WHODUNIT?
I worked on this book with Fischer and inspected the sample page
provided by the seller. Some wording was changed and the analysis was
indeed improved, possibly with the aid of a computer. Icelandic
papers reported that Fischer angrily denied writing it. Yet in our
extensive e-mails the seller insisted it was no hoax.
"So what should I do with all these books then?" she asked. "Why not
send them -- if they exist -- to Fischer in Iceland?" I replied.
Her last message: "I decided to take them to a nearby mall parking
lot when the weather gets nice and attach a sign: FREE CHESS BOOKS,
TAKE ONE, TAKE ALL." -- Evans On Chess newspaper column
From Mig's Daily Dirt Blog
Posted by: obsurvur at December 20, 2007 13:57
To CynicalGripe, Well if you're going to get some of these
books....like the tune McCartney wrote for Badfinger, "you'd better
hurry cause there going fast"...the seller just wrote me back today,
and said 30 of the first 100 First Edition books, were sold off. The
rest of the 65, will be sold today. So either the buyer is going to
sit on these, or we're gonna see another auction...stay tuned....
Posted by: Bruce Towell at December 21, 2007 16:18
After a few days of email chats I finally talked her into a meeting.
Real nice, cute Asian girl of some kind. Soft spoken and very polite.
Hardly what I would call a scammer. She showed me the packing slip
sent C.O.D. from "Kobenhavn" which is Copenhagen, Denmark. She said
she was asked to host the eBay auction only 2 weeks ago.
Anyway, the books are professionally done. I've got over 300 other
chess books myself and I have to say the diagrams in this book are the
most amazing I have ever seen. They are crisp and clear and larger
than the little diagrams in other books. The figurine notation is
unique also. The white pieces have white figurines and the black
pieces have black figurines. I've never seen that anywhere either. You
can almost play the games blindfold when you read such notation. Could
this be another Fischer innovation, simple, and yet a vast improvement
we have all overlooked for so long?
Anyway, I'm sitting tight just in case the whole thing is a mess of
some sort. I was more interested in rescuing the books from the trash
heap than anything else.
Posted by: Arthur Killington at December 22, 2007 00:15
To Arthur, Thanks for posting your experience, yea tha gal is
probably related to the mother of Bobby's child. It's a shame he got
her involved, instead of a professional. I got en email from someone
who claims they bought some of the books from her. She told me after
today's, or really yesterday's sale, the rest are going in the trash,
and her neighbor is going to help her. Such a waste.Her darn husband
put his metal drill thru 5 of the books!!.....Poor Bobby,just never
seems to do anything the right way.....
Posted by: Bruce Towell at December 22, 2007 04:42
************************************************** ************************************************
I seem to recall that Fischer doesn't own the publishing rights to his
own book (were they sold by Simon & Schuster to Faber & Faber in
England)? He angrily denies writing it, but these new notes clearly
were added by a strong player. If it turns out the book can be traced
to the Philippines, then one might speculate that his longtime aide GM
Eugenio Torre was somehow involved.
Wouldn't it be a hoot if this pirated edition became more valuable
than the original?
wrote:
EVANS ON CHESS NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Reprinted courtesy of Chesstours @ all rights reserved.
WAS IT A HOAX?
"No other chess figure has had, has, or will have more autograph
imitations than Bobby Fischer GUARANTEED!" Fisching For Forgeries by
Lawrence Totaro
Bobby Fischer has kept a low profile since becoming an Icelandic
citizen, but he still make news. Another kerkuffle took place at an
auction on eBay Canada for a revised edition of his My 60 Memorable
Games called My 61 Memorable Games. A foreword was purportedly written
by Fischer himself, who is said to be in poor health and low on funds.
"I know many readers seek answers to probing questions regarding
the Bobby Fischer of 1972. That person no longer exists. I've wanted
to release an official version of my book updated in algebraic
notation with a few minor corrections. And why now? The United Bank of
Switzerland has taken almost all of the money from my 1992 rematch
with Borris Spassky -- over $3,000,000. My ongoing battle with them is
getting nowhere despite International Law clearly being on my side. So
I bring to you my previous 60 games plus one from the event that has
caused me so much trouble, in the hopes that sales of this book will
reverse that situation."
Suspicious fans promptly noted that UBS stands for the Union (not
United) Bank of Switzerland and that it's Boris (not Borris) Spassky.
And why was it signed Robert J. Fischer instead of Bobby Fischer?
The seller stated: "The cover price of this book is $24.95 but as a
collector's item of limited production run, they can obviously sell
for much more. You are bidding on THE FIRST 50 COPIES OF THIS BOOK!
The first 100 copies are marked as SPECIAL EDITION, FIRST PRINT RUN.
Another auction will be for books 51-100. All books from 101 onward
will say SECOND EDITION."
The bid reached $3050 when eBay pulled the item: "We recently
suspended this seller's trading privileges. Due to privacy concerns we
cannot share further details."
I worked on this book with Fischer and inspected the sample page
provided by the seller. Some wording was changed and the analysis was
indeed improved, possibly with the aid of a computer.
Icelandic papers reported that Fischer angrily denied writing it.
Yet in our extensive e-mails the seller insisted it was no hoax.
"So what should I do with all these books then?" she asked. "Why not
send them -- if they exist -- to Fischer in Iceland?" I replied.
Her last message: "I decided to take them to a nearby mall parking
lot when the weather gets nice and attach a sign: FREE CHESS BOOKS,
TAKE ONE, TAKE ALL."