Mikhail Botvinnik won the World Chess Championship in 1948 and held the title with two breaks until 1963. Botvinnik announced his retirement from chess in 1970. This book covers the entire period when Botvinnik waa World Chess Champion. Of the great postwar chess players, one figure stands out above all others - the Soviet grandmaster, Mikhail Botvinnik. With the exception of two one-year interludes this dedicated electrical engineer was world champion for fifteen years - from 1948 to 1963; on the second occasion that he regained his title - from Tal - he was in his fiftieth year. It was not, however, until 1970 that he announced his "official retirement" from international competition. "Chess". wrote Botvinnik, "is an art which illustrates the beauty of logic." He could not abide errors which spoiled the beauty of the game, and the secret of his success was thorough preparation and routine, which fully justified his own self-confidence - and which were systematically adopted by the Soviet school. In controlled positional play, Botvinnik was an incomparable virtuoso - as Bronstein, Smyslov, and Tal, among many others, discovered. Above all, he was a perfectionist. Prefaced by a short biography, this volume - the first ever published in English presents over 100 of Botvinnik's best games over the period 1947 to 1970. Nearly all the annotations are by Botvinnik himself, and they reveal the qualities that won him the champion's title. Botvinnik's Best Games is, perhaps, the outstanding collection of the decade.

Modern chess began in 1851 in the London Tournament of the Crystal Palace Exposition. Today, the principles of winning play have been explored and codified: a beginner can learn more about chess in one year, than a master learned a century ago during his entire career. This book is the first detailed presentation, by a Grand Master, of a complete analysis of the world's best games. For all who are interested in the fine points, the author has selected the most notable examples of brilliant play and strategy, the attack and the defense. Among the masters whose best games are to be found in the work are: Alekhine, Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Lasker, Marshall. Morphy, Rubinstein, Steinitz. Tarrasch, Tartakower, and many, many others. Reuben Fine had not taken chess seriously until late high school days. Yet he became a Grand \faster at the age of twenty-one, and was dual winner of the great AVRO Tournament of 1938. Dr. Fine was officially ranked - on the basis of twenty years of tournament play - as the Number 1 player of the United States, and a Challenger for the World Championship. Dr. Fine taught psychology at the College of the City of New York and at Brooklyn College. He and his family lived in New York City, where he practiced psychoanalysis. Reuben Fine was been a member of three U. S. World Championship Teams. He tied for first prize with Keres in the great AVRO tournament of 1938 and has won the U. S. Speed Championship four rimes. Among his famous books are The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings,The Middle Game in Chess, Basic Chess Endings, Practical Chess Openings, and his great and continuing best seller, Chess the Easy Way.

A Truly Unique Chess Book The chess triumphs of the Polgar sisters are legendary. Now, in this very special book, Sofia Polgar tells her own exceptional story: from her development as a prodigy and remarkable tournament successes to her eventually settling down, with chess occupying a lesser role as she raised a family. Sofia presents many of her games, each with her own brand of fireworks. Clear, straightforward annotations allow the reader to appreciate her accomplishments on the board, while away from the board, her many personal memoirs complete the picture. There are many photographs, many of which haver never been previously published. They nicely complement the chronicle of both her meteoric rise in the chess world and her loving family who encouraged her at every turn. What is not generally known is that Sofia Polgar is also a gifted artist - a talented painter. Dozens of examples of her brilliant creativity on canvas are featured throughout this large format book. These paintings are presented in full color and on special matte paper to enhance the reader's viewing enjoyment. From Susan Polgar's Foreword: "You are invited to enjoy the experience of the wonderful legacy of Sofia's amazing chess career and art." From Judit Polgar's Foreword: "I wish the readers a pleasant journey on this artistic excursion that provides great chess lessons while also offering nourishment for the soul." Sofia Polgar: Amazing Artist - Dangerous Tactician is part autobiography, part art gallery and part tactical textbook, but above all it is a very special, unique look at the life and games of an artist both on and off the board.

