Checkmate!

Introduction

My father taught me to play chess when I was seven years old, on a set he had owned since his childhood. The board was made of cardboard. The squares were red and white, in places a little faded. A wooden box contained the men. I did not know this then, but they were more ornate than those you would find with a conventional set. The black bishops had white mitres and vice-versa. The design of the king was a little unorthodox too, but it did not matter. “This is chess,” my father said as he unpacked the box. I could feel a tingle in my spine as we began. Let us start out on a similar journey together.

In this book, we explore the lives of chess’s world champions. We look at the careers of some of the finest women players to grace the game and examine the most significant matches in chess history. The intensity of the rivalries and the stories generated have the capacity to capture the imagination of chess and non-chess players alike. We also chart the rise of computers and set out suggestions for any reader who wants to start playing competitive chess. As well as many photos of the participants in action, we include plenty of games. For each, we share the moves, a key moment, and several diagrams. It is hoped that this gives a sense of the skill and the struggles of these wonderful competitors, while also opening a pathway for those who want to learn more about some of the most famous contests in the history of the sixty-four squares.

Our cast includes the brilliant but unstable American, Bobby Fischer, who reached the top and walked away; the dynamic Garry Kasparov, who appeared unstoppable, but would ultimately fall to both a man and a machine; and Judit Polgar, the fabulous player whose achievements at an early age surpassed fifteen of our sixteen champions.

The American mystery writer Stanley Ellin wrote: “The way he plays chess demonstrates a man’s whole nature.” It is certainly the case that chess has brought out the best, and occasionally the worst, in those who have competed at the highest level. Politics and skulduggery blend with creativity and camaraderie to create many memorable happenings in the chess world, both at and away from the board. There is much to explore.

THE ORIGINS OF THE GAME

Chess has existed in various forms since the seventh century, evolving to its modern state around 1500. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish priest Ruy Lopez suggested placing the board such that the sun was in your opponent’s eyes, so it seems that players have long sought to gain a competitive advantage in any way that they could!

“Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.”

Siegbert Tarrasch

Ruy Lopez would lay the foundations for modern opening theory, including the discovery of the most famous chess opening of them all, which continues as a mainstay to this day and bears his name. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century respectively, François-André Danican Philidor and LouisCharles Mahé de La Bourdonnais would advance chess theory, making many of the discoveries that underpin our understanding of today’s game. The first competitive chess matches took place in 1834 between La Bourdonnais and McDonnell, and the first major tournament was held in London in 1851.

Another erratic American genius, Paul Morphy, known as “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess,” would destroy all comers in his brief but brilliant career before retiring from serious play in 1859, while still only twenty-two. Morphy’s talent outstripped his love of the game. His tragedy was that he wanted to be a lawyer rather than a chess player, but all his clients ever wanted to do was to talk about chess. Morphy’s mental health collapsed, and he had nothing to do with chess for the last fifteen years of his short life. There are many uncanny parallels between his experiences and those of Bobby Fischer, as we shall see later.

It would be in the period after Paul Morphy’s death that the concept of a world chess champion came about, with the game now becoming a formally organized sport. It is with the exploits of the first official world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, that our book truly begins.

MY CHESS STORY

While there are many twists and turns in the chapters ahead, I thought I should share a little more about my own chess adventure.

When my father first set the pieces up all those years ago, I was captivated by the shapes of the chessmen. From the castle-like rooks through to the horse-shaped knights, one of which had a particularly deep grain in its wood, I could sense that each had its own unique character and set of possibilities. I was desperate to learn how they all moved. A chessboard looked beautiful to me, even before I knew a single rule of the game.

In truth, my father was not a strong player. But he knew enough to teach me. I know that it is easy for someone who is new to chess to feel intimidated by it. After all, for even the greatest of champions, chess retains its mystery. Indeed, this is part of the magic that draws players in and keeps them coming back.

However, any reader who is exploring chess for the very first time will discover that it is not difficult

to learn how the men move. Certain key patterns and chess themes are readily understandable. It does not take much to master some basic checkmates. Very few players calculate as many moves ahead as does the caricature of a computer-like chess player that we sometimes see in the media. A desire to learn and a little time and patience will take any new player a long way.

