by David Bronstein and Sergey Voronkov, 232pp. (2007 Olms)

David Bronstein, one of the world’s great players of the 20th century, drew a match for the world championship and was victorious in numerous international events. He was also one of the most original thinkers in the history of chess: rapidplay tournaments, clocks with the addition of a certain time after every move, his own version of random chess – these are just a few of the ideas to have sprung from his fertile imagination.

After his refusal to join other Soviet grandmasters in denouncing Victor Korchnoi for his defection in 1976, Bronstein was barred from travelling to the West for 13 long years. When the barriers finally came down in the late 1980s, he eagerly used his newly-gained freedom to travel to numerous countries in Europe, delighting chess enthusiasts with his original ideas and gaining new friends of different nationalities.

This book gives an account of these travels, on some of which Bronstein was accompanied by his wife Tatyana Boleslavskaya, who adds her own intriguing impressions. He includes some thirty instructively annotated games from this period, which showed that the old tiger had not yet lost his claws. Bronstein also looks back into the past, and in particular to a secret training match played with Victor Korchnoi in 1970, the games of which have never previously been published. Bronstein’s co-author, Sergey Voronkov, is a well-known author and editor of numerous chess books and magazines.

When this book was in the final stages of publication, we received the sad news that David Bronstein had passed away. We hope that the book will provide a fitting tribute to the later years of this remarkable man, who had so many friends throughout the chess world.