Van der Sterren: Kings of the Chessboard

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.

Content:

009 Chapter 1 - François-André Danican Philidor
013 Chapter 2 - The match La Bourdonnais - McDonnell, 1834
017 Chapter 3 - London1851, The First Tournament
023 Chapter 4 - Paul Morphy
029 Chapter 5 - Wilhelm Steinitz
039 Chapter 6 - Emanuel Lasker
055 Chapter 7 - José Raúl Capablanca
067 Chapter 8 - Alexander Alekhine
077 Chapter 9 - Max Euwe
091 Chapter 10 - The Hague - Moscow 1948, A New Beginning
099 Chapter 11 - Mikhail Botvinnik
111 Chapter 12 - Vasily Smyslov
123 Chapter 13 - Mikhail Tal
135 Chapter 14 - Tigran Petrosian
149 Chapter 15 - Boris Spassky
165 Chapter 16 - Robert James Fischer
183 Chapter 17 - Anatoly Karpov
197 Chapter 18 - Garry Kasparov
215 Chapter 19 - Vladimir Kramnik
231 Chapter 20 - Viswanathan Anand
245 Chapter 21 - Magnus Carlsen
259 Chapter 22 - Epilogue

260 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Thinkers Publishing