02 June 2009

Fischer - Reshevsky at Auction

Once again curiosity got the better of me. After posting on the latest Fischer auction (see Fischer Loot Again at Auction), I crawled the Bonhams.com auction site to see if any other Fischer material had surfaced there recently. I was rewarded with the page Sale 16116 - Fine Books and Manuscripts, 15 Oct 2008; Los Angeles and New York; Lot No: 1220:

Autograph Manuscript Signed integrally (“Fischer”), 31 pp recto and verso, 12mo, n.p., 1959-1963, being a chess notebook used by Fisher during the time period and including a record of 13 games played against SAMUEL RESHEVSKY plus manuscript notes on the games in progress...

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The image on the page was a scoresheet showing the same game that I covered two months ago in Fischer - Reshevsky, Match 1961 (Game 2). What a coincidence! I don't believe the scoresheet is from the match itself. The sheet isn't signed and the preprinted text is in Serbian. Another page reporting on the final sale -- Rare Moliere and ‘Out of this World’ von Braun Papers Shine at Bonhams Fine Books & Manuscripts Sale -- mentioned that the lot sold for almost five times its estimate.

Too bad Fischer's name is spelled 'Fisher' three times in the description of the lot, including the title ('BOBBY FISHER’S CHESS NOTEBOOK'). At least the word 'chess' was spelled correctly throughout.

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