Botvinnik's Best Games - Alexander Khalifman

Botvinnik's Best Games

Mikhail Botvinnik is widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time, in the same league as Magnus Carlsen, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov. Botvinnik was born in 1911 and died in 1995. He is known as The Patriarch, or the father of the Soviet School of Chess. He was World Chess Champion from 1948 until 1963, with two short interruptions, and later mentored other world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik.

For this modern biography, the Russian grandmaster Alexander Khalifman has selected and annotated more than fifty of Botvinnik’s best games. Khalifman is an excellent guide with a deep understanding of chess and a talent for explaining games in a clear and accessible manner.

Botvinnik’s Best Games is part of a series by New In Chess that celebrates the greatest chess players of all time. Previous titles in the series include collections of games by Paul Morphy, Max Euwe, Boris Spassky, and Ding Liren.

Alexander Khalifman (1966) is a Russian grandmaster who has won numerous tournaments, including the Russian Championship and the New York Open. He was FIDE World Champion in 1999-2000 and has written more than a dozen widely acclaimed chess books.

Reviews

Sean Marsh (CHESS magazine)
“What more could one want than a world champion writing in detail about another world champion? Khalifman’s notes are excellent throughout the book and he takes the time to place the openings played in the games in a modern context, which is very useful. The all-time greats of the chess world have been celebrated many times before in chess literature, of course, but this solid series unfailingly offers new twists and turns in the illustrative games, no matter how well known they may already be.”

Corniek le Poole (Schaaksite.nl)
“A fantastic book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's exceptionally instructive. Khalifman guides the reader through the games with a steady hand, and with these fifty games, you can learn a great deal about chess and Botvinnik's role in its development. Anyone who has always wanted to take the advice to study the classics seriously has an excellent opportunity here. And those who don't necessarily aspire to that can simply enjoy the many wonderful games the book contains.”