Bobby Fischer for Beginners

Garry Kasparov called Bobby Fischer the first real chess professional in his book My Great Predecessors

And then I think once you start distrusting your own mind you’re finished. From there you just get more and more confused. Once you think that your own mind is not your friend any more – your own conscience and your own mind is not your friend – then I think you are on your way to insanity. You have been stripped bare. All your defenses are gone.’

I’ve never had to think about my goal. My whole life I’ve known what I wanted. To become World Champion. Well, that’s what I am now. So what now? (...) As a chess player you don’t have any actual feeling with real life – you don’t have to go to your job and you don’t have to mix with people at that level. I have considered stopping now and then, but I always thought: “What should I do then?

I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves’, Fischer had once said. And also the author of this biography has heard many grandmasters say: ‘Chess is about making good moves; nothing else counts’. However, good moves do not appear out of thin air. Circumstances must be favourable and a chess player’s psyche must be able to function well.