THE KING’S SACRIFICE

Livie Hoemmel

(Éditions Plon, 487 pages, 2023)

An explosive novel revealing the KGB’s incredible plot to eliminate Bobby Fischer, the greatest chess player in history.

In 1972, as the Cold War raged on, a twenty-nine-year-old American became World Chess Champion by defeating the Russian Boris Spassky. Bobby Fischer has just put an end to an uninterrupted string of Soviet world chess champions dating back 1948. Russia, which had already lost the Space Race and whose economy was faltering, was forced to admit that after decades of undisputed rule, they had lost their intellectual hegemony.

On April 3, 1975, the American reigning champion refused to defend his title, giving it up without a fight, and subsequently disappeared from the public eye. Why did he renounce his title?

Ever since, chess players and historians around the world have yearned to understand the reasons for Fischer’s stunning move. By revealing for the first time the truth about the Bobby Fischer mystery, the author is shaking up a storm in the world of chess.

This ambitious novel is a thriller, a love story, a philosophical tale, and a poignant eyewitness account all at once. It takes us, over four decades, from the chess clubs of New York to the corridors of the Kremlin.

Livie Hoemmel is the author’s pseudonym.