From London to Elista: The Inside Story of the World Chess Championship Matches that Vladimir Kramnik Won Against Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, and Veselin Topalov (Paperback)

~ Evgeny Bareev (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bareev’s account of the events is simply breathtaking (...) It is the most sincere portrait of a world champion I have ever read." -- ChessVibes

"I can assure you that this is one of those books that you cannot put down." -- Elburg Chess Reviews

"Undisputably the best chess book of 2007 (...) A terrific read." -- Former Dutch Champion IM Gert Ligterink, de Volkskrant

"[A]bsolutely riveting (...) It is rare for anybody to have taken the lid off the day-to-day work that seconds do and still rarer for them to have made it so interesting (...) Extremely good." -- British Chess Magazine

Product Description

In 2000, in London, Vladimir Kramnik caused a sensation by dethroning Garry Kasparov as the reigning world chess champion. Kramnik defended his title successfully in 2004 against Peter Leko. In 2006 in Elista (the capital of the Caucasian republic Kalmykia) Kramnik defeated Veselin Topalov in a match that caused a worldwide scandal because of the accusations of fraud by the Topalov team. This is the inside story written by two confidants and seconds of Vladimir Kramnik. The match strategy, the secrets, the threats, the stress: all twists and turns of top level chess in the pressure cooker of a championship match are revealed in a truly unique document. All the games in all three matches are instructively annotated.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: New In Chess (December 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9056912194
• ISBN-13: 978-9056912192
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #504,800 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight from the champions side of chessboard, January 28, 2008

By	I. Knezovic (Croatia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First I want to clarify and say that this book deserves its good reputation, and its high selling volume since it first came out is justified. One can enjoy penetrating into thinking process of the skilled chess professionals who had been interviewed from the Kramnik camp, as well as read excripts from the other GMs cited from different sources.
Sheer amount of psychology involved into pre-game preparation is puzzling, and drive one to continuously read it. Concreatly, I was more interested into reading details of pre-game preparation process and post-mortem reactions, than of analysis of the games played. Fortunatelly, analysis material of the games is significantly lighter that that of the "San Luis 2005" book, but still it wouldnt mind if some more textual explanation had been added into it, especially at late opening phase mortals nowdays are hard to grasp.
From historical perspective this is the book to have on your chess shelf to cover world championship matches starting from 2000 and leading to final unification match in 2006.
Recommended.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that brings joy..., March 10, 2008

By	Sartaj Hans (Sydney) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are a typical chess amateur like me who loves to read chess books more for the anecdotes, and sort of wishes that the games and analysis would somehow automatically permeate through to my consciousness, then you will love this book.

The stories and accounts are fascinating, Ilya Luvitov in particular asks some very sharp and direct questions and this brings out the best of Bareev. And snippets in between from thoughts of Kramnik and Lautier and the occassional quip from an Kasparov interview keep making the book more colorful.

The games are full of diagrams and there is both sufficient text commentary that you dont need to setup a board and also there is enough analysis to keep one busy if one did get the pieces out !

A book not to be missed, unique amongst all chess books in the way it captures the very heart of the human element of competitive endeavour.

2 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read, April 20, 2008

By	Ellis E. Jones (Bryson City, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

From London to Elista: The Inside Story of the World Chess Championship Matches That Vladimir Kramnik Won Against Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko and Vesilin Topalov I found the book to read easily and the material with analysis is very strong.