Endgame: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Bobby Fischer

Endgame is acclaimed biographer Frank Brady's decades-in-the-making tracing of the meteoric ascent-and confounding descent-of enigmatic genius Bobby Fischer. Only Brady, who met Fischer when the prodigy was only 10 and shared with him some of his most dramatic triumphs, could have written this book, which has much to say about the nature of American celebrity and the distorting effects of fame.

Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobby's own emails, this account is unique in that it limns Fischer's entire life-an odyssey that took the Brooklyn-raised chess champion from an impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life and Newsweek to recognition as 'the most famous man in the world' to notorious recluse.