Game of Chess Thrones

Link to the book

Introduction

“I always feel sorry for people who don't know chess, just as I feel sorry for people who don't know love. Chess, like love, has the power to make a person happy,” said the great German master Siegbert Tarrasch. This book was born out of love for chess.
In the twentieth century, time passed more slowly. Chess games lasted for many hours. If a game was not finished in a single five-hour session, it was adjourned. The player would write down their next move on a score sheet, which they would put in an envelope. The arbiter would seal the envelope, and the player would sign on the flap. The next day, the game would be resumed and continued for more hours.
In those times, there were no personal computers or intelligent mobile phones connected to the global network. People had time, they had peace, and they relied on their own intellect.
Chess players would analyze the position from the adjourned game at night, sometimes until morning, moving the wooden pieces on the chessboard. They did it through trial and error. Throughout the day, in the silence of their study, they studied the art of chess from paper books and magazines. In preparation for their games, chess players created files of their opponents' games, wrote their comments and analyses in notebooks and notepads. Tournaments and matches lasted for weeks and even months. Players were not denied rest days, and separate days were allocated for playing the adjourned games.
This story covers the period from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1970s. It unfolds slowly, like a classical chess game. It allows time for reflection, presents interesting variations and combinations. It discusses well-thought-out plans, brilliant concepts, mistakes, and oversights. It describes victories and defeats. Everything is important, everything is beautiful, everything deserves attention. Solitary studying of chess at home and endless analyses with a coach or a partner at the club. Tournaments, matches, individual games, even single moves. Openings, endgames, and the middle game are fascinating.
Game of Chess Thrones presents in detail the history of the battles for the world chess championship from 1948 to 1972. It reveals the backstage of the battles for the chess throne and the play of various forces. Many moves lead to victory, and many of them are made outside the chessboard. Passions, conflicting interests, friendship and hostility, happiness and tragedy of both direct participants in the fight for the highest title and many indirectly involved individuals are shown. As in all other areas of life, politics influences the competition for the chess crown. Money, prestige, and power count, as they do everywhere and always.
The main characters are the world champions of the aforementioned period: Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, and Fischer. An important place in this story is also occupied by the earlier champions: Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine.
In addition to the world champions, this book features many chess masters and grandmasters, as well as various figures connected to chess in one way or another. Numerous individuals outside the chess world also play a significant role.
Two characters take up the most space: the Russian Boris Spassky and the American Robert Fischer. The story follows their lives from early childhood to the famous world championship match played in 1972 in Reykjavik, against the backdrop of the Cold War antagonism between the Soviet Union and the United States. The book tells not only about their extraordinary chess development, which began with a childhood fascination with chess and exceptional abilities and led to their pinnacle achievement of becoming the strongest chess players on the planet. The book delves into the psychological profiles of both grandmasters, especially the unconventional personality of Fischer.
Game of Chess Thrones is based on facts and contains a vast amount of historical knowledge. However, it is not a historical book. It is a fictionalized tale of real people's lives, their minds, and characters, seen through the prism of the beauty and logic of chess.
Game of Chess Thrones is a novel and, in some places, does not shy away from fiction. Readers will find intrigues and mysteries, humor and sadness, sensations and revelations within it.
And above all, the time that has passed but still persists.