I was lucky to attend a school that had a chess club. I would spend my lunchtimes in the quiet of the History Master’s classroom, playing chess with others, many of whom were, like me, grateful for the excuse to avoid the hustle and bustle of the playground.

We would play other schools; and before long, I had graduated to playing in adult tournaments. This was an era well before the smoking ban, and I would battle until late into the night against opponents four times my age, coming home reeking of their cigarette smoke. I loved every minute of it.

When I was twelve, I was the strongest under-eighteen-year-old in my county team. I dreamed of becoming the world champion. Like virtually everyone else who has this aspiration, it would transpire that my passion was not matched by my talent. I continued to play regularly, but it became increasingly obvious that my actual career would be as a writer and chess journalist, rather than as a professional player.

I now write regularly for Chess magazine, the UK’s largest such publication, and ChessMoves newsletter.

I am fortunate that I get to witness and record contemporary happenings in the chess world, while continuing to explore the game’s rich history. Chess captivates me as much today as it did when I was a child. I hope this book will allow the reader to share in my passion.

MY EXPERIENCES AGAINST THE CHAMPIONS

I have played two of those we feature in this book, both in simultaneous events. These occur when a great player takes on a number of different opponents in individual games at the same time. Namely, Viktor Korchnoi, seen by many as the greatest player never to be world champion, and Nigel Short, who challenged Garry Kasparov for the title in 1993.

Korchnoi was an old man when we met in an event at the London Chess Classic. He was still intensely competitive, and we were warned that he would not take defeat philosophically should he lose. These exhibition games were as important to him in the moment as his great title battles with world champion Anatoly Karpov had been decades earlier. Whatever the occasion, his will to win was undimmed by the passage of time.

I will always remember when he first stood opposite me at the board, both a colossus of the modern game and a prickly eighty-year-old. He was a little stooped, his suit both clean and well worn. He shook my hand and looked straight into my eyes, much as he must have done with everyone who was anyone in the chess world over the last seventy years. It was hard to suppress my excitement that just this once, it was not Karpov, his successor Garry Kasparov, or the brilliant Bobby Fischer who sat opposite him, but me.

Korchnoi played slowly, spending a long time over our game, rocking back and forth on his heels, occasionally swearing under his breath in Russian. A crowd gathered around our board, and we played

deep into the night, my hope of causing an upset growing with every move. His play was solid, rather than spectacular, and for a long time my position was good; but my technique proved to be no match for his, and in the end I succumbed. He shook my hand, and we shared a second as fellow chess players to talk about the game. I had both played respectably and lost, in some ways the perfect outcome for both of us.

As I took the last train out of London, I played through the moves from our encounter on my small pocket set. I drank a beer and tried to still the adrenaline that was coursing through my veins. The carriage was full of noisy people making their way home after nights out in the capital, but I was in a world of my own, or rather in one I had just shared with Korchnoi. I recalled the glint in his eye as his grip on the position had eventually tightened, and I replayed the crucial moment on my set. I might have lost the game, but we had created something together. As the reader will see, every game takes two players to bring it to life.

Playing Nigel Short was less intense. He started by giving a fascinating lecture on a recent game he had won, which featured an unusually long, slow victory march across the board by his king. Short was completely at home amongst his audience, and unlike Korchnoi he somehow managed to put aside the stone-cold will-to-win mentality that he undoubtedly possessed, when in this setting.

The area of the game where the difference in technique between the very best and the rest of us shows the most is the endgame, and so it proved here. From a seemingly level position with few pieces left on the board, I was completely outplayed. Later I shared a cup of tea with Short and Carl Portman, the chess writer and event organizer. Nigel was relaxed and good company, having beaten most of his opponents as easily as he might brush sleep out of his eyes.

He was a world away from the intense individual who several decades earlier had joined with Kasparov to turn their back on the World Chess Federation, causing a schism that would take many years to heal. Later that evening, Nigel Short spent time at Carl Portman’s house, indulging in his passion for playing music. He is certainly more rounded than some of those who make it to an elite level.

The legendary Soviet Dutch Grandmaster Genna Sosonko, who defected to the West around the same time as Viktor Korchnoi, once said to me that the world’s elite were great players rather than always being great personalities. As we shall see, their characters come in all shapes and sizes. Yet if my own limited experiences are anything to go by, all can generate electricity at the board.

