by Mikhail Botvinnik, 124pp. (Olms 2004)
Three years after winning the world championship, Mikhail Botvinnik had to defend his title against the challenge of David Bronstein. Though out of practice and largely outplayed by his brilliant young opponent, Botvinnik nevertheless demonstrated his fighting qualities, levelling the scores in the penultimate game and thereby retaining his title. All 24 games of the match are deeply annotated.
This is Botvinnik’s account of the first defense of his title, translated from Russian. The young David Bronstein played daring, exciting chess and he gave the world champion quite a fight. The controversial end of the match has led many to think that the Soviet authorities put considerable pressure on Bronstein not to win. Special supplementary sections and a preface by Vladimir Kramnik rounds out this book nicely.