“The intricacies of family and the complexities of the games they play mingle wonderfully here in a memoir quite unlike any other.”—George Plimpton, author of Truman Capote Katy Lederer grew up on the bucolic campus of an exclusive East Coast boarding school where her father taught English, her mother retreated into crosswords and scotch, and her much older siblings played “grown-up” games like gin rummy and chess. But Katy faced much more than the typical trials of childhood. Within the confines of the Lederer household an unlikely transformation was brewing, one that would turn this darkly intellectual and game-happy group into a family of professional gamblers. Poker Face is Katy Lederer’s perceptive account of her family’s lively history. From the long kitchen table where her mother played what seemed an endless game of solitaire, to the seedy New York bars where her brother first learned to play poker, to the glamorous Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, where her sister and brother wager hundreds of thousands of dollars a night at the tables, Lederer takes us on a tragicomic journey through a world where intelligence and deceit are used equally as currency. Not since Mary McCarthy’s Memories of a Catholic Girlhood has a writer cast such a witty and astringently analytic eye on the demands of growing up. An unflinching exploration of trust and betrayal, competition, suspicion, and unconventional familial love, Poker Face is a testament to the human spirit’s inventiveness when faced with unusually difficult odds.

In The Wizard of Odds, renowned and best-selling basketball writer Charley Rosen brings us for the first time the full life story of Jack Molinas, one of the greatest basketball players of his era, a man whose gambling addiction and hubris caused his ultimate demise. Drawing on numerous, previously unavailable first-person accounts, including Jack Molinas’s own journal and trial transcripts, Rosen presents the true saga of a man who perhaps better than anyone around him understood the weaknesses of the system in which he lived—so much so that he convinced himself that he could manipulate that system to his advantage with total impunity, in a life’s journey that took him from NBA play to the Mafia and the pornographic film industry, and to an ultimate tragic destiny.

The passing of David Bronstein was the saddest chess news of 2006, but at least his many fans now have the chance to read his collection of memoirs and games from his long career. Much of the material appeard in Russian several years ago, but this is the first English translation. Bronstein's love of the game, and his special rapport with chess amateurs, shines through especially strongly. English players will find details of his visits to Hastings, appearances for Charlton in the London League, and friendship with numerous chess fans in the UK. Lovers of more sinister gossip and conspiracy theories will enjoy his account of the alleged shenanigans at Zurich 1953, and his secret preparation with Korchnoi bevor the latter's 1974 match with Karpov. Any lover of chess will find hours of delight in this book, which is a worthy tribute to one of the games's immortals. Review by Steve Giddins. David Bronstein describes the chess personalities he has met in various countries over the past decade, and annotates 40 of his best games from this period. He also recalls the most significant events from his earlier career, gives his impressions of contemporaries such as Larsen, Spassky and Korchnoi (including a secret training match against the latter played in 1971), and expresses his outspoken views on modern chess.

Play Like A Girl! is a collection of tactical positions from the world's best women chessplayers. Chess lovers of all levels can enjoy the puzzles, as the difficulty goes all the way from one-move killer blows to deep, complex combinations. The crushing tactics in this book show that playing like a girl is something to aspire to! When you purchase Play Like a Girl!, you're also helping charity. All author royalties go to the Tucson-based non-profit organization, 9Queens.

UNIVERSALLY acclaimed as the most brilliant master since the days of Paul Morphy. Keres has delighted the chess world with his dynamic combinative play and slashing surprise moves. In this exciting collection of his finest games, his claim to world championship honors is documented by notable victories against such chess immortals as Alekhine, Capablanca, Eliskases, Euwe, Fine, Flohr, Najdorf, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Spielmann and Stahlberg. The artistry of Keres' play is highlighted bv Reinfeld's admirable annotations. Another valuable feature is the autobiographical introduction by Keres, in which he describes his rise to fame and appraises the candidates for World Championship.

A collection of stories, told first-hand, by people who have known Bobby Fischer in the past. There are 7 authors in all, making for a book with many different views on America’s greatest chess player of all time.

