Bobby Fischer and Andrew Jackson: Two Peas in a Pod?

On 1 August 2011 By Mark R. CheathemIn Andrew Jackson, Bobby Fischer, Chess8 Comments

I finished reading Frank Brady's Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall-From America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness last week. It's a very readable biography of the American world chess champion who captured the nation's attention in the early 1970s with his victory over Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland. Many chess experts believe …

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Paul Morphy: Antebellum Chess Champion

On 11 April 201110 April 2011 By Mark R. CheathemIn Bobby Fischer, Chess, Early Republic, Paul Morphy2 Comments

One day, when I have the time and the money to do the research, I would like to write a biography of Paul Morphy (1837-1884), the greatest American chess player of the nineteenth century. He was the Bobby Fischer of his era, a natural talent without the extreme paranoia and anti-Semitic rants. Born in New …

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