Why read Grandmasters of Chess?

Book cover of Grandmasters of Chess

Book description

What makes a great chess player? Mr. Schonberg is explicit: vast memory, imagination, intuition, technique, a healthy body, relative youth, a high degree of visual imagery, and the unyielding determination to win are the prerequisites. Almost always child prodigies, chess geniuses invariably have massive egos. