Freebie Friday has been on hiatus for a few weeks -- demands of a new assignment have slowed my postings -- but is back today with a chance to win
a biography of Bobby Fischer. Frank Brady recounts the remarkable rise of Fischer, including the 1972 World Championship against Soviet Boris Spassky, which captivated both nations and much of the world.
Years later, Fischer's tightly-wound personna unraveled, and he was reduced to a paranoid anti-Semite, shunned by those who once admired him.
Amazon guest reviewer Dick Cavett said, "In Brady's telling the high drama of the Spassky match quickens the pulse; the contest that made America a chess-crazed land was seen by more people than the Superbowl. People skipped school and played sick in vast numbers, glued to watching Shelby Lyman explain what was happening. The fanaticism was worldwide. The match was seen as a Cold War event, with the time out of mind chess-ruling Russian bear vanquished.
"Arguably the best known man on the planet at his triumphant peak, Bobby is later seen in this account riding buses in Los Angeles, able to pay his rent in a dump of an apartment only because his mother sent him her social-security checks. The details of all this are stranger than fiction, as is nearly everything in the life of this much-rewarded, much-tortured genius."
For a chance to win "Endgame," post a comment about your favorite sports book (chess counts).