The purpose of this book is to entertain. It is hoped that it will enable those who are new to chess to gain an appreciation for the game, and, for those who are more familiar, that it will act as something of an old friend. Grandmaster and author Hans Ree wrote: “Chess is beautiful enough to waste your life for.” All things in moderation, but there is something in this. It is time to begin.

VIKTOR KORCHNOI vs BEN GRAFF

LONDON CHESS CLASSIC (Simul) 2011

Queen’s Gambit Declined [D37]

Having the opportunity to play Viktor Korchnoi was one of the happiest chess experiences of my life.

I wrote in Chess magazine that “He would look me in the eye with a force and intensity that I have not experienced at the chess board before or since.

I cannot imagine that many other players of his caliber would have cared as much as he did. . . .

Perhaps it is fanciful, but I had a hunch that he had a better understanding as to what this game meant . . . than many a world champion might have done.”

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Bd3 c5

7.cxd5 exd5 8.0-0 Bg4 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.Na4 Bd6 11.Be2

Nc6 12.h3 Bh5 13.Nd4 Bxe2 14.Nxe2 Re8 15.b3 Rc8 16.

Bb2 Be5 17.Bxe5 Nxe5 18.Rc1 Nc6 19.Nd4 Nxd4 20.Qxd4

b6 21.Rfd1 Re4 22.Qd3 Re8 23.Rxc8 Qxc8 24.Nc3 Rd8

25.e4 d4 26.e5!

Korchnoi could also have played 26.Nd5 Nxd5 27.Qxd4, winning a pawn but potentially giving me some drawing chances with 27…Qc5. Instead, Korchnoi’s approach allows him to continually build the pressure as he chases victory.

26…Ne8 27.Nb5 Rd5 28.f4 Nc7 29.Nd6 Qd7 30.Qe4 Qc6 31.Qf5 Qxd6 32.exd6 Rxf5 33.dxc7 1-0

Material is level, but I cannot stop Korchnoi’s c7 pawn from queening. Or alternatively, after 33…Rc5, 34.Rxd4 Rxc7 35.Rd8 would be checkmate.

Korchnoi was far from easy. His combative, competitive nature and tendency to say exactly what he thought, in both victory and defeat, could be challenging. As we will see during the course of the book, no other player would come so close to the world title without winning it as did Korchnoi.

How to follow the chess moves in this book

The chessboard is an eight-by-eight grid and, as the diagram above shows, algebraic notation means every square has its own unique name, based on file and rank. It is worth the reader taking a moment to familiarize themselves with this system.

Files are the vertical rows and are labeled “a” through “h.”

Ranks run horizontally and are numbered 1 to 8. A square’s name is formed by firstly taking the letter (lower case) and then the number. The White men always start the game on the first and second ranks, the Black men on the seventh and eighth. The table above sets out the key symbols necessary to follow the game. A “P” for pawn symbol is not used in algebraic notation. Where no indication of the man’s type is given, the move is a pawn move. King Queen Rook Bishop Knight Captures Check

Note—Best tournament performance assessments utilize Chessmetrics data through to Kasparov, and Elo data thereafter, to enable readers to make a clear comparison across the eras.

Ratings for Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, and Menchik are based on estimates provided by Grandmaster Jonathan Levitt. In the infographic circle within each player profile, we highlight their closest rivals in terms of strength.

The World Chess Champions

Only sixteen people have ever been recognized as the World Chess Champion. This chapter tells their stories, from the very first winner, Wilhelm Steinitz, through to today’s holder, Magnus Carlsen. For each of our players, two famous games are shared: the first from a world championship match, the second another memorable example of their play. In each of these, a key moment is highlighted, allowing us to enjoy the great skill of these remarkable competitors.

What does it take to become world champion? It is no easy task. Huge talent and drive are crucial. Nobody gets to be the very best at anything without incredible focus and will to win. Ultimately, a champion needs to assimilate all that has gone before and to add new ideas of their own. Each learns from their predecessors and gets to stand on the shoulders of giants.

The lives of these players are therefore indelibly linked, even when they competed in different eras. Some of our titleholders loathed each other; between others friendship eventually blossomed. It is through their battles at the board and their study of the game that chess has continued to develop and evolve, bringing so much pleasure to millions.

