplay as gentlemanly with the rest of the book.) though the book could have been tighter, it's nevertheless very good, and gives a great post-cold war historical perspective on the match.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is unnecessary.
Review: This book is really unnecessary. The authors are taking advantage of Fischer's name and his famous match to make a little money. Everything that has been written in this book has been said before many many times. They should actually write a book about Fischer's "wilderness" years. The years when he wasn't playing and living as a recluse in California.
What a shame he didn't defend his title. If he would have kept playing, he still would be one of the top 20 players in the world. Nonetheless, he still inspires a lot of people because he was the first American to win the chess championship. The man is such a legend they will continue to write books about him, even though he will never play serious chess again.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best "Chess Books out There.
Review: This book should delight both the hard core as well as the casual chess fan. It is a well written "newspaperlike" account of perhaps the most famous chess match of all time. I confess that like most chess fans from the USA I was a huge Fischer fan as a child and teen. I figured he stopped playing professionally because he was afraid of losing. This book posits the same theory.
I lived through the match, following it very closely, but didn't realise the Soviet side until reading this book. The authors have done an excellent job bringing that to life.
A few things I did wonder about: there was no mention of the strange re-match Fischer had with Spassky in the 90's, nor much elaboration of matches he played in the 80's with a friend who had been interviewed by the author.
But those are minor issues.
If you are interested in chess and Bobby Fischer, this is the definitive work to read.
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