Two World Champions – in a class by themselves. The profound Russian World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had defeated the seemingly invincible Kasparov to take the “classical” world title in 2000. The brilliant Bulgarian Challenger Veselin Topalov, ranked No. 1 in the world, winner of the FIDE title in 2005. The immovable object versus the irresistible force.
Not since Bobby Fischer had faced Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 had the chess world seen such a tumultuous, controversial title bout with such major implications for the future of world chess. The match had it all: deep positional play, razor-sharp tactics, accusations of cheating and political interference, threats of lawsuits, and even a game forfeited under protest.
This is Veselin Topalov’s very personal account of his 2006 world championship match against the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik. With the help of co-author Zhivko Ginchev, and complemented nicely by almost 50 photographs, Topalov shares his thoughts, hopes and fears as he fought for the most prestigious title in the chess world.
Topalov's book about this match may have no equal in chess history... a book about both the scandal and the match, at times entertaining, at others infuriating, and never dull. - Derek Grimmell, ChessCafe.com
"Highly entertaining and enlightening ... great chess." -- Jacob Aagaard, Chess Today
"Topalov is a brilliant annotator! The eleven match games and subsequent playoffs are all analyzed in depth with detailed variations and lots of prose. Topalov is frank and doesn’t hide what he is thinking." -- John Donaldson, JeremySilman.com