This is not merely a great book. It is an important piece of chess history, because the author Hans Kmoch visited the Rubinstein Family Home in 1933 in an effort to get the great grandmaster of chess to return to active play. When Rubinstein could not be induced to return, his family who was living in dire poverty asked Kmoch for help in raising funds. The result was an ad placed asking to finance this book on a subscription basis. The result was a book entitled "Rubinstein gewinnt : Hundert Glanzpartien des grossen Schachkunstlers. Erlautert von Hans Kmoch. Biographische Einleitung von Jacques Hannak. Verlag der Wiener Schachzeitung, Wien 1933" That book was then translated into this book. It was a direct translation. All the games are the same. I have not been able to find any changes at all, although there are no doubt a few. I have just purchased the only original copy of the 1933 book Rubinstein gewinnt left that I have been able to find after months of searching. I am reprinting it as ISBN 4871875806. Akiba Rubinstein was born on 12 December 1882 in Poland. He has long been regarded as the strongest chess player in history who never became world champion. A recent trivia quiz appeared in Chess Life Magazine: Who is the player who defeated Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine the first time he played each of them. The answer was of course Akiba Rubinstein. Rubinstein won five tournaments in a row during the period 1912-1914. There is little doubt that he was the strongest player in the world at that time. Rubinstein's contribution to chess opening theory has been enormous. Almost every major chess opening has a Rubinstein Variation or a Rubinstein Defense. Think about it: There is no Fischer Defense, no Capablanca Defense. But there are many variations called the Rubinstein Defense or Variation. Only Steinitz has as many openings named after him, but the Steinitz Defenses are no longer played. Rubinstein far outlived all of his contemporaries. His family all survived the war. Rubinstein died on 5 March 1961 in Antwerp, Belgium at age 83. He was in good physical health until just before he died. So perhaps there was a method to his madness."

This is the autobiography of George Koltanowski, the greatest showman and promoter that chess has ever known. Koltanowski will be best remembered as an exhibitor, writer, promoter and showman. Possessed with an incredibly powerful memory, Koltanowski would often give exhibitions, playing several games blindfold simultaneously. Strangely, what wowed the spectators the most was not that he would win all the games, even though blindfolded, but that after the games were over, he would recite the complete moves of the games without looking at the board, something which any competent master can do. Being an exhibitor giving blindfold exhibitions is what he was best known for, but it was only one aspect of his chess career. He was also a top level player. He defeated grandmasters Flohr and Rubinstein and drew Alekhine, Fine, Kotov and Keres in tournament games.

"Chess the Hard Way" is the autobiography of Daniel Abraham Yanofsky, who was not only Canada's first chess grandmaster but was Canada's only grandmaster until the modern era. His career is remarkable. He was from a remote Indian town in Central Canada where there were no chess masters. Almost invariably, strong chess players only develop in places where there are other strong players. Almost all chess grandmasters have come from the major population centers such as New York, St. Petersburg and Moscow. The few exceptions are rare cases of genius, Carlos Torre from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico and Sultan Khan from India at a time when India had no chess masters. Daniel Yanofsky falls into this category of genius, because he appears to have been almost entirely self taught."

This was the first book by Reuben Fine and one of the first, if not the very first, by Fred Reinfeld. Both were young men. Fine was 21. Reinfeld was 24. Both went on to become not only strong chess players but prolific writers of books, especially Reinfeld who wrote more than one hundred chess books. Both Fine and Reinfeld became noted authors of books on other subjects as well. Reinfeld wrote more than fifty books on other subjects such as checkers, coin collecting and stamp collecting. Fine wrote college textbooks on psychology and psychoanalysis. Dr. Lasker's Chess Career 1889-1914 has become a rare book, almost impossible to obtain. I bought the book used for this reprint from a collector of rare books in Denmark. The original title was Dr. Lasker's Chess Career, Part I, 1889-1914. This was obviously intended to be the first in a series of books about World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941). When this book was written, Emanuel Lasker was still alive. However, no other volume of this book was ever written, so the title has been shortened to just Dr. Lasker's Chess Career 1889-1914. Emanuel Lasker burst on the chess scene by winning his first tournament in 1888-1889 at the age of 20. He then won several tournaments and played a series of matches in 1889-1893 against some of the strongest players in the world, winning them all. However, when he challenged the World Chess Champion Wilhelm Steinitz to a match in 1894, it was believed that he stood no chance. The world was shocked when he defeated Steinitz and became World Chess Champion, a title he held for the next 27 years until he lost to Capablanca in 1921.