Another Book.

Here’s my latest Chess book find. Grandmasters of Chess, by Harold C. Schonberg. It looks to be a history of GM Chess up to, and including the Karpov – Korchnoi grudge match in 1981.

An endorsement from Kurt Vonnegut is on the back flap -

“This charming history of modern chess will not be surpassed in our time… Mr. Schoneberg has given us a playful, musical, haunting account of huge, often irresponsible, unsociable animals who have devoted their lives to thinking that is pure as snow.”

I hope to read through it in the next few weeks. A cursory glance through it reveals this book as a gentle read. There is some notation, all of it descriptive (this edition was published in 1981), interesting photos, and a lot of back story on the world championship matches, with an emphasis on the personalities of the players. The cover says it’s a revised and updated edition, and a closer look at the copyright page shows the first edition hit the shelves in 1972, in the midst of the Fischer/Spassky whirlwind.

It will pretty much be a look back in time up to the point I graduated high school, which was about the time chess first took a back seat in my life. 1981 – Kasparov was being let out into the world and starting to turn heads. From the last paragraph of the book- in speaking of potential challenges to Karpov’s reign -

” But he [Karpov] will be challenged. Perhaps Garry Kasparov is on the horizon.. in 1978 at the age of 15, he finished 9th in the soviet championship. A few months later, he played his first international tournament in Yugoslavia. Fifteen grandmasters participated. Kasparov ran away with it, finishing in first place two full points ahead of his nearest competitor, and celebrating his 16th birthday during the tournament. Perhaps the new chess champion of the world for 1984 was being revealed.”

Perhaps I’ll write a review when I’m finished, if there is any interest.