Recommendations from our site
“Bronstein was very nearly world champion. In 1951 he played a match that was drawn, and because he was the challenger, the titleholder Botvinnik kept the title. It was very controversial because Bronstein was one game ahead with two to play, and lost the penultimate game in rather strange circumstances. This was during the Stalinist period, and it was said that because he was distantly related to Trotsky, and his father had been in a gulag, the Soviet system didn’t want him to win. I don’t think he deliberately threw it, but he was under certain unusual pressures. Bronstein is a marvellous writer. He wrote the best books of the era, and this is by no means his only great book.” Read more...
Dominic Lawson, Journalist
Our most recommended books
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Chess for Tigers
Simon Webb, Edward McLachlan (illustrator) -
The Chess Player's Bible
James Eade, Al Lawrence, Carol & John Woodcock (illustrators) -
My 60 Memorable Games
by Bobby Fischer -
Masters of the Chessboard
by Richard Réti -
The Chess Struggle in Practice
by David Bronstein -
Russian Silhouettes
by Genna Sosonko