Our champions would experience their share of triumphs and disasters, just like the rest of us. From the coffeehouses of the nineteenth century through to our own Internet era, these players would grapple with wars (both hot and cold), penury, jail, and in several cases a tenuous grip on reality. Perennial title challenger Viktor Korchnoi has written that “No Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness.” The reader will need to make a definitive judgment on this for themselves.

Perhaps these biographies can best be characterized as falling within three distinct phases. In the first, the title was seen as the possession of the incumbent. The holder could determine who to play, when, and on what terms. This often created problems, which included long periods of inactivity on the part of Emanuel Lasker; and Alexander Alekhine avoiding a rematch against Jose Capablanca that he would probably have lost.

“To play a match for the World Championship is the cherished dream of every chess player.”

—David Bronstein

Alekhine was the only player to die while world champion. This moment marked the beginning of the second phase, in which the title was managed by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and came to be dominated by players from the Soviet Union, until the brilliant American Bobby Fischer shone brightly but briefly, before drifting into obscurity and darkness.

In the third phase, as the state-sponsored power of the Soviet Union fell away, the reigns of Anatoly Karpov and Kasparov were followed by a degree of fragmentation in the game. In 1993, Garry Kasparov and his challenger Nigel Short split from FIDE to play their world-title match independent of the governing body, something Kasparov would later characterize as “the worst mistake of my career, given the long-term damage it did to chess.” There would then be an interlude with two separate sets of title events, before unification. For the purposes of this book, just as most others do, we trace our champions’ lineage through the undoubted strongest player in the world at the time of the schism, Kasparov.

Many will ask, when reading these portraits, which of our champions can lay claim to being the strongest. In absolute terms, players have improved over the years, as more about the game has been discovered. Moreover, the availability of computers, which are now far stronger than any human, enables players to analyze and prepare in a way that would not have been possible even twenty years ago.

Certainly Lasker, Fischer, Kasparov, and Carlsen dominated their respective eras. It is unlikely that any player will ever match Lasker’s twenty-seven years as world champion. None have captured the imagination quite like Fischer, a man who singlehandedly took on the Soviet Union’s state-sponsored chess program and won. The idea that a player could be better than Kasparov would once have appeared fanciful. Yet in absolute terms, Carlsen has surpassed them all, and his claim to be the greatest in relative terms continues to grow.

Not all the sixteen were perfect men. They were not even always perfect players. But their stories are our stories, and it is in part a product of their flaws and imperfections, as well as their brilliancies that the history of chess is such a rich one. It is time to enter the world of our champions.

Wilhelm Steinitz

“Place the contents of the chess box in a hat, shake them up vigorously, pour them on the board from a height of two feet, and you get the style of Steinitz.”

—Henry Bird

Modern chess begins with Steinitz. His principle-based approach to the game transformed our understanding of the sixty-four squares. He was also the first official chess world champion. Born in Prague, Steinitz’s father was a tailor. The ninth child, he was destined to both start and end his life in straitened and difficult circumstances, yet so much would be achieved along the way.

In his early years, Steinitz studied mathematics in Vienna, first appearing at an international event in London in 1862. His results were not spectacular, and for a while he was seen as gifted but erratic. For the next twenty years Steinitz lived in London, rapidly learning the language, and becoming a prolific chess writer through his column in The Field and other publications. While wonderfully written and amusing, Steinitz’s articles could be acidic, which made him enemies. Indeed, the Russian chess player and author Eugene Znosko-Borovsky once observed of Steinitz that “He had arguments wherever he settled.”

Perhaps this perception of Steinitz’s difficult nature played a part in his falsely being accused of spying when the moves of a postal chess game he was playing against close rival Mikhail Chigorin were wrongly taken to be coded military secrets. This was the first, but by no means the last, brush with the law experienced by a world chess champion. That said, in fairness to Steinitz, he had done nothing wrong. It must also be highlighted that more recent historians have noted that Steinitz

was also capable of great charm and cordial relations with other players, on occasion.

At the chessboard, Steinitz started out very much as a player of his time. This was an era in which gambits were the norm. It was expected that competitors would try to sacrifice material to gain space and momentum, before attempting to win with a spectacular attack. Yet Steinitz increasingly became aware of the limitations inherent in such an approach. He realized such aggressive play often only succeeded because players were not finding the strongest defense, and that there were different and more effective ways to approach the game.

