Daniel Johnson--journalist, scholar, and chess enthusiast--is the perfect guide to one of history's most remarkable periods, when chess matches were front-page news and captured the world's imagination.

Many historical chess books focus on individual 19th century masters and tournaments yet little is written covering the full scope of competitive chess through the era. This volume provides a comprehensive overview, with more than a third of the 300 annotated games analyzed by past masters and checked by powerful engines. Players such as Max Lange and Cochrane, known to the chess public only by the name given to a fierce attack or gambit, are brought to life. Fifty masters are each given their own chapter, with brief biographies, results and anecdotes and an endgame section for most chapters.

England, 1454: King Henry VI, having struggled for a decade to contain the violent feuding of his dukes, is losing his mind. Disgruntled nobles support the regal claims of Richard, Duke of York, great-grandson of Edward III. The stage is set for civil war.The first volume of an enthralling two-part history of the dynastic wars fought between the houses of Lancaster and York, Battle Royal traces the conflict from its roots in the 1440s to the early 1460s—a period marked by the rise and fall of Richard of York, the deposition of Henry VI following the Lancastrian defeat at Towton, and the subsequent seizure of his throne by Richard's son Edward.Charting a clear course through the dynastic complexities of fifteenth-century power politics, and offering crisply authoritative analysis of the key battles of the Wars of the Roses, Battle Royal is a dynamic and rigorously researched account of England's longest and bloodiest civil war.

This is the ultimate book for lovers of chess. The beauty, the battle, the culture, the fun, the art and the heroism of chess are the main themes of this fascinating and often surprising journey. Your private guide is Christian Hesse, a Harvard-trained professor of Mathematics and an avid chess player.

A collection of fifty games spans more than a century of chess play, from McDonnell v. Labourdonnais in 1834 to Matanovich v. Rossolimo in 1951