Game Collection Books

How Magnus Carlsen Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World is the fairy-tale-like story of his rise.

In 2013 chess returned to world headlines.

The energetic Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen was front page news and his fans were not disappointed: the World Number 1 won the World Championship.

Carlsen’s Assault on the Throne gives an inside view of Carlsen’s dramatic journey: from one of eight challengers in the London Candidates tournament, with the near disaster in the final rounds, ending with triumph in Chennai.

With behind-the-scenes stories and top-level analysis of the games Kotronias & Logothetis have written the ultimate book on how Carlsen became the 16th undisputed World Champion.

Vassilios Kotronias is a grandmaster and nine-time Greek Champion. He is a key member of the Greek team as both a player and coach.

Sotiris Logothetis is a computer expert and highly-regarded arbiter and organiser.

This is the complete tournament and match record of the most compelling figure in chess history — all 735 of Bobby Fischer’s games, from his first recorded efforts as a twelve-year-old in 1955 through the 1972 world-championship triumph to the 1992 rematch with Spassky.

The collection is framed by an unusually distinguished cast. The foreword is by Larry Evans, Fischer’s long-time second and friend; the introduction is by endgame authority Karsten Müller; and Andy Soltis contributes a survey of Fischer’s openings, tracing how the American’s razor-sharp repertoire evolved over a career that reshaped opening theory.

Organised year by year, the book lets you follow Fischer’s development in a way no anthology of “best games” can: the early brilliancies, the dominant runs of the early 1960s, the astonishing streak through the 1971 Candidates, and the match that made him champion. Career results, highlights, and full opening and player indexes make it as useful for reference as it is for study.

For anyone drawn to Fischer — whether to relive the classics or to study the precision and clarity that defined his play — this is the definitive single-volume games collection.

Mikhail Tal’s splendid account of his world championship match victory