Garry Kasparov has described Steinitz’s creation of the positional school of chess as “comparable with the great scientific discoveries of the 19th century.” Steinitz was the first to understand that positions could be objectively analyzed, and plans developed, based on the specific characteristics of the situation. It was Steinitz who recognized that attacks should only be launched when sufficient small advantages had been developed and that good defense needed to be predicated on avoiding structural weaknesses wherever possible.

In 1866, Steinitz played a match against Adolf Anderssen, who was viewed by many as the best active player in the world, upsetting the odds by winning eight-six. Steinitz’s period as an elite competitor had arrived. Yet it was not until 1886 that the first officially recognized world-title match came about.

“Fame, I have already. Now I need the money.”

years as world champion

losing the world title

Blackburne–Steinitz 1876

Number of different opponents in a world-title final

Number of world-title match victories

Number of appearances in the world-title final

Partly because the legendary recluse Paul Morphy was now dead, which made the notion of another player being officially crowned as the best player in the world more credible—partly too because of Steinitz’s own efforts to promote the very concept of a chess world champion.

Steinitz had left England for America three years earlier, noting that he had always been made to feel like a foreigner on English shores. The United States would now be the location for the first-ever world-title match. The games took place in New York, St Louis, and New Orleans, the victor being the first to win ten games. Steinitz’s opponent was the extremely gifted Johannes Zukertort, who was renowned for his brilliant attacking play.

The New York City Paper described the players thus: “Both Steinitz and Zukertort are of medium height. The former is strong, balding, with lively eyes and a reddish-brown beard. The latter is frail. . . . On Zukertort’s face one can see the traces of hard spiritual labour . . . Steinitz is much more peaceful in appearance. . . Zukertort plays quickly, as if guided by inspiration, while Steinitz makes his moves slowly and ponderously.”

Steinitz began disastrously, following a win in the first game with four straight defeats, one of which featured a very basic blunder for a player of Steinitz’s caliber. Yet for someone known as a theoretician, Steinitz now showed his practical streetfighting qualities, winning five and drawing one of the next six games. While this left the scores even, the momentum had entirely shifted in Steinitz’s direction, and he would ultimately win the match by five clear points.

Zukertort had been like a boxer unable to land a punch, the opportunity to unleash the lethal combinations his play relied upon completely denied by Steinitz’s ultra-logical, modern approach. The way in which leading players understood and played the game had been changed forever by Steinitz’s style. A newspaper of the day declared: “Steinitz the realist has defeated the artist Zukertort!”

Steinitz would defend his title against Chigorin and Isidor

Gunsberg in the years that followed; but when he played Lasker in 1894, time was no longer on his side. Indeed, the thirty-two-year age gap between Steinitz and his new rival remains the largest between opponents in any world-title match. Steinitz’s record of having been unbeaten in twenty-four matches, stretching back to 1862, would come to an end in this encounter. While Steinitz played well in some of the games, the young Lasker was clearly superior, and the baton had passed.

The return match in 1896 was more brutal, with Steinitz going down heavily, suffering a nervous breakdown in the process. Steinitz lamented his many errors, remarking “There are limitations to man’s mind, but not to his foolishness!” A handful of good tournament results was still to come, including placing fourth at Vienna in 1898, but Steinitz’s era at the very top, and indeed his life, were close to done.

Steinitz’s mental health rapidly deteriorated, and he would die in poverty in a mental asylum on Wards Island, near New York. A sad demise, but what a journey. The game as we know it today owes so much to him, both on and off the board. His theories laid the foundations on which all future champions have built their own theoretical refinements. His seminal twopart book Modern Chess Instructor and his columns constituted a serious advance on the way in which chess theory had previously been understood. It is thanks to Steinitz that the concept of the world chess champion exists, and all else follows from him.

Not long before he died, Steinitz said of himself: “I am not a chess historian—I myself am a piece of chess history, which no one can avoid. I will not write about myself, but I am sure that someone will write.” For all the struggles of his later years, it is some consolation to know that Steinitz understood the strength of his own legacy. His place in the history of our wonderful game is secure; his achievements still live. He was truly worthy of the unique honour of being the first-ever world chess champion.

Zukertort and Steinitz square up in the first-ever worldchampionship match in 1886. These contests have continued to fascinate chess fans for more than a hundred and thirty-five years.

