When World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer died in January 2008,
the media from all over the world immediately sought out Frank
Brady, Ph.D. for background information and commentary on the
temperamental chess genius. As Fischer’s biographer, Dr. Brady had
years ago forged a relationship with the young chess player at the
office where he founded and wrote Chess Life magazine.
Fischer, the reigning U.S. Chess Champion, continually visited
Brady’s office to read all the latest chess literature. They’d
dined together, played in the N.Y. Metropolitan Chess League, and
competed against each other in speed chess (a chess game with
clocked moves) at the Marshall Chess
Club) in Manhattan (“It took Bobby two minutes to checkmate, it
took me 10,” Brady chuckles). “Fischer was the Beethoven of chess,” Brady states, “probably
the greatest chess player that ever lived.” Brady, who is a Professor and Chair of the Mass Communication
Division in the College of Professional Studies, reports that
because of his knowledge of and experience with Bobby Fischer—“he
was controversial, arrogant, egotistical and towards the end,
outrageous”—he sold the film rights to his book to Home Box Office (HBO) last year and
will serve as a consultant on a long-planned docudrama about the
most famous chess match in history, Fischer vs. Spassky in
1972. It was a match like none before. It was two masters of chess
from the two Cold War superpowers going mano a mano over a
chessboard in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was the U.S. champion (since
age 14) against the World Champion (since 1969). It was the first
time in almost 25 years that a player from outside the Soviet Union
had earned the right to play a match for the World Championship
title. It was a match watched on televisions around the world. “It was a big deal. That match sparked a huge interest in the
game of chess,” Brady notes. He reports that before the
famous match there were about 5,000 members in the U.S. Chess
Federation and since 1972 that number has soared to its present
90,000 members. The film, which has a working title of Fischer-Spassky,
has been slow to get off the ground due to the recent strike by the
Writers Guild of America, but is
now about two months into production. “They asked for the rights to
use my book, Bobby Fischer:
Profile of a Prodigy,” the CPS Chair explained recently. “I’ll
be on the set from time to time to guarantee authenticity and serve
as a consultant.” Film consulting is not new to Brady, who was tapped as a
consultant for the 1993 Hollywood film, Searching for Bobby
Fischer, and for the reissuing of Orson Welles’ Touch of
Evil. He has also worked in Hollywood with George Lucas on a
radio adaptation of Star Wars. He guesses that since HBO
moves more quickly than Hollywood, shooting for the HBO film will
take place during the summer when the weather improves. In the meantime, a documentary maker—Academy Award nominee and
Emmy winner Liz Garbus,
co-founder of Moxie
Firecracker Films - is also collaborating with the St.
John’s professor, this time on a film chronicling Fisher’s entire
life. He says it’s possible that both jobs might take him to
Iceland where the famous match was held in 1972. He
anticipates that both films might be completed by the end of
2008. With an eye always on opportunities for his students, the mass
communications professor is hoping that a few internships might be
made available by the documentary makers. When not teaching or consulting on films, the St. John’s
professor can be found at the Marshall Chess Club, a group he
serves as president and to which he has belonged since he was a
teenager. Housed in a brownstone on W. 10th St. in Greenwich
Village and home to more than 300 members, the club boasts of
having 31 Grand masters when most clubs have none. “It’s considered
the most prestigious chess club in the country,” he says but notes
that the club welcomes all who are interested in chess. Recently
they hosted a tournament in which 40 senior citizens played against
40 youngsters aged up to 10 or 11 years. “St. John’s even sponsors a Top Masters tournament every month
and there are some who come from out of town just to play and
watch,” he says, noting that a few St. John’s students are rated by
the U.S.
Chess Federation. Senior Greg Fernandez, a Finance major in The
Peter J. Tobin College of Business, “played in the most recent U.S.
Amateur Team Championship Tournament held at the Parsippany Hilton
and won all his games. He’s rated an expert!” |