Editorial Reviews:
Ray Keene, grandmaster, author and organiser of the last world chess championship, is writing a book on the Kramnik-Leko match to be available as soon as possible after the event. As well as annotating every game played, Keene also explains his new ideas on the history of the world championship and presents

Editorial Reviews:
Grandmaster Ray Keene, chess impresario, broadcaster and writer, has been responsible for organising more world championship matches outside the USSR than any other person in the history of official contests. In 1986 he brought Kasparov and Karpov together and in 1993 Kasparov and Short. Finally, in 2000, after a five year gap with no world title match, Keene raised 2 million dollars to persuade Kasparov to defend his title in London against the rising Russian star Vladimir Kramnik. To almost universal surprise Kramnik toppled Kasparov after his 15 year reign and won with relative ease. He became World Champion without losing a single game, a feat not accomplished since Capablanca defeated Lasker in 1921. Kramnik's secret weapon was the psychological ploy of exchanging queens early in the game and thus regularly depriving Kasparov of his favourite attacking piece. To this end Kramnik unearthed the unlikely Berlin defence, which achieved world wide notoriety as the "Berlin Wall". In this book Ray Keene, present throughout the match as organiser and commentator for the London Times, gives the inside story of the games, while Don Morris, co-founder of the Brain Games Network, entrepreneur and former chairman of the Champagne Academy, highlights the Brain Games Network strategy for presenting intellectual games to the global community in the age of digital TV, broadband communications and the World Wide Web.

Editorial Reviews:
This book recounts the fourth and penultimate chapter in the half-decade long rivalry which erupted between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. In the eyes of many this conflict symbolised the clash between the Brezhnev-inspired forces of reaction in the old USSR and the new Gorbachev/Yeltsin-driven imperatives which ultimately led to the collapse of the creaking Soviet empire. The match itself - played out in its nailbiting finish to a global TV audience of record dimensions - hung on the very final move of the very last game, as Kasparov desperately sought to cling to the title he had gained just two years beforehand. Books on the Karpov-Kasparov clashes of 1984, 1985, 1986 , and 1990 are also published by Hardinge Simpole.

Editorial Reviews:
This book recounts the third of the five chapters in the half-decade long rivalry which erupted between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. In the eyes of many this conflict symbolised the clash between the Brezhnev-inspired forces of reaction in the old USSR and the new Gorbachev/Yeltsin-driven imperatives of perestroika and glasnost which ultimately led to the collapse of the creaking Soviet empire. This match was held in London and Leningrad and was the first all-Soviet summit to be staged outside the USSR! Books on the Karpov-Kasparov clashes of 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1990 are also published by Hardinge Simpole.

Editorial Reviews:
In early 1985 Florencio Campomanes - the now disgraced former president of FIDE, the International Chess Federation - halted the World Title challenge from Garry Kasparov "without result", thus forcing a rematch in the autumn of that same year. This book recounts Kasparov's determined fresh assault on the world title which made him at age 22 the youngest champion in the history of the game. This volume also gives a detailed account with original documentation of the scandalous proceedings which led to the stopping of Kasparov's previous title onslaught. This was perhaps the single most dramatic moment of any World Championship in the entire history of chess competition.

Editorial Reviews:
The history of the World Chess Championship continues in this volume with the epic struggles between Botvinnik, Bronstein, Smyslov, Tal and Petrosian, via the brief but spectacular advent of Bobby Fischer, and on to the modern superstars Karpov and Kasparov. All games from the matches are annotated and this book with its companion volume, World Chess Championship: Steinitz to Alekhine, forms a valuable addition to the library of any chess enthusiast who wishes to possess a complete collection of games played at the very highest level.

Editorial Reviews:
First published in 1981. In 1981 - World Champion now for 6 years - Anatoly Karpov had reached the height of his powers. He was a master of sharp modern opening systems, thought swiftly and acted decisively. His play was virtually error free. Facing this juggernaut the veteran Viktor Korchnoi pulled out the final stops for his ultimate chess challenge to become champion. In vain. Karpov brushed aside his efforts to secure one of the easiest victories ever achieved at chess summit level. As in 1978 Korchnoi produced his orange robed Ananda Marga gurus to help him chant for victory - but in the sober atmosphere of the Italo-german mountains-rather than the exotic and heady surroundings of the far eastern Philippines-the antics of Korchnoi's suppporters had little effect. Karpov emerged as a seemingly unbeatable colossus. Now guaranteed a reign of at least 9 years Karpov had already exceeded the championship performance of Capablanca and was threatening to surpass the exploits of such mighty champions as Steinitz, Lasker, Alekhine and Botvinnik.

Editorial Reviews:
First published in 1978. The 1978 world chess championship in the Philippines was the most riotous of modern times. Pitting the Soviet defector Korchnoi against the golden boy of the Soviet establishment - Karpov - the players were not just content to hammer each other over the chess board; they also enlisted such weird assistants as the parapsychologist Dr Vladimir Zukhar and orange-robed gurus from the Ananda Marga sect. The cast list was completed by President Marcos, his shoe-collecting First Lady Imelda and a gaggle of shady characters from the KGB. Grandmaster Ray Keene was Korchnoi's chief second during this wild chess extravaganza and this book tells the inside story of one of the most exotic chess competitions ever staged.