JOHANNES ZUKERTORT vs WILHELM STEINITZ

WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

St. Louis (USA), 1886—Game 7

Queen’s Gambit Declined, Semi-Tarrasch Defense [D40]

Widely regarded as the turning point in the first-ever world championship. Steinitz’s modern, positional approach proved too much for Zukertort.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 c5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.a3 dxc4

Steinitz is making Zukertort’s d-pawn look increasingly weak. MOVE 19…Qa6

20.Bg5 Nf5 21.g4 Nxd4 22.Nxd4 e5 23.Nd5 Rxc1 24.Qxc1 exd4 25.Rxd4 Nxd5 26.Rxd5 Rxd5 27.Bxd5 Qe2 28.h3 h6

29.Bc4 (If 29.Bxh6 Bxh6 30.Qxh6 Qd1+.) 29...Qf3 30.Qe3 Qd1+ 31.Kh2 Bc6 32.Be7 Be5+

Steinitz takes advantage of Zukertort’s ruined king side.

33.f4 Bxf4+ 34.Qxf4 Qh1+ 35.Kg3 Qg1+ 0–1

Now 36.Kh4 Qe1+ 37.Qg3 g5+ proves decisive.

WILHELM STEINITZ vs CURT VON BARDELEBEN

“THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS”

Hastings (UK), 1895

Giuoco piano, Greco Attack [C54]

A year after losing his world title to Lasker, Steinitz played his last brilliancy, a game he considered to be his very best. Steinitz demonstrates the power of a rook on the seventh rank in this wonderful attacking display. Much controversy has grown up around this game. For years it was reported that von Bardeleben had stormed off in a huff rather than resign. However, excellent research by Edward Winter has demonstrated that this was not the case. Either way, Steinitz took much pride in this effort, saying “I may be an old lion, but I can still bite someone’s hand off if he puts it in my mouth.”

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+

7.Nc3 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.0-0 Be6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxd5 Bxd5

12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.Re1 f6 15.Qe2 Qd7 16.Rac1 c6?

This is the crucial mistake, allowing a strong pawn sacrifice. A modern-day computer gives 16…Kf7 as level, but this is not an obvious move to find.

17.d5! cxd5 18.Nd4 Kf7 19.Ne6 Rhc8 20.Qg4 g6 21.Ng5+ Ke8 22.Rxe7+! Kf8 23.Rf7+ Kg8 24.Rg7+ Kh8 25.Rxh7+! 1-0

Steinitz immediately showed the spectators that he had a forced ten-move checkmate. White wins aftter 25…Kg8 with 26.Rg7+ Kh8 27.Qh4+ Kxg7 28.Qh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7+ Ke8 31.Qg8+ Ke7 32.Qf7+ Kd8 33.Qf8+ Qe8 34.Nf7+ Kd7 35.Qd6 checkmate

The reader might wonder whether Curt von Bardeleben could have captured Wilhelm Steinitz’s queen with 22…Qxe7. However, after 23.Rxc8+ Rxc8 24.Qxc8+ Qd8 25.Qxd8+ Kxd8 26.Nxh7 Steinitz’s position is overwhelming.

Emanuel Lasker

“The greatest of the champions was, of course, Emanuel Lasker.”

—Mikhail Tal

From the mysterious nature of his play, through to the pungent cigars he smoked at the board, Lasker left the strongest of impressions on the chess world. His twenty-seven years as champion remains a record, and one that is unlikely ever to be broken. Born in Germany, to a father who worked in the local synagogue, Lasker would live most of his life in Berlin.

Lasker said “On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in the checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite.” His search for truth at the board, and in several other fields, would bring him much success. A Doctor of Mathematics, Lasker developed a theory still seen as crucial to algebraic geometry, earning him the admiration of Albert Einstein. Lasker was also a Doctor of Philosophy (albeit his works were less influential), an international bridge player, and a renowned chess author. Lasker’s Manual of Chess and Commonsense in Chess were his most famous works. The latter characterized chess as an intellectual fight and ran to thirty editions. During his time as world champion, there would be periods where Lasker scarcely played, owing to the range of his other interests.

