Black and White. The Victories and Defeats of Bobby Fischer

From chess genius and national hero to enemy of the state and true madman

Bobby Fischer's (1943–2008) life was filled with extraordinary events. Born in Brooklyn and raised by a single mother, Bobby was always different from everyone else—he kept to himself, dropped out of school, but found his true calling in chess.

At the age of fourteen, he became the youngest US champion, and a year later—the youngest grandmaster. The pinnacle of his professional achievements can be considered his victory over the Soviet chess player Boris Spassky in the so-called match of the century in 1972, at the height of the Cold War.

Fischer reached the summit of the chess Olympus at twenty-nine, and then vanished from sight. Suffering from mental illness, the exalted genius rapidly turned into a paranoid, obsessed with conspiracy theories. For many years he hid from justice and died in Iceland in 2008.

The graphic novel sheds light on the story of the great Bobby Fischer's rise, recounts his incredible ascent and transformation into an icon of American culture, as well as his unexpected and equally unprecedented fall. An engaging narrative about ambition and fame, reclusiveness and madness.

Reflecting on Fischer's ambiguous figure, the author and illustrator took an intriguing approach, dividing the novel into chapters, each dedicated to one of the pieces in a chess game. Readers are invited to ponder alternative scenarios—all as in the well-known game. The only difference is that a person's fate is at stake, and any wrong move on the board can lead to defeat in real life.