Editorial Reviews:
In 1966 and 1969 Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky contested two epic battles for the world crown. In the first of these Petrosian became the only world champion to actually win a title defence for 32 years when his inspired defensive technique thwarted all of Spassky's aggressive intentions. In the second of these two ferocious fights Spassky eventually broke through to seize the world title. En route the two great players created some of the most beautiful chess ever witnessed at this high level, sparkling with numerous sacrifices of rook for bishop or knight, piece sacrifices to inaugurate enduring attacks and even a stunning queen sacrifice by Petrosian in game 10 of the first encounter.

Editorial Reviews:
From 1948 until 1963 Mikhail Botvinnik, the iron man of soviet chess and chess board devotee of Josef Stalin, had maintained his grip on the supreme title, in spite of threats from the younger generations represented by Smyslov and Tal. Now in 1963 a new force arose. Tigran Petrosian was a super subtle strategist who could make even an extra half a square tell in the balance. In this match , which finally broke Botvinnik's dominance for good, Botvinnik was cast in the role of impatient aggressor while the younger challenger eventually triumphed by a combination of extreme patience and the most exquisite endgame play ever witnessed at world championship level.

Editorial Reviews:
This book combines the account and eye witness analysis by Golombek of the second and third of the three titanic world title clashes between Botvinnik and Smyslov, unquestionably the dominant players of the 1950s. The games and notes to the 1958 match, written for the British Chess Magazine at the time, have never previously been published in book form. (A companion volume, also published by Hardinge Simpole, covers the 1954 match.) Botvinnik was the iron man of Soviet chess while Smyslov, by crushing the world's greatest players at the Candidates Tournaments of 1953 and 1956, had proved himself the most worthy challenger. These games are bloodthirsty classics between two supreme exemplars of the soviet school of chess, annotated by the man on the spot who had unrivalled access both to the players and to the very best of Soviet analysis.

Editorial Reviews:
This book combines the account and eye witness analysis by Golombek of the second and third of the three titanic world title clashes between Botvinnik and Smyslov, unquestionably the dominant players of the 1950s. The games and notes to the 1958 match, written for the British Chess Magazine at the time, have never previously been published in book form. (A companion volume, also published by Hardinge Simpole, covers the 1954 match.) Botvinnik was the iron man of Soviet chess while Smyslov, by crushing the world's greatest players at the Candidates Tournaments of 1953 and 1956, had proved himself the most worthy challenger. These games are bloodthirsty classics between two supreme exemplars of the soviet school of chess, annotated by the man on the spot who had unrivalled access both to the players and to the very best of Soviet analysis.

Editorial Reviews:
This mighty clash between the top two Soviet Grandmasters was Botvinnik's first title defence after becoming World Champion in 1948. Amazingly, the man who had dominated Soviet and World chess was only able to defend his title by the skin of his teeth after a most ferocious and determined onslaught from his youthful challenger David Bronstein. The controversial 23rd game where a demoralised Bronstein may have resigned prematurely was the key to Botvinnik's ultimate success. This book was written by two expert eye witnesses, former British Champion and International Master William Winter, and Bob Wade, International Master, vice-president of FIDE, the International Chess Federation, and later to be awarded the OBE for services to chess and chess education.

Editorial Reviews:
Mikhail Botvinnik, disciple of Josef Stalin and iron man of Soviet chess, seized the chess crown in 1948 in the 'famous five' Match Tournament. This was held to settle the question of the World Championship after reigning champion Alexander Alekhine had died in possession of the title. 1948 ushered in a long period of control of world chess by FIDE, the world chess federation, backed, in turn, by the powerful chess federation of the USSR , the land where chess had become the iconic national game. Botvinnik dominated the field, easily outdistancing his main rivals Smyslov, Reshevsky and Keres , while the hapless Dr. Max Euwe , former world champion , whose sudden and dramatic descent from world class chess was made brutally apparent by this event, was left trailing in last place, 6.5 points adrift of the field. Inspiration and controversy alike still surround the 1948 match tournament.

Editorial Reviews:
The World Chess Championship was officially founded by the Steinitz - Zukertort match of 1886. This thrilling account - Part One of the Hardinge Simpole complete history of the world chess championship - tells the stories of the champions and their challengers up to 1937. It is a record of everything that is best in chess from the decades which pre-dated control of the title by the International Chess Federation and the subsequent domination by the USSR. It is a Companion volume to World Chess Championship:Botvinnik to Kasparov.Pablo Moran was a noted Spanish journalist and chess expert. He has also written the definitive account of the Spanish Chess Championships, Campeones y Campeonatos de Espana de Ajedrez as well as Agony of a Genius, the final years of Alexander Alekhine.

Editorial Reviews:
The only British chess champion ever to be arrested and imprisoned for sedition, Winter was one of the more colourful characters of the British chess menagerie - an international master and chess correspondent both for the Manchester Guardian and the Daily Worker.