Perhaps there are parallels between the life of Steinitz and that of Lasker. Lasker followed a similar chess journey to

Steinitz, taking in England and America on his route to the top. In England in 1892, he would win matches against leading players Joseph Blackburne and Henry Bird, before winning the strong London tournament in the same year. In America it would be a similar story and he triumphed with a perfect 13/13 against the finest players on US shores. It is certain that Steinitz’s penury also made a deep impression on our second champion, who as a result always insisted on playing for high fees. Yet despite his financial acumen and marrying the widow of an industrialist, Lasker too would have his share of money worries, following hyper-inflation in World War I and the Nazis confiscating his property in the 1930s. Lasker’s life certainly coincided with a tragic and volatile period in world history.

When Lasker triumphed against Steinitz in 1894, contemporary reports suggest that crowds celebrated wildly in the streets of Montreal, and Steinitz himself shouted “Bravo” three times. Yet the reaction to Lasker’s first worldtitle victory was more muted in the wider chess world. Some questioned what Lasker had really achieved, given that Steinitz was past his best.

Even Steinitz himself thought he had been undone by a partisan crowd, an opinion he was suitably disabused of in the subsequent rematch.

Garry Kasparov

“I thought I was playing the world champion, not a monster with a thousand eyes who sees everything.”

—Tony Miles

Brilliant at the board, charismatic away from it, Kasparov ranks among the greatest of our champions. The youngestever winner at twenty-two, his fifteen-year reign is second only to Lasker’s. Kasparov’s rivalry with Karpov, mirroring as it does a rapidly changing Soviet Union, is a story for the ages. Kasparov’s My Greatest Predecessors series must also be recognized as the greatest written contribution to our understanding of the game from any champion.

Born in Baku, half-Jewish, half-Armenian, Kasparov’s aptitude for chess was immediately obvious. When he was five, his parents struggled and failed to solve a chess problem in a newspaper. Kasparov pointed out the answer. He said “Even though no one had showed me before, I knew the chessboard by heart.” Intensely competitive, an admirer of Alekhine’s play, Kasparov’s games are so rich and complex that fellow professionals often struggle to follow the action.

Kasparov’s early years would not be easy. His father, Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein, died from leukemia when Garry was seven. He would form an incredibly close bond with his mother Klara, a woman who had herself been a very talented child player. The family would revert to using her maiden name Kasparov. Some have suggested that this was to avoid antisemitism hindering Kasparov’s ascent, but he has always rejected this, saying instead that it just seemed the more natural choice for the family.

Kasparov started training with Botvinnik at the age of

twelve. At the time he wrote that Botvinnik has “helped with the development of my will and my character. In communicating with this man of intelligence, this chess player and scientist, I have been made to think many things over. . . . He demanded devotion to chess and to work. He taught me to keep looking and to find, to doubt, to give up and look again and again and again.”

Kasparov would be the Soviet junior champion twice, at both thirteen and fourteen. In 1978, Kasparov won the Sokolsky Memorial, an event that he said he would remember for as long as he lived, as after this he knew both that chess would be his profession and that he had a very good chance of eventually becoming world champion.

This belief can only have been reinforced when he became world junior champion in 1980 and tied for first in the USSR Championship in 1981/2. His rise would continue to be rapid. Victories in Bugonjo and the Moscow Interzonal meant that at nineteen, Kasparov was the second-youngest player to reach the Candidates phase of a world championship (after Fischer), and he was already rated number two in the world.

Following victory against Alexander Beliavsky, Kasparov was due to play the defector Korchnoi in the semifinal; but political machinations were brought to bear, and Kasparov was initially forced to forfeit the match. Kasparov had little doubt that the Soviet authorities were doing all they could to prevent him from ultimately taking on Karpov.

Magnus Carlsen

“Magnus plays at a level of tactical brilliance and sublime endgame technique that I could not have imagined, even from people like Petrosian and Tal. . . .”

—Kenneth Rogoff

The highest-rated player in the history of the game. The computers show his moves are also the most accurate. Magnus Carlsen has a well-deserved reputation for winning from positions in which his contemporaries and predecessors would not. Carlsen’s most recent world-championship victory against Ian Nepomniachtchi guarantees he will be champion for at least ten years, and his remaining levels of ambition place the only limit as to his future achievements.

Born in Tonsberg, Norway, Magnus Carlsen was doing fifty-piece jigsaws before his second birthday. He knew all the common makes of car by the time he was two and a half, and by five had taught himself the names of every country, their capital cities, and their populations.