Bobby Fischer

Despite being quite mathematical, I was not really any good at chess when I was growing up. I have not played for over ten years since playing neighbour's child - who I beat easily though he was only aged 8 (but was head of the school's chess club). At one point, I think when I played at school I reached No 5 in the school "chess ladder", but usually I was about 12th. So not much good really.

Recently I have been reading "Bobby Fischer goes to war", which I bought in Oxford for £2 and which covers his world championship battle with Spassky in 1972 - no actual chess features, but very readable I thought.

In the early 1980s there were a few TV shows about chess, featuring people like Tony Miles, Spassky, Karpov, etc (all pre-Kasparov). I used to really enjoy these and have been looking to see if any appear on any download sites, but none so far.

My main fault when I play chess is that I don't have much conception of what my opponent is doing and it is always a surprise when they trap me with something.


Early and late Fischer