SANAKOEV - World Champion at the Third Attempt

 Boris Spassky is the most underappreciated World Champion in chess history, remembered as the Soviet who lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972. In this two-volume work, biographer extraordinaire Tibor Karolyi puts the focus on Spassky’s brilliant career and life story.

Born in 1937, Spassky barely escaped with his life when evacuating from the Siege of Leningrad as a young boy. This book tells the story of how that boy subsequently learned to play chess and rose through the Soviet ranks to become the strongest player in the world in the late 1960s.

International Master Tibor Karolyi is a renowned author and trainer from Hungary. His biographical works for Quality Chess have received glowing praise from readers and reviewers.

Victor Bologan is not only a strong and creative chess grandmaster, he has also made a career in Moldovan and world chess politics. His strong will and incredible versatility have enabled him to lead a colourful and interesting life. ‘Believe in yourself’ is his motto and it has taken him to places many of us will never see.

A sparkling description of the many roads Bologan has travelled lies before you. In this autobiography you will read about the adventures of an enterprising youngster in turbulent Moldova, his collaborations with renowned chess coaches such as Vyacheslav Chebanenko, Zigurds Lanka and Mark Dvoretsky, and his alliances with top players such as Alexander Morozevich, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov. The book also offers a candid insight into Bologan's activities as Executive Director of the World Chess Federation FIDE and his career in Moldovan national politics.

Central to this book, of course, is Bologan's chess career. His most impressive tournament victory was in Dortmund in 2003, where he beat both Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. But he also won the incredibly strong Aeroflot Open in Moscow in 1995 and twice came first in a personal favourite, the annual Poikovsky tournament. Bologan has extensively annotated 88 of his best and most attractive games. 424 pages

OUT OF STOCK

After having conquered chess America, Paul Morphy issued a challenge to European chess players and traveled there to play the best players of the game, and in particular wanting to face Howard Staunton, the English master who was widely considered to be the best player in the world.
The present book, written by his private secretary, Frederick Milnes Edge, includes accounts and letters of the efforts of Morphy and his supporters to have him face the best players. As you will read, not all of the efforts succeeded.
In the second part of the book, we include a shorter book by C. A. Buck, Paul Morphy - His Later Life, which covers Morphy's life after returning to the US and giving up chess. 173 pages

18 champions, quatre parties commentées par tête de pipe, histoire de faire connaissance : l'idée n'est pas nouvelle, mais le résultat toujours intéressant pour qui ne suit pas au jour le jour l'actu échiquéenne. Reste que le choix, tant des joueurs (la quasi-retraitée Judit Polgar dans les champions du nouveau millénaire ?) que des parties (quatre parties des années 90 pour Anand) pose question, et se révèle décevant pour le public français - Mamedyarov mais pas Bacrot, Karjakin mais pas Vachier