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Genna Sosonko is widely acclaimed as the most prominent chronicler of a unique era in chess history. In the Soviet Union chess was developed into an ideological weapon that was actively promoted by the country’s leadership during the Cold War. Starting with Mikhail Botvinnik, their best chess players grew into symbols of socialist excellence. Sosonko writes from a privileged dual perspective, combining an insider’s nostalgia with the detachment of a critical observer. He grew up with legendary champions such as Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi and spent countless hours with most of the other greats and lesser chess mortals he portrays. Sosonko was born in Leningrad, where he lived for 29 years and worked as a chess coach. After emigrating to the Netherlands, he became a world-class chess grandmaster, participating in the strongest competitions around the globe. In the late 1980s he began to write about the champions he knew and their remarkable lives in New In Chess Magazine. First, he wrote primarily about Soviet players and personalities, and later, he also began to portray other chess celebrities with whom he had crossed paths. They all vividly come to life as the reader is transported to their time and world. Once you’ve read Sosonko, you will feel you know Capablanca, Max Euwe and Tony Miles. And you will never forget Sergey Nikolaev. This monumental book is a collection of the portraits and profiles Genna Sosonko wrote for New in Chess magazine. The stories have been published in his books: Russian Silhouettes, The Reliable Past, Smart Chip From St. Petersburg and The World Champion I Knew. They are supplemented with further writings on legends such as David Bronstein, Garry Kasparov and Boris Spassky. They paint an enthralling and unforgettable picture of a largely vanished age and, indirectly, a portrait of one of the greatest writers on the world of chess. Garry Kasparov wrote the Foreword.
As a respected trainer who became a world-class chess grandmaster after leaving Leningrad and moving to Holland in 1972, Genna Sosonko observes the golden age Soviet chess from a privileged dual perspective. Combining an insider's nostalgia with the detachment of a critical observer, he has produced unforgettable portraits of the heroes of this bygone era: Tal, Botvinnik, Geller, Polugaevsky, and the legendary trainer Zak are some of his subjects. This New Editon has two brand new stories. Delightful --The Washington Post.
First published in Russian in 2014 and written by Genna Sosonko - widely recognized as the number one writer on the history of Soviet chess - this is a truly unique book about the life and destiny of the great chess player David Bronstein (1924-2006). Emerging from a challenging background - he narrowly escaped the holocaust in WWII, during which he starved, and his father spent seven years in a gulag - Bronstein faced Botvinnik in the world championship match in 1951 and nearly defeated him. But this 'nearly' inflicted a wound on David so deep that it would not heal for the rest of his life. Sosonko knew Bronstein well. Their conversations - many of which have made it into this book - not only portray the thoughts and character of one of history's most original grandmasters but also take us back to a time unlike any other in world history. This is not a biography in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, Sosonko's fascinating book asks eternal questions which don't have neat and simple answers. With a foreword to the English edition by Garry Kasparov.
Genna Sosonko paints portraits of players, both famous and forgotten, from the golden age of Soviet chess, as well as highly personal views on the psychology of the game and its players. This volume radiates the author's love and devotion to chess, yet is tempered by objectivity and detachment. It will enchant not only chess players, but all who recognize the cultural value of chess.
Viktor Korchnoi was one of the leading grandmasters of the 20th century, coming within one game of winning the world championship in 1978. His battles with Karpov for the world crown were among the most important chess matches ever played. A man with a unique - and in many ways tragic - life and career, Korchnoi's defection to the West in 1976 was a major event in Cold War politics. Grandmaster Genna Sosonko was Korchnoi's coach and second during tournaments and candidates matches in 1970-71 and then a close friend of Korchnoi for decades. Indeed, Sosonko's emigration to the West in 1972, which is described in detail in this memoir, had a key impact on Korchnoi's decision to defect four years later. They would meet up at tournaments and at home and discuss chess, politics, and just about everything else. Their conversations constitute an important part of this book, in which Sosonko tackles difficult questions about Korchnoi's personality and places much of his often challenging behavior into its historical context. This book, like Sosonko's previous masterpiece The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein, contains no games but focuses on Korchnoi's life, from his early childhood to his final years. Further, it includes many previously unpublished photos from the private collections of Sosonko and the Korchnoi family.
In this widely acclaimed chess classic, Russian trainer Mikhail Shereshevsky explains how to master the most important endgame principles. Where other endgame manuals focus on the basics and theoretical endgames, this book teaches the ‘big ideas’ that will help you find the most promising and most practical moves in any endgame. Even in endgames, it helps to think schematically instead of trying to calculate every move. To maximize your winning chances, this invaluable manual will teach you lessons such as ‘do not hurry’ and ‘centralize your king’ or ‘fight for the initiative’. Endgame Strategy is considered to be one of the most important endgame manuals. In comparison with the 1981 publication, this new edition has been thoroughly revised and the author has added dozens of new and inspiring positions. The book is highly recommended by club players, coaches, and grandmasters alike. ‘I especially read the chapter “Do not hurry!” with pleasure; not just because I agree with what he says, but more importantly because it defines the playing style of Magnus Carlsen,’ said Grandmaster Simen Agdestein, long-time trainer of the Norwegian World Champion.
One of Caissa’s Brightest Stars! The Belgian master Edgard Colle was one of the most dynamic and active chess players of the 1920s and early 1930s. Though his international career lasted only ten years, Colle played in more than 50 tournaments, as well as a dozen matches. Moreover, he played exciting and beautiful chess, full of life, vigor, imagination and creativity. As with such greats as Pillsbury and Charousek, it was a tragedy for the game that his life was cut short, at just age 34. Author Taylor Kingston has examined hundreds of Colle’s games, in an effort to understand his skills and style, his strengths and weaknesses, and present an informed, balanced picture of him as a player. Colle emerges as a courageous, audacious, and tenacious fighter, who transcended the limitations his frail body imposed, to battle the giants of his day and topple many of them. 110 of Colle’s best, most interesting, and representative games have been given deep and exacting computer analysis. This often revealed important aspects completely overlooked by earlier annotators, and overturned their analytical verdicts. But the computer’s iron logic is tempered always with a sympathetic understanding that Colle played, in the best sense, a very human kind of chess. Though not intended as a tutorial on the Colle System, the book has many instructive examples of that opening. Additionally, there is an extensive excerpt from Max Euwe’s Gedenkboek Colle, several other memorial tributes, biographical information about many of Colle’s opponents, his full known tournament and match record, and all his available tournament crosstables. We invite the reader to get acquainted with this wounded but valiant warrior, whom Hans Kmoch called a “chess master with the body of a doomed man and the spirit of an immortal hero.” About the Author: Taylor Kingston has been a chess enthusiast since his teens. His historical articles have appeared in Chess Life, New In Chess, Inside Chess, Kingpin, and the website www.ChessCafe.com. He has edited numerous books for Russell Enterprises, most recently Emanuel Lasker: A Reader. He has also produced many computer-assisted analytical critiques of classic works by Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe, Tartakower, Nimzovich, Najdorf, Fine and others. In this book, he combines history and analysis in a new look at one of the early 20th century’s most variable but brightest stars.
What goes on in some of the sharpest minds on earth? Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam has collected a new series of intimate portraits of the top grandmasters of chess, winning the confidence of Garry Kasparov, Miguel Najdorf, Vishy Anand, Judit Polgar, David Bronstein, Hikaru Nakamura and many others. Anyone attracted by the mystique of the royal game will love the behind-the-scenes stories about the masters? struggle to win, their fear of losing, and the striking difference between the European and the American chess scene.
Genna Sosonko lived the first 29 years of his life in Leningrad. He emigrated to Holland in 1972 and was one of the strongest grandmasters in the world. His bestselling book, Russian Silhouettes, was shortlisted for the world’s premier chess book award, the British Chess Federation Book of the Year.
Yuri Averbakh (1922) is a distinguished Russian chess grandmaster who has enjoyed a long and varied career. He has been a top player, a journalist, an editor, an arbiter, a trainer and a long-time member of the board of the Soviet chess federation. Averbakh won the USSR championship in 1954 ahead of players like Kortchnoi, Petrosian and Geller and was a leading Soviet grandmaster for two decades. In this personal memoir he looks back on his days as an active player on the centre stage of chess, but also on his experiences as a quintessential insider when chess was considered a vital ingredient of life in the Soviet Union. Averbakh observes the world of chess from the moment he walked into the Moscow Chess Club as a 13-year old boy and describes his personal successes, his secret training matches with world champion Botvinnik, the mechanisms and behind-the-scenes dealings in the Soviet Union, including his involvement in the famous matches between Karpov and Kasparov. A unique, revealing and well-told story, essential reading for everybody interested in the history of chess and the Soviet Union.