Knight and Rook Pin

The London International tournament of 1883 was the strongest tournament ever held in the world up until that time. It was considered to be a tournament for the World Chess Championship. It featured the strongest players in the world of that time. Steinitz, Zukertort , Blackburne, Chigorin, Mackenzie, Mason, Winawar and possibly English would be considered grandmasters on the modern standard. Rosenthal, Bird and even Noa would be international masters.

To help bring to the United States chess of the highest quality in the world, Mrs. Gregor Piatigorsky and her husband, the world renowned cellist, created the Piatigorsky Cup as a symbol of excellence in chess. Along with the trophy went the finest playing conditions and the highest prizes ever offered for any chess event. For the first time since 1932, a world chess champion appeared in an American tournament when Tigran Petrosian, USSR, joined seven other of the greatest international grandmasters in a month of competition at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

This thoroughly updated and revised edition of the highly acclaimed 1986 reference work provides a definitive history of all championship events in the United States through 2011. Both the games and the occasions are covered in depth, including biographical details, descriptive settings, anecdotes, tournament drama, unusual games, and grandmaster analysis.

Notes by Grekov and a host of great annotators including Lasker, Alekhine, Tartakower, Rabinovich, Burn, Grunfeld, Grigoriev, Levenfish, Romanovsky, Sozin, a.o., A tournament book worthy of this great event, which was one of Alekhine's finest performances. Easily one of the best tournament books ever published in English with a cornucopia of great games from the golden age of hypermodern chess.

In 1938, a major controversy existing in the international chess world. Alexander Alekhine had recently regained the title of World Champion by convincingly defeating Max Euwe in a rematch for the title. The question remained as to which grandmaster should have the privilege of challenging Alekhine for the next title match. Various players citing excellent results in recent tournaments made claim to be the next challenger. But who was the second best player in the world?

In order to help settle this dispute, a Dutch radio company, Allgemeese Vereningun Radio-Omroep (A.V.R.0.) organized a tournament exclusively of the eight strongest players in the world at the time, with the belief that the winner of the tournament, if not Alekhine himself, would earn the right to the next World Chess Championship.

This book describes, in detail, that tournament, the circumstances that lead up to it, the participants and their games, as well as the results of the legendary, but under-appreciated tournament.

Long in the making. Part of The Great Tournaments Series. An Alekhine victory, albeit a shaky one, ahead of Kashdan, Dake/ Reshevsky/ Steiner, Borochow, Bernstein/ Factor/ Fine/ Reinfeld, Araiza, Fink. All 54 of the known games out of the 66 played are given with notes. Good photos, especially of Alekhine.

GM Jesse Kraai currently resides in Berkeley, California. His most notable chess achievements are winning the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in 1989 and 1990, and competing in the U.S. Championship from 2002-2006.

The GM's side of his 1978 World Championship Match with Karpov. All thirty-two games are here with most being annotated. Included are the ESP battles, scandals, and fights that make it a classic.