Anand has been one of the world's top players for more than two decades, and cemented his place in the all-time hall of fame by winning the unified World Championship in 2007, and successfully defending his title against Kramnik and Topalov. But it's not just his results that make Anand special. His style of play leads to highly spectacular games, and his speed of thought is the stuff of legends. He is also a great explainer of ideas, as his annotations for this book demonstrate. Anand is renowned as 'Mr Nice Guy', popular with both the public and his fellow supergrandmasters. John Nunn, who collaborated with Anand on the original book, has annotated 30 games selected by Anand himself from the period 2001-2011. This new edition also features biographical information and a career record.

In late 2018, for the first time in nearly two decades, the World Chess Championship was contested between the two players who are clearly number one and two in the world. The champion, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen was defending his title against Fabiano Caruana, the first American to challenge for the World Championship since the legendary Bobby Fischer. This book, co-authored by two leading chess journalists, features extensive and detailed analysis of all game sin the match, biographies and interviews with both players and a history of the world chess championship.

The World Championship Candidates' Tournament of 1950 marked a fresh phase in the history of the world title. Hitherto, the champion had chosen his challenger, of course bearing in mind such pressures as public opinion and prize purses on offer. Now, after the interregnum caused by the death of Alekhine as incumbent in 1946, FIDE, the World Chess Federation, instituted a regular series of qualifying events to determine the rightful challenger to the chess throne. Budapest 1950 was to be Bronstein's finest hour: coming from behind he caught his imperturbable compatriot Boleslavsky at the finishing post and then squeezed ahead of him in the play-off. The notes to this great event, which also featured such immortals as Smyslov, Keres, and Najdorf, are by the British publishing pioneer Cordingley, while the comments to the tie-breaking match are furnished by the world champion of chess journalists, Grandmaster emeritus Harry Golombek OBE, based on his insights for the British Chess Magazine. As we know, Bronstein advanced to challenge Botvinnik for the world title, but faltered at the final hurdle. That epic clash is covered in the companion Hardinge Simpole volume, World Chess Championship 1951, by William Winter and R.G. Wade, ISBN 1843820846 This mighty clash between the top two Soviet Grandmasters was Botvinnik's first title defence after becoming World Champion in 1948. Amazingly, the man who had dominated Soviet and World chess was only able to defend his title by the skin of his teeth after a most ferocious and determined onslaught from his youthful challenger David Bronstein. The controversial 23rd game where a demoralised Bronstein may have resigned prematurely was the key to Botvinnik's ultimate success. This book was written by two expert eye witnesses, former British Champion and International Master William Winter, and Bob Wade, International Master, vice-president of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and later to be awarded the OBE for services to chess and chess education. Together these two acknowledged experts of the game give a thrilling first hand account of the intense intellectual drama of one of the most evenly fought battles in chess history.

Including all games from the World Chess Championship Match, plus previous games between Anand and Carlsen and a ground breaking history of the World Chess Champions, including representative games by each of the 19 prior holders of the world title. All annotated by Grandmaster Raymond Keene, OBE. Includes 40 annotated chess games, 243 chess diagrams, plus puzzles and quizzes based upon the games of the match.

World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik writes the story of the 1963 match in which he lost his title to fellow Russian Tigran Petrosian. Botvinnik, one of the greatest chess players of all time, analyses the games, reveals his match strategy and comments on the strategic choices of his opponent. Botvinnik's revealing essay: ?Why In lost the match? is counterbalanced by Petrosian's analysis of his win, which is also included in this important historical document. A fascinating and highly instructive report.

THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPION SERIES The fourth title in the popular World Chess Champion Series is about the enigmatic Alexander Alekhine. Tracing the Russian-born champion from his youth in Russia, through his assault on the chess Olympus and beyond, this books paints a fresh portrait of the player who was one of the most spectacular tacticians ever to play the game. The authors do not shy from confronting some of the less savory aspects of Alekhine’s life. They stick to the facts and present the issues surrounding the fourth world champion. “This book clears up some of the mysteries of Alekhine and provides some wonderful details...There are so many intriguing aspects to Alekhine’s life that it’s easy to forget how much he dominated the chess world...The Linders capture quite well the drama of Alekhine’s world championship matches with José Capablanca and Max Euwe. Even the blowouts against Efim Bogoljubow are well-described. Alekhine was the most peripatetic of champions, and this book details many of his travels and simul tours.” – Andy Soltis in his Foreword.

The Stuff of Legend A great tournament deserves a great book. That's what grandmaster Miguel Najdorf produced in his account of one of the greatest and most important chess events of all time, the 1953 Zürich Candidates Tournament, in which 15 of the world's top players battled for the right to challenge the world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik. After two months and 210 games, many of which rank among the best ever played, Russian grandmaster Vassily Smyslov finally came out at the head of a star-studded field that included Sam Reshevsky, Paul Keres, David Bronstein, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller, Alexander Kotov, Mark Taimanov, Yuri Averbakh, Isaac Boleslavsky, Laszló Szabó, Svetozar Gligoric, Max Euwe, Gideon Ståhlberg, and Najdorf himself. This is the first English edition of this classic work, until now available only in its original Spanish. It includes all 210 games with Najdorf's full and extensive notes, plus all the original introductory material, biographical sketches of the players, round-by-round accounts of the action, closing summary, and a survey of the tournament's impact on opening theory. Additionally this edition has many more diagrams and photos, an introduction by Yuri Averbakh (one of the last surviving participants) and a foreword by Andy Soltis.

The name of José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942), the third world champion, is indelibly inscribed in the annals of chess history. Capablanca s technique, intuition, remarkably quick calculation, and sense for elegant combinations made him the paragon of grandmasters during his lifetime. At the peak of his career Capablanca was almost invincible; each of his losses was regarded as a sensation. His books, articles, and lucid annotations became instant classics. As a star of the first magnitude, Capablanca continues to influence the world of chess. All the world champions of the late 20th century Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, and Kasparov have been influenced by Capablanca s original ideas. Join Russian chess historians Isaak and Vladimir Linder as they take you on a journey exploring the life and games of the great Cuban world chess champion.

On September 10, 1984, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov appeared on the stage of the Hall of Columns in Moscow for the first game of their match for the World Chess Championship. The clash between the reigning champion and his brazen young challenger was highly anticipated, but no one could have foreseen what was in store. In the next six years they would play five matches for the highest title and create one of the fiercest rivalries in sports history. The matches lasted a staggering total of 14 months, and the ‘two K’s’ played 5540 moves in 144 games. The first match became front page news worldwide when after five months FIDE President Florencio Campomanes stepped in to stop the match citing exhaustion of both participants. A new match was staged and having learned valuable lessons, 22yearold Garry Kasparov became the youngest World Chess Champion in history. His win was not only hailed as a triumph of imaginative attacking chess, but also as a political victory. The representative of ‘perestroika’ had beaten the old champion, a symbol of Soviet stagnation. Kasparov defended his title in three more matches, all of them full of drama. Karpov remained a formidable opponent and the overall score was only 7371 in Kasparov’s favour. In The Longest Game Jan Timman returns to the KasparovKarpov matches. He chronicles the many twists and turns of this fascinating saga, including his behindthe scenes impressions, and takes a fresh look at the games.

The 1951 match for the World Chess Championship was exceptionally hard fought. Each player won 5 games and the remaining 14 games were drawn. The match ended in a 12-12 tie and, under the rules, the champion, Botvinnik, retained his title. A new appendix has been added to the end of this book with all the games converted to Algebraic notation and the concluded diagram for each game. Rumors that have persisted that Bronstein was forced to resign that match by some higher political authority resulted in a book and a movie that depicted the supposed event. The book and movie is "From Russia with Love" by Ian Fleming. It is part of the long running James Bond Agent 007 Series. Kronsteen, unlike the real life David Bronstein, is given the assignment of planning the murder of James Bond, who has been giving the Soviets trouble for a long time. This ultimately leads to the death of Kronsteen in the movie, unlike Bronstein who obeyed the order and thus was allowed to live to a ripe old age. According to the plan worked out by Kronsteen, a beautiful Russian girl would be sent as a lure to James Bond. While this plot line may seem ridiculous, it was not entirely untrue. The Soviets did in reality use beautiful women as bait to entrap Americans, as was the case of a real spy the Russians sent to us recently, Anna Chapman.