Paul van der Sterren: Kings of the Chessboard

Thinkers' Publishing, paperback, Englisch, ISBN: 978-94-9251-053-2, 260 Seiten, 2019.

People who are really, really good at something - unbelievably good, incomprehensibly good, have always held a strong fascination for those fellow humans who are less extraordinarily gifted. In this respect chess does not differ from other areas of human endeavour. To many chess lovers watching the great champions do battle with each other is even more thrilling than actually playing the game themselves. This book is about the greatest chess players who ever lived, who dominated their era and were looked upon as World Champions even at a time when this term, this very concept, did not yet exist. On the basis of a short biography, a selection of their most famous games and a brief characteristic of their playing style I will attempt to illuminate what made these great players great and what their significance is for the chess world. This will also give an overview of how chess itself has developed over the past two and a half centuries: how it has essentially remained the same, yet changed almost beyond recognition.


Inhalt:
Chapter 1 - François-André Danican Philidor
Chapter 2 - The match La Bourdonnais - McDonnell, 1834
Chapter 3 - London1851, The First Tournament
Chapter 4 - Paul Morphy
Chapter 5 - Wilhelm Steinitz
Chapter 6 - Emanuel Lasker
Chapter 7 - José Raúl Capablanca
Chapter 8 - Alexander Alekhine
Chapter 9 - Max Euwe
Chapter 10 - The Hague - Moscow 1948, A New Beginning
Chapter 11 - Mikhail Botvinnik
Chapter 12 - Vasily Smyslov
Chapter 13 - Mikhail Tal
Chapter 14 - Tigran Petrosian
Chapter 15 - Boris Spassky
Chapter 16 - Robert James Fischer
Chapter 17 - Anatoly Karpov
Chapter 18 - Garry Kasparov
Chapter 19 - Vladimir Kramnik
Chapter 20 - Viswanathan Anand
Chapter 21 - Magnus Carlsen
Chapter 22 - Epilogue

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