<P> Chiefly due to its accessibility for beginners and Fischer's high public profile, the book became probably the best - selling chess book of all time with an estimated one million copies sold . In October 1972, following Fischer's victory in the World Championship, the Bantam edition appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list at No. 2 on the general paperback list . It remained in this position for four weeks . </P> <P> Frank Brady, who was hired by Basic Systems as a promotional consultant, later said the book "lacked color or even a fleeting glimpse into the real way Bobby's mental processes work ." and that it "was not...one of the great introductory chess treatises of modern times ." The Times Literary Supplement, reviewing a 1973 British edition, criticized Fischer's grammar as well as the lack of content, which they said could have been compressed to fifty pages . </P> <P> The book remains in print and has achieved some degree of recognition in popular culture . Grandmaster Maurice Ashley has said that this was his first chess book, and it is referenced in Janet Fitch's novel White Oleander . </P>

Bobby fischer teaches chess by bobby fischer and stuart margulies