Soviet Chess Kings

In an era when the entire Soviet Union was captivated by chess "from Moscow to the farthest outskirts", their names became legendary. For half a century, representatives of the USSR – Mikhail Botvinnik and Vladimir Karpov, Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov – proudly wore the world chess crown, and the Soviet chess school was universally recognized as the best. In the struggle for the championship title, not only sports ambitions clashed, but also the interests of entire countries, which further increased the significance of chess and the public interest in it. The book by Andrey Amelin captivatingly and accurately tells about the lives of Soviet world champions both on and off the chessboard – a collective biography of six outstanding chess players who shared all the victories and hardships of the 20th century with their country.