Customer Reviews

World Chess Championship: Steinitz to Alekhine (Hardinge Simpole Chess Classics)

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As the first in the series on the World Chess Championships, `Steinitz to Alekhine' is probably one of the strongest - a string of early champions from 1886 to 1937 are edged on either side by Steinitz, the first World Champion, and Alekhine, in many ways one of the greatest players of the 20th century, the only champion to have died in possession of his title. This era predates the Soviet dominance, and therefore the context of the matches in this book are quite different to those of the others, although missing perhaps some of the external interest (e.g. political) present in, for instance, the volume covering Botvinnik's rise under Stalin's patronage.
Moran deals with these matches efficiently and well, with his annotations being of a very high quality and his notes being, while not as excellent as some of the others in the series, quite good.

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 World 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.