Word: eidinow
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...Trouble With Genius," Lev Grossman's review of David Edmond and John Eidinow's book Bobby Fischer Goes to War [March 15], suggested that Fischer's irrational behavior detracted from his chess-playing prowess. But in the game of chess, it is important to predict the moves of one's opponent. When a player does not behave rationally, such predictions are hard to make. Viewed in this light, Fischer's antisocial, egomaniacal antics were ingenious psychological ploys that made his opponents second-guess their ideas about the grand master's chess strategies. Fischer's aberrant behavior was a crucial aspect...
...Bobby Fischer Goes to War (Ecco; 342 pages), David Edmonds and John Eidinow tell the story of Fischer's most famous match, the 1972 world championship in Reykjavik. Fischer faced Soviet grand master Boris Spassky in a chess game that was not only an epic staring match between two intellectual gladiators but also the focus of all kinds of weird, free-floating cold war cultural-political energy. It was the Rumble in the Jungle and the Cuban missile crisis all rolled into...
...Wittgenstein's Poker (Ecco; 340 pages; $24), the British journalists David Edmonds and John Eidinow exhaustively investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged incident. Popper says Wittgenstein lost his cool; others disagree. But it's not just another senior-common-room spat. For Edmonds and Eidinow the altercation is a jumping-off point: they write around it in vast, widening concentric circles, sketching in its complex social and intellectual context...
Fortunately, Edmonds and Eidinow aren't philosophers themselves, and their account of Wittgenstein's notoriously difficult ideas is admirably clear. During his defense of his doctoral thesis, Wittgenstein famously told his examiners, "Don't worry. I know you'll never understand it." By the end of Wittgenstein's Poker, you'll almost believe you could...
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