26 May 2009

Fischer Loot Again at Auction

The Fischer material last seen on eBay end-2005 is again up for grabs to the highest bidder: BOBBY FISCHER’S CHESS LIBRARY, INCLUDING NOTEBOOKS PREPARED FOR THE 1972 WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP.

The last time these items were on eBay, I followed the auction in the About.com forum: Flash! : Fischer items relisted on eBay. The first post in that thread points to a discussion of the original auction from a few months earlier, when the description started,

Rescued from a So. Cal Flea market about 6 years ago, here are Bobby Fischer's personal items from the infamous storage locker which was sold for lack of rent payment. It is a unique opportunity for someone in the International Chess community to perserve the legacy of who many feel is the most talented chess player of all time. I have tried many times in the last few years to reach Bobby (I did meet him when we were both younger) to return these items to him, but I feel his latest stand on America would not allow him to do this.

Earlier in 2005, Fischer had been released to Iceland from detention in Japan. Here's a photo from the original eBay auction showing the manuscripts.


The description of the latest auction -- 'Estimate: $50,000 - 80,000 ' -- is similar, but not identical, to the description of the first eBay auction.

4 comments:

Robert Pearson said...

The material should be worth at least $80,000--there's a best-seller (in chess book terms) just waiting from a publishing of selections from the notebooks, and probably a new book on the '72 Spassky match (working title, Bobby Fischer's Secret Laboratory)as well. Maybe you ought to do the books, Mark

Mark Weeks said...

Hello Wahrheit - Thanks for the kind words, but you overestimate my ability. Great title you suggest. In these days of computer databases, do you think there would be real interest in the working methods of yesteryear? - Mark

xplor said...

Bob Wade OBE.
His enormous collection of chess books, bulletins and game scores enabled Wade to help Bobby Fischer prepare for his 1972 match with Boris Spassky.  He prepared a dossier on all of Spassky's games - back in the days before electronic chess databases,

Mark Weeks said...

Hello Xplor - Re 'Bob Wade OBE', The auction description mentions, 'Four volumes of bound typescript detailing the match history of Boris Spassky from the 1950s to 1971 (two vols as white, two as black), apparently prepared by "RGW" and with some manuscript commentary.' RGW is undoubtedly Wade. - Mark