Move First, Think Later

The First - and Sadly the Last - Book by Larry Evans, Vienna 1922 is remembered as one of the first great tournaments after World War I. All the stars of the day (Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Grunfeld, Maroczy, Reti, Spielmann, Tarrasch and Tartakover) played except Capablanca and Lasker, but it was Akiba Rubinstein who was to turn in an outstanding success scoring an undefeated 11 1/2 from 14 to finish a point and half ahead of second place Tartakover and two and a half points ahead of Alekhine.

In this account of his victory at the 1929 Carlsbad Tournament, Nimzovich offers a captivating retrospective of his triumph over some of the best of his contemporaries: Capablanca, Spielmann, Bogolyubov, Tartakower, Samisch, and others. A tart analysis of Carlsbad's 30 best games.

Lone Pine 1975 was the first ever truly Grandmaster Swiss event. Today, with many grandmaster Swiss events taking place every year, such as the Aeroflot Open, the Reykjavik Open, and many others, not to mention the World Open, bringing together 22 grandmasters to play in a Swiss tournament does not seem that remarkable. Even the title, Grandmaster Chess, seems to be a bit hackneyed with so many grandmaster events being played today.

An analysis of the 1972 World Championship Chess Match from both sides of the chessboard - a Russian and an American analysis.

Organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations' charter in San Francisco in 1945, the tournament combined playing strength and diversity in an unprecedented fashion.

The roaster of stars spanned generations, crossed political and economic boundaries, and included the women's World Champion, Xie Jun of China, and history's strongest African American chess player, Grandmaster Maurice Ashley of New York. Whether young or old, man or woman, communist or capitalist, there was someone for everyone.

These chmapions from the former Soviet Union, China, England, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and the United States vied for supremacy for two grueling weeks. They produced some of the finest fighting chess ever witnessed in this country, and their analysis of the games fill these pages. It was only fitting that such a competitive event was ultimately won by the greatest fighter of them all, Viktor Korchnoi.

San Luis 2005 is the most celebrated chess tournament of the decade. Bulgarian Grandmaster Veselin Topalov triumphed and proved that he is a worthy successor to World Champions such as Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. In this ambitious work, Gershon and Nor analyze all the games from the tournament, but there is no danger of the reader drowning in masses of variations, as the authors clearly explain the ideas behind the moves.

The Hastings Christmas Congress is the longest traditional of international chess tournaments in which the world's leading players competed. During the pre-war period of 1932-1939, the Annual Hastings tournament was the strongest event on the chess calendar, pitting Britains finest players against a galaxy of chess stars from across the globe.

Finally this complex and great tournament appears just about one hundred years after it occurred. Schlechter won by a slight margin in a very complicated series of qualifying sections. Gillam worked hard with a dedicated band of helpers to track down all the known games, graced in most cases with notes, of that era.