At the height of the British Empire, the chess loving Indian servant, Sultan Khan, arrived in the imperial capital as part of the feudal retinue of Sir Umar, his high caste master. While Sir Umar deliberated in the rarefied atmosphere of London conferences, with British panjandra, on the future of the Raj, his retainer started to take on the British elite at chess. Sweeping all before him, the Indian genius entered the international arena where, playing top board for the British Empire team, he defeated grandmasters, such as Rubinstein.

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. Sultan Khan was taken to England by Sir Umar Hayat Khan, an Indian nobleman and politician who used his servant’s successes to promote his own interests in the turbulent years before India gained independence. Sultan Khan remained in Europe for the best part of five years, competing with the leading chess players of the era, including World Champion Alexander Alekhine and former World Champion Jose Raoul Capablanca. His unorthodox style often stunned his opponents, as Daniel King explains in his examination of the key games and tournaments in Khan’s career. Daniel King has uncovered a wealth of new facts about Khan, as well as dozens of previously unknown games. For the first time he tells the full story of how Khan, a Muslim outsider, was received in Europe, of his successes in the chess world and his return to obscurity after his departure for India in 1933.

Vast collection of great chess games from 1798 through 1938, with much hard-to-find material. Fully annotated, arranged by opening for easier study. 150 years of master play!

One of the most extraordinary books ever written about chess and chessplayers, this authoritative study goes well beyond a lucid explanation of how todays chessmasters and tournament players are rated. Twenty years' research and practice produce a wealth of thought-provoking and hitherto unpublished material on the nature and development of high-level talent: Just what constitutes an "exceptional performance" at the chessboard? Can you really profit from chess lessons? What is the lifetime pattern of Grandmaster development? Where are the masters born? Does your child have master potential? The step-by-step rating system exposition should enable any reader to become an expert on it. For some it may suggest fresh approaches to performance measurement and handicapping in bowling, bridge, golf and elsewhere. 43 charts, diagrams and maps supplement the text. How and why are chessmasters statistically remarkable? How much will your rating rise if you work with the devotion of a Steinitz? At what age should study begin? What toll does age take, and when does it begin? Development of the performance data, covering hundreds of years and thousands of players, has revealed a fresh and exciting version of chess history. One of the many tables identifies 500 all-time chess greatpersonal data and top lifetime performance ratings. Just what does government assistance do for chess? What is the Soviet secret? What can we learn from the Icelanders? Why did the small city of Plovdiv produce three Grandmasters in only ten years? Who are the untitled dead? Did Euwe take the championship from Alekhine on a fluke? How would Fischer fare against Morphy in a ten-wins match? 1t was inevitable that this fascinating story be written, ' asserts FIDE President Max Euwe, who introduces the book and recognizes the major part played by ratings in today's burgeoning international activity. Although this is the definitive ratings work, with statistics alone sufficient to place it in every reference library, it was written by a gentle scientist for pleasurable reading -for the enjoyment of the truths, the questions, and the opportunities it reveals.

"A portrait of world chess champion Bobby Fischer from his first tournament in Brooklyn, New York to his final years in Iceland. Written by International Master John Donaldson, the book includes first-hand accounts from top players who knew, played again, anf interacted with Fischer. The book also includes 99 annotated games with new analysis-some of these games have never been published before. Illustrated with over 100 B&W photos"--