Bobby Fischer Goes to War

How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Match of All Time

David Edmonds and John Eidinow

For decades, the USSR had dominated world chess. Evidence, according to Moscow, of the superiority of the Soviet system. But in 1972 along came the American, Bobby Fischer: insolent, arrogant, abusive, vain, greedy, vulgar, bigoted, paranoid and obsessive - and apparently unstoppable.

Against him was Boris Spassky: complex, sensitive, the most un-Soviet of champions. As the authors reveal, when Spassky began to lose, the KGB decided to step in...

First published:: 2003
Published by:: Faber & Faber
Length:: Hardcover 302 pages

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About the author

David Edmonds is a senior research associate at Oxford's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and a multi-award winning radio producer for the BBC World Service. He co-founded the popular philosophy podcast Philosophy Bites with Nigel Warburton and has published several titles associated with that podcast, along with his works co-authored with John Eidinow.

John Eidinow was a presenter/interviewer for BBC Radio 4 and World Service radio, working in news and current affairs and making documentaries on historical and contemporary issues. He has published three books with his co-author David Edmonds, and one - Another Day, alone.

Their co-authored books are the best-selling Wittgenstein's Poker (2001), which was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and translated into over thirty languages, Bobby Fischer Goes to War (2004), which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. Their most recent work is Rousseau's Dog (2006).