Bobby Fischer Goes to War

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We plundered the archives of many newspapers, especially Corriere della Sera, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Los Angeles Times, and The Times (London). In Moscow, the archives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Izvestia, Pravda, Vecherniaia Moskva, Shakhmati v SSSR, and 64 were essential reading. We are grateful to the London Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF RUSSIAN

In general, we have transliterated Russian names and other words in accordance with the Library of Congress system. However, where we feel an established version of a name is so familiar that changing it might disturb a reader, we have retained that version—for instance, Spassky and Dostoyevsky. We have similarly made changes to assist readers’ pronunciation.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

THE AMERICANS

Bobby Fischer—World championship contender

Pal Benko—Grandmaster, enabled Fischer to enter world championship rounds

Robert Byrne—Grandmaster, coauthor with Ivo Nei of book on match

Fred Cramer—Chief assistant to Fischer in Reykjavik

Brad Darrach—Life reporter and member of Fischer’s Reykjavik team

Andrew Davis—Attorney to Fischer

Ed Edmondson—Executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation and mentor to Fischer

Larry Evans—American grandmaster and former second to Fischer

Regina Fischer—Bobby’s mother

Chester Fox—TV producer with exclusive rights to film the match

Victor Jackovich—Junior diplomat in U.S. Icelandic embassy

Henry Kissinger—U.S. national security adviser

William Lombardy—Roman Catholic priest, grandmaster, and second to Fischer

Paul Marshall—Attorney to Fischer

Paul Nemenyi—Allegedly Fischer’s biological father

Richard Nixon—U.S. president

Anthony Saidy—Chess player, gave sanctuary to Fischer

Don Schultz—Fischer aide and future president of the U.S. Chess Federation

Frank Skoff—Fischer aide and president of U.S. Chess Federation from August 1972

Ken “Top Hat” Smith—American chess and poker player, helped Fischer prepare

Theodore Tremblay—U.S. charge d’affaires in Iceland

Various attorneys, journalists, chess players, commentators, and acquaintances of Fischer

THE SOVIETS

Boris Spassky—World champion

Lev Abramov—Former head of Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport

Sergei Astavin—Soviet ambassador to Iceland

Yuri Averbakh—President of the USSR Chess Federation and of the Trainers’ Council, grandmaster

Viktor Baturinskii—Director of the Central Chess Club; head of the Chess Department, chief trainer, and inspector of the USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport; former colonel and deputy chief military prosecutor

Yevgeni Bebchuk—Journalist and former president of the Chess Federation of the Russian Federation (a republic of the USSR)

Mikhail Beilin—Former head of the Chess Department, USSR Council of Ministers Committee for Physical Training and Sport

Isaac Boleslavskii—Grandmaster

Igor Bondarevskii—Grandmaster and trainer to the world champion