Rating: 
Summary: An inspiring book about the ordeals of a chess prodigy.
Review: "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is a very good book with many anecdotes and milestones in the life of Fred Waitzkin, and his chess playing son, Josh Waitzkin. At first, I considered this another boring biography, but as I started reading, I was drawn by it. It's not a biography...it is a 'real' book that describes many difficulties of being a chessplayer. The 'Washington Square Park' and 'Trip to Moscow' chapters captured my attention the most. I would reccomend this book to just about anyone, whether you play chess or not.
Rating: 
Summary: An uneven combination
Review: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 I read this book well before a movie was even conceived, yet I will take the heretical view that the movie was better. The movie distilled what the book was about, Josh and his father, and excised the two weak sections. The parts of this book that deal with Fred and his feelings about his son's chess genius are very well done. Waitzkin writes in a congenial, easy to read fashion that communicates the story well. He neither presents himself as a saint, nor a sinner. The weak parts are the two digressions. The first is the trip to the now defunct Soviet Union with Bruce and Josh to watch the ill-fated first Karpov-Kasparov match. Though the politics of the old Russian chess scene can be of interest, they are jarring in this book of a father and his son. The second weak section is Fred's trip to California to try to find Fischer. Of course he doesn't so we are treated to 2nd and 3rd or worse stories of Fischer's descent into his own world. Again, Fischer's life is interesting in a cautionary trainwreck way but is not really properly part of Fred and Josh's story. Though this is not a chess book per se, an appendix with some of Josh's games would have been a nice thing to have. However, I'm not subtracting from my rating for that, just a suggestion. The story of Josh and Fred and their journey through competitive childhood sport, chess here could be replaced by anything, is wonderful. The sidetrips however should have been edited.
Rating:
Summary: An uneven combination
Review: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 I read this book well before a movie was even conceived, yet I will take the heretical view that the movie was better. The movie distilled what the book was about, Josh and his father, and excised the two weak sections. The parts of this book that deal with Fred and his feelings about his son's chess genius are very well done. Waitzkin writes in a congenial, easy to read fashion that communicates the story well. He neither presents himself as a saint, nor a sinner. The weak parts are the two digressions. The first is the trip to the now defunct Soviet Union with Bruce and Josh to watch the ill-fated first Karpov-Kasparov match. Though the politics of the old Russian chess scene can be of interest, they are jarring in this book of a father and his son. The second weak section is Fred's trip to California to try to find Fischer. Of course he doesn't so we are treated to 2nd and 3rd or worse stories of Fischer's descent into his own world. Again, Fischer's life is interesting in a cautionary trainwreck way but is not really properly part of Fred and Josh's story. Though this is not a chess book per se, an appendix with some of Josh's games would have been a nice thing to have. However, I'm not subtracting from my rating for that, just a suggestion. The story of Josh and Fred and their journey through competitive childhood sport, chess here could be replaced by anything, is wonderful. The sidetrips however should have been edited.
Rating:
Summary: Intruiging,
Review: A real story about a brilliant pre-adolescent chess player. The author is the subjects father so we get as close to the action as any writer can get. Not only that but the father is a professional sports writer. This is a promising combination that delivers. The book follows, very closely, the career of the subject as well as his personal development. It is a continuous evolution of many captivating small stories that are well written and easy to understand. Total involvement and captivation is inevitable. The book is written by the father of the subject, and because of this we get a far more intimate and accurate account, and makes the book even more interesting because the writer was directly involved in every scene and he communicates his feelings. The relationship between father and son is itself very intriguing. We also get a in depth look at the reclusive world of the chess enthusiast and professional in the states and abroad. This is the type of book that you can tear through on a nonstop reading orgy
Rating: 
Summary: Not What You Might Expect
Review: Although the author is a good writer, this book is one of those extremely rare examples of the movie being far better than the book. Only a small portion of the book is about Josh, and his rise to fame as a chess prodigy. The greater part of the book is devoted to strange discriptions of washed-up chess grandmasters that live on park benches, or anti-Soviet propaganda that just seems out of place in the 21st century. Repeatedly, the author complains that chess masters in the US cannot make a living playing chess. They shouldn't have to find real jobs, he complains, unconvincingly. So, while the writing may be good, the content doesn't even come close to the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A darn good read!
Review: Are you a chess player? Do you like stories about chess players? Then this book is for you. Many weeks on the best-seller lists, it is easily the best chess story I have ever read. Buy it. Give one to a chess widow. Give one to someone who does not know how to play. Everyone likes this story. PS I liked the movie too.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating book about a boy and the chess world
Review: Fascinating anecdotes and character portraits accompany the plot of a child prodigy's introduction to chess, his subsequent improvement and finally his victory at the children's national tournament. Intertwined in all of this is an eloquent story of the boy's relationship with his father. This look into the chess world was much better than the movie of the same name - a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Look at chess world at large.
Review: Fred Waitzkin gives insight to both the world of his son, who in the book is fast becoming one of the best chess players in the United States for his age, and the chess world in general. His profession as a writer gave him access to a lot of behind-the-scenes politics, for example with the World Championship match and also meeting Boris Gulko, a Soviet champion who was ostracized, beaten, and otherwise abused because his political views were not aligned with the dominant Soviet view at the time. He contrasts this "celebrity" or "public figure" status that Soviet chess players had to those of American masters, who travel around the country trying to make ends meet playing in tournament after tournament, while most are considered eccentric and some are even homeless. I enjoyed Fred Waitzkin's writing style and having played competitive chess and actually seeing or meeting some of the characters he mentioned was very interesting. A couple other reviews gave low ratings because it seemed like it was misleading as only parts of the book are about his son, but I think Waitzkin's comprehensive view of the chess world at large and the contrast between this and his own personal chess life is interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Father and Son
Review: Fred Waitzkin's "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is a fine account of the inner turmoil experienced by a mediocre chess-playing father who has a gifted chess-playing son. Mr. Waitzkin, who began playing chess when Bobby Fischer was single-handedly dismantling the Russian chess monolith, is obviously pleased (to put it mildly) when his son Joshua displays enormous ability at a very early age. Mr. Waitzkin nurtures his son's talent, most notably by hiring the acclaimed Bruce Pandolfini as his chess coach. Mr. Pandolfini evolves into a mentor and friend, and much of the book analyzes the (often strained) relationship between the son and his two fathers. Mr. Waitzkin ponders whether he is doing the right thing by encouraging his son to devote so much time and energy to a game that can become all-consuming. Chessplayers can become as obsessive as body-builders, and chess lore is filled with tales of the strange, and often downright psychotic, behavior of some of its adherents. Mr. Waitzkin recounts many such tales and also highlights the religious grandiosity the game can inspire: the mother of one young player confides that when her son is playing well she feels like "... the mother of Jesus", and a woman friend of Bobby Fischer's thinks that Mr. Fischer is "... pure, like Jesus". Whew. It is a credit to Mr. Waitzkin that he didn't blindly succumb to the "genius" blandishment routinely hung on youthful chess wizards but agonized over every important decision affecting his son. It is a further credit to him that his son has grown into a splendid young man. Joshua Waitzkin is Ivy League graduate, a world-class athlete, and a teacher. Yes, he still plays chess-he'll one day be a grandmaster-but he couldn't be further from the stereotype of the chessplayer as a myopic, stoop-shouldered, one-dimensional automaton. He is a son to make any father proud. Though the "Searching" in the title refers more to the metaphysical search by the chess world for its next boy-king, Mr. Waitzkin does make a literal, if half-hearted, search for the elusive Bobby Fischer in Los Angeles with the hope that he, a stranger, could prevail where those who knew Mr. Fischer had failed and persuade him to return to his arena. Mr. Waitzkin never gets to meet Mr. Fischer, who never defended the World Championship he won in 1972 by defeating Boris Spassky, yet does give a lucid and unsparing account of both Mr. Fischer's unprecedented triumphs at the chess board and his meglomania, paranoia, and anti-Semitism away from it. A friend of Mr. Fischer's tells Mr. Waitzkin that Mr. Fischer is "...convinced that the Jews were controlling the country and that the Holocaust was a self-serving fantasy created by Zionists". This same friend further informs Mr. Waitzkin that Mr. Fischer had the fillings removed from his teeth so he wouldn't "...pick up radio transmissions". Mr. Waitzkin is no Fischer apologist but a significant portion of the world chess community is. Mr. Waitzkin has used the Fischer saga to portray his own paternal angst and he has done it well.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Have the book and movie on DVD. This is one of my favorite books and movies. Though they weren't searching for Bobby Fischer himself, the move shows the progress of a talented chess kid.
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