This is Veselin Topalov's very personal account of his 2006 world championship match against the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik. With the help of co-author Zhivko Ginchev, Topalov shares his thoughts, hopes and fears as he fought for the most prestigious title in the chess world.

Starting Out: Sicilian Sveshnikov is a further addition to Everyman's best-selling Starting Out series, which has been acclaimed for its original approach to tackling chess openings. International Master John Cox revisits the fundamentals of the Sveshnikov, elaborating on the crucial early moves and ideas for both sides in a way that is often neglected in other texts.

In this new book, Romain examines the latest aspect of his chess career - being the second of a world-class player. He worked with Veselin Topalov from 2010 until 2014, notably helping him win the 2012-13 Grand Prix series and become a World Championship candidate. Romain tells you everything about his 'magic' experience in this book. Going through the tournaments where he assisted GM Topalov, the author not only analyses beautiful games, but also explains how they managed to invent new ideas and even reveals some that haven't been played yet. He also answers questions most chess fans will be curious about: How do you become the second of a top player? What does the job involve? How do you work together? How do you prepare for an important game or important tournament? What is a chess genius like in real life? If you enjoy fascinating games and unexpected opening ideas, and would like to know what goes on behind the scenes, this book is for you!

The stunning story of Russia's slide back into a dictatorship-and how the West is now paying the price for allowing it to happen. The ascension of Vladimir Putin-a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB-to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years-as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him-Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the center of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order. For Garry Kasparov, none of this is news. He has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putin's intentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with a darker truth: Putin's Russia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world. As Putin has grown ever more powerful, the threat he poses has grown from local to regional and finally to global. In this urgent book, Kasparov shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an endpoint-only a change of seasons, as the Cold War melted into a new spring. But now, after years of complacency and poor judgment, winter is once again upon us. Argued with the force of Kasparov's world-class intelligence, conviction, and hopes for his home country, Winter Is Coming reveals Putin for what he is: an existential danger hiding in plain sight.

One of the greatest books ever written about a world championship match. In 1960 Mikhail Botvinnik was the pillar of "scientific " chess and the ironwilled champion of the world. The young attacking genius Mihail Tal, the "Wizard of Riga," put the magic back into the game by defeating Botvinnik with spectacular tactics in one of the most dramatic and celebrated world championship matches of all time. This is Tal's own classic work on the contest. In it he sets the stage and explains every one of the 21 games, telling both the on- and off-the-board story of this tatanic clash of styles and thought. Take a trip with the Magician from Riga as he invites you to share his thoughts and feelings as he does battle for the world title. "Mikhail Tal's splendid account of his world championship match victory is one of the masterpieces of the golden age of annotation - before insights and feelings and flashes of genius were reduced to mere moves and Informant symbols. This is simply the best book written about a world championship match by a contestant. That shouldn't be a surprise because Tal was the finest writer to become world champion." - From the Foreword by International Grandmaster Andy Soltis

Revealing biography of the controversial chess champion, written by a chess player who knew Fischer since the latter was 11. It chronicles Fischer's tumultuous public and private lives, including an analysis of 90 games that trace his rise to supremacy plus a complete history of the1972 Fischer-Spassky match. 26 photographs.

Crystal-clear explanations of grandmaster tactics and strategies from which players of all abilities can learn.