With FIDE (the World Chess Federation) claiming that its Tournament in Libya - in fact, little more than a rapidplay open - was the world title clincher, this match for the Classical World Chess Championship would confirm one of the two mental matadors -Kramnik or Leko - as the legitimate heir of Steinitz, Alekhine, Fischer and Kasparov. Peter Leko, the Hungarian Grandmaster, qualified from the Dortmund Candidates' Tournament in 2002 to meet Vladimir Kramnik from Moscow, who had unseated Garry Kasparov in London 2000. Although both contenders were noted for their solidity, the clash turned out to be a sporting classic, as Kramnik poured every ounce of energy into the last games in an effort to rescue his title.

The ChessCafe World Chess Champions Series Emanuel Lasker was a great chess fighter, thinker and researcher. He was possessed of gigantic playing strength, retaining the title of World s Number One Chessplayer for 27(!) years. Even after losing his crown, he kept his ability for a long time, as shown by his victories and prize-winning finishes in immensely powerful international tournaments when he was 54 (Moravska-Ostrava 1923), 55 (New York 1924), 56 (Moscow 1925), and even at 66 (Moscow 1935)! One of the chief postulates of the Second World Champion was the battle of honor. On the chessboard, lies and dishonesty have no place. These words of Lasker could serve, even today, as an example to every young chessplayer of how to relate to the Great Game. Emanuel Lasker was the first in history to achieve a universal style. This was a Style of the Future, which is why the Second World Champion would not be understood by many of his contemporaries, who believed that he had no style at all. Lasker s games of chess, like his entire chess legacy, will live forever! Join Russian chess historians Isaak and Vladimir Linder as they take you on a journey exploring the life and games of the great world champion Emanuel Lasker.

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.

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 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 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.

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.