Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume III (1948-1953)

Editorial Reviews

"This volume covers the period from 1948 to the 1953 playoff match between Botvinnik and Taimanov and has the same heady mix of the horrors of the era, fleeting heroes lost in the mists of time and amazing chess! A wonderful read once again - 5 stars!" - Grandmaster Matthew Sadler, New In Chess magazine, December 2022

"In this, perhaps the final work in the great trilogy so painstakingly constructed by Sergey Voronkov, we are regaled with reinforcement and refinement of crucial historical themes set out in the first two volumes, but also with new ideas and provocative suggestions. This book gives us not only some 76 games and positions; it contains around 220 photos and cartoons, many of which are published for the first time; splendid snippets of poetry and song which cut to the quick of what's really going on; and its text is still richer than in the previous works. ... From the strictly chess angle, the championships covered here offer a wonderful feast. For these were the years when absolutely top players, who were still young, clashed with a new generation of 'young guns' that contained many of the players who were to dominate the world chess scene for at least two decades more (and in some cases for still longer). ... I cannot end this review without stressing the immensity and value of Voronkov's achievement. He has sustained throughout the trilogy the theme of the interaction between Soviet history and the history of chess in the USSR. He has demonstrated beyond any doubt how the game benefitted from massive public encouragement, but also the terrible costs for so many players and their families... the tragedies, deceits, injustices and sheer suffering that so many fine exponents of the game could suffer, frequently for the most flimsy of reasons, and often enough for no reason at all." - Peter O'Brien, British Chess Magazine, December 2022