Chess grandmaster Fridrik Olafsson was the World championship candidate who became a national hero at home in Iceland and later President of the World Chess Federation, FIDE. This book follows his career with 114 games plus 4 game finishes, most of them played against leading grandmasters of several grandmasters, from the legendary Savielly Tartakower in 1954 to David Navara in 2013.

The Early Years 1921 - 1948

Vasily Smyslov, the seventh world champion, had a long and illustrious chess career. He played close to 3.000 tournament games over seven decades, from the time of Lasker and Capablanca to the days of Anand and Carlsen. From 1948 to 1958, Smyslov participated in four world championships, becoming world champion in 1957.

Schriftsteller-Theatermann-Schachspieler

Oscar Blumenthal hat ein sehr eindrucksvolles Lebenswerk hinterlassen, nicht nur als Bühnendichter ("Im weißen Rössl“) und Literaturkritiker. Er schrieb auch Aphorismen, Epigramme und Gedichte. Als kultivierter Zeitgenosse war Blumenthal zudem von der Schachkunst angetan, und er widmete sich dem anspruchsvollen Spiel der Könige mit großer Leidenschaft und Phantasie.

International Master Tibor Karolyi and FIDE Master Tigran Gyozalyan have written a comprehensive two-volume treatise on the life and games of Tigran Petrosian, who was world champion from 1963-1969. The present Volume I takes the reader on a journey from Tigran’s childhood, through the war years, successes in Georgian and Armenian national championships, his emergence as an elite player winning the Soviet championship and Olympic gold, and victory at the famous 1962 Candidates Tournament in Curacao.

Games, Stories and Instruction

At the U.S. Championship in 1989, Stuart Rachels seemed bound for the cellar. Ranked last and holding no IM norms, the 20-year-old amateur from Alabama was expected to get waxed by the American top GMs of the day that included Seirawan, Gulko, Dzindzichashvili, deFirmian, Benjamin and Browne.

Who Became Chess Champion of the Empire

Hardly anyone paid attention when Sultan Khan arrived in London on April 26, 1929. A humble servant from a village in the Punjab, Khan had little formal education and barely spoke English. He had learned the rules of Western chess only three years earlier, yet within a few months he created a sensation by becoming the British Empire champion.

Hein Donner (1927-1988) was a Dutch Grandmaster and one of the greatest writers on chess of all time. He was born into a prominent Calvinistic family of lawyers in The Hague. His father, who had been the Minister of Justice and later became President of the Dutch Supreme Court, detected a keen legal talent in his son. But Hein opted for a bohemian lifestyle as a chess professional and journalist. He scored several excellent tournament victories but never quite fulfilled the promise of his chess talent.

Revised and Updated Edition

Nearly 30 years since his last chess game, Bobby Fischer´s fame continues to grow. Appearing in Hollywood movies, documentaries and best-selling books, his life and career are as fascinating as they ever were and his games continue to generate discussion.
Indeed, with each new generation of computer, stunning discoveries are made about moves that have been debated by grandmasters for decades.

A Chess Prodigy’s Career in 64 Games

Ivan Bukavshin, born in Rostov-on-Don in 1995, was a Russian chess prodigy. He was European U12, U14 and U16 champion and placed third in the world U16 championships among many other successes, gaining the Grandmaster title at just 16 years of age. Ivan finished third in the Aeroflot Open in 2015, behind Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi, where he put in a performance rating of 2803. Ivan achieved a series of 2700+ performances over 2013-2015. He tragically died in early 2016 at the age of 20.

The Life and Games of Grigory Levenfish

Grigory Levenfish was twice Soviet Champion and drew a match with the great Botvinnik, yet despite his skills, he was never a favoured son of the Soviet Union. Rejected for selection to key events and the only Soviet grandmaster to be denied a stipend in later life, Levenfish was a Soviet Outcast.

Return (2004-2013)

Gata Kamsky was born 2 June 1974 in Siberia, Russia. At the age of six he moved to Leningrad, where he became a student of the renowned trainer Vladimir Zak. He moved to the USA in 1989. He is a graduate of Brooklyn College and the Touro Law Center in New York. He became a grandmaster at the age of sixteen, is a five-time US Champion and six-time US Olympiad team member, was the 1996 FIDE World Champions ip challenger, 2007 FIDE World Cup winner and 2010 World Rapid Chess Champion. He was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Farne in 2016.

"I do not accept an absolute limit to my knowledge. I have a zeal to understand that refuses to die."— Emanuel Lasker, 1919

Among great chess masters, Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941) stands unique for the depth and broad scope of his intellect. Most of the game’s world champions have been single-mindedly chess-obsessed, with few outside interests. Lasker, however, was very much a polymath, making major contributions to mathematics and philosophy, plus writing on many other subjects:

The Man Who Taught America Chess

Fred Reinfeld-his name used to be known to almost every chess player in the United States. Not so well known are his accomplishments. One of the strongest players of his time, he ranked just below Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky (against whom he had a plus score). He was the accomplished author of some of the best chess books of the 1930s and 1940s, and a respected numismatist, recognized as a pioneer in the field. He was an editor or major contributor to almost every major chess magazine through the 1940s-Chess Review, Chess Correspondent and Chess Life .

Selected Games of Igor Kurnosov

This book contains fifty illustrative games and a career overview of Chelyabinsk grandmaster Igor Kurnosov, who was tragically hit and killed by a car in 2013 at the age of just 28. At his last tournament prior to his death, Igor attained a super-grandmaster tournament performance rating in excess of 2700.

Kurnosov left an indelible mark on the chess world - he was a Russian youth champion, a member of the Russian national team that won the world student team championship and the Tomsk-400 team that finished first at the Russian championship. He won or placed highly at dozens of international tournaments.

Romain Edouard, highest rating 2702, has been a member of the French national team since 2011. As a teenager, he won the gold medal at the European U16 Championship in 2006 and silver at the European and World U18 Championships in 2007. He became an IM at the age of 16, GM at 17, French Champion at 21, and has won numerous international events all over the world.