This is a fictionalized account of the life and career of world chess champion Alexander Alekhine. Born into Russian nobility, Alekhine lost his family and nearly his life to the Bolsheviks before becoming the world's most powerful chess player. The coming of World War II placed the grandmaster in a difficult position, forcing him to collaborate with the Nazis and to produce anti-Semitic materials. Desperate to win back his credibility after the war, Alekhine was preparing for a redemptive title match at the time of his sudden death. Alekhine's life was marked by alcoholism, fits of depression, scandalous affairs, marriages of convenience, painful compromises, and his battle to become "the Greatest." The novel is told as fiction but is based on the actual people and events that were part of his triumphant career and troubled life.

The time: March 24, 1946. The place: Paris. The world chess champion, Dr. Alexander Alekhine, is found dead in his hotel rooms. Was it accident? Or suicide? Or murder? Detective Inspector Jacques Colbert, a brilliant and highly unusual man, receives the case. With the help of his assistant, Sergeant Guimard, he unravels a tangle of lies, half-truths, false leads, and ambiguous clues. His path leads through Dr. Alekhine's character, his murky past and through pre-war and current politics and espionage. In the classic tradition, Inspector Colbert's iron logic solves the puzzle. Along the way meet a kaleidoscope of vivid characters, Russian proverbs, Greek mythology, philosophical references, WWII history, chess lore, wry wit and deep sadness. The twin aftershocks in the closing pages should satisfy even the most discerning reader.