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The Candidates' Tournament of 1959 was one of the most dramatic and
exciting of all tournaments, launching the flamboyant Grandmaster
Mikhail Tal on his road to become the youngest-ever World Champion.
Keres played possibly the best chess of his career at this event,
restraining his natural attacking flair in the service of a more
universal style, able to turn out finely honed strategic campaigns
and subtle endgames. His three(!) victories over Tal in this
tournament must have made him believe he could take the champion's
crown, if he finished first... It was also notable for the arrival
on the world's stage of Bobby Fischer, already twice USA champion
and World Championship Candidate at 15 years of age. Several of his
contests from this tournament appeared in his magisterialc
ollection of 'Memorable Games', including an extraordinary game
with four queens on the board against future Champion Petrosian,
who was for once tempted out of his legendary caution into a rich
and strange chess environment. In fact, it can be said that
Fischer's games decided the tournament, because of his lop-sided
scores against the two top-finishing players, and his near-miss in
the penultimate round against Tal. Other players included the
former Champion Smyslov, who brushed Tal aside in the very first
game of the tournament; and Gligori, the Yugoslav Champion, fresh
from his great result at the Interzonal, who handed Smyslov the
shortest defeat of the Russian's career in front of an appreciative
home crowd. Benkoe, the recent emigre, riding the wave of his fine
performance in the qualifying tournament at Portoroz, and Olafsson,
the quiet Icelandic wizard, added to the drama with their frequent
excursions into time trouble... This collection of games is
undoubtedly one of the finest of modern times, claims the author in
his introduction from 1960. This claim still stands after nearly 50
years, and many of the games have been printed since in collections
of brilliancies, best games and instructional books. The book has
been set in this enhanced digital edition by David Regis. Diagrams
have been added before many critical points in the games, so that
readers wishing to test their skills against the best in the world
from that time can use this volume as a puzzle book. Golombek's
innovative index of middlegame and endgame themes makes this
overlooked book a real manual of practical chessplay.
London 1922 was the greatest tournament held in the capital of the
British Empire since Emanuel Lasker won an historic double-rounder
there in 1899. Now the old world of Edwardian niceties had been
swept away by four years of carnage on European battlefields, while
in the chess world a freshly crowned king reigned -- the New World
heir to Morphy and, according to Reti, the chief representative of
"machine age" efficiency in chess -- the invincible world champion,
Jose Capablanca. Facing him were the massed legions of European
chess excellence -- Alekhine, Vidmar, Bogoljubow, Rubinstein,
Tartakower and Reti himself. As it was, the champion easily
outstripped his continental and British rivals, while
simultaneously reporting the tournament for the Times of London.
This book faithfully records Capablanca's victory while reproducing
all of his notes from The Times, together with comments from the
original tournament book but with all the supporting diagrams that
Watts and Maroczy would have wished to include. Their notes are
reinforced by a wealth of other authoritative sources such as
Alekhine, Sir George Thomas and the regular Times chess
correspondent, Tinsley. The book also recounts the "fairest move
ever made," when Vidmar resigned to Capablanca in the latter's
absence, as well as detailing the "London rules," elaborated over
champagne at the Savoy Hotel, which governed world championship
play until FIDE took over the title in 1948. The editor is Dr.
David Regis, a noted website author, who has also published a
number of chess books.
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