Press release
Sinequefields Purchase Bobby Fischer's Chess Collection
St. Louis, June 11 – Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield have purchased the chess
library of the legendary Bobby Fischer, including notebooks he prepared for
his 1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky. The Sinquefields acquired
the collection through San Francisco-based auction house, Bonhams and Butterfields.
"I am thrilled to have this collection from arguably the greatest chess
player in history," said Rex Sinquefield, founder and board president of
the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. "I have been a lifelong
fan of Bobby Fischer."
The reclusive Fischer died in January 2008 at age 64. The collection purchased
by the Sinquefields includes 320 books on chess; about 400 issues of chess-related
periodicals; three sets of proofs for Fischer's 1969 book, "My 60 Memorable
Games"; and a number of bound volumes detailing the match histories of
several chess masters, including Spassky.
The Spassky-related works centers on Fischer's preparation for his historic
1972 match, won by Fischer. The victory ended 24 years of Soviet domination
of the World Championship.
The collection also includes a copy of "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess,"
with a note indicating that Fischer planned on suing the publishers.
Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, who are retired investment company executives,
said they weren't sure of their plans with the Fischer collection. "I am
thinking right now about how to display it and to make it available to scholars,"
Rex said.
The Chess Club and Scholastic Center was founded in 2007 with funding from
the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. It recently hosted the 2009 U.S. Chess
Championship, which was won by Hikaru Nakamura. The center also will host the
2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship from Oct. 2 to Oct. 12.
The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is a not-for-profit, 501(c)3
organization. For more information, please visit www.saintlouischessclub.org.
The chess patron of the 2009
US Chess Championship, Rex Sinquefield, here with
the Mayor of St. Louis, Francis Slay, at the start of the Championship
Lot No: 3372
Bobby Fischer’s chess library,
including notebooks prepared for the 1972 world chess championship.
- Approximately 320 volumes on chess including a few match results, various
places and languages (including many Soviet imprints), 1889-1992, mostly 8vo,
original bindings. Includes about a dozen presentation copies, inscribed by
the authors for Fischer and two typed letters signed laid in. At least three
volumes bear Fischer’s ownership signature and at least two with other
notation by Fischer.
- Approximately 400 issues of chess-related periodicals, including runs of
The Chess Player, Sahovski Informator, Overboard, Revista SAH, “Waxmatbl”,
and “Magyar Sakkelet” among others, mostly 1960s-1980s,
various sizes, original wrappers.
- Nine personal floppy disks (unexamined).
- Three sets of proofs for Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games
(published 1969), with the title in various stages (“My Memorable Games:
52 Tournament Games”, “My Life in Chess”) comprising a typescript
with copious technical annotations, mostly printers notes, but also various
changes to wording and corrections to the chess notation possibly made by
Fischer, with a sketch of the title-page on drafting paper apparently in Fischer’s
hand; a set of page proofs (loose, possibly in duplicate); and a partially
annotated galley proof stamped June 1966.
- 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.
- Fifteen volumes of ring- or string-bound manuscript notebooks with notation
of the games of Mark Taimanov and Tigran Petrossian from the 1950s-1970, various
hands.
Condition varies, generally a bit musty and a few volumes water-damaged but
otherwise good or better.
Library of books and documents derived from the Pasadena storage unit where
Fischer’s belongings were held after 1992. Fischer had defied the U.N.
embargo against travel to Yugoslavia for his re-match against Boris Spassky
and never again returned to the U.S.
The manuscript material centers on Fischer’s preparation for his historic
match with Boris Spassky in 1972, certainly the most exciting moment in the
history of American chess. Fischer’s win in “The Match of the Century”
ended 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Championship and was viewed
with elation in the doldrums of the Cold War. A telling memo appears in one
of the bound typescripts: “Spassky seems to adopt defences for Black
after prolonged experience with the white pieces against a particular defence.
I had a conversation with Korchnoi after Hastings (January) – he had not
been informed that I was preparing files for you – in which he made some
remark that a possible weakness of yours was the Bc4 lines as White against
the Sicilian….” Among the printed volumes there is an annotated
German edition of the match record for the 1971 World Championship, many games
bear Fischer’s own notes as to how the games could have been won (“31…RF4!
Wins easily / 21gF Rg6 wins / 20.QFl!” etc.)
Other highlights from the library include a copy of Anatoly Karpov's Selected
Chess Matches 1966-1977, Moscow, 1978 inscribed and signed by the author
for Bobby Fischer, in Russian. Also an issue of Macedonian Checkmake (in Macedonian)
which Fischer has signed in initials below a note, "Movies, television,
tv, cassetes" from February 1972--Fischer apparently preparing for the
world fame he was to attain a few months later.
It is evident that Fischer’s thirst after chess knowledge knew no national
boundaries. He possessed works in multiple languages, many published from behind
the Iron Curtain. Several of the Soviet and Eastern European periodicals bear
Fischer’s name in manuscript on the upper cover, but were first mailed
to East Berlin. Present also is a copy of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess with a
note laid in seeming to indicate that Fischer planned on suing the publishers.
The proofs of Fischer’s chess autobiography are heavily annotated and
an interesting reminder of the amazing technical difficulty of publishing a
work that can only be proofed by the author himself or a very few specialists.
Every book in the library relates to the game of chess, with the exception
of Fischer’s own ”I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!”
of 1982. A fascinating look into Fischer’s absolute single-mindedness
in becoming the world’s greatest chess player and more specifically in
attaining victory over Boris Spassky.
The entire lot was sold for $61,000 inclusive by the Bonhams
and Butterfield auction house on Madison Avenue in New York. The entire
package was sold in one lot for US $50,000, plus a $11,000 Bonhams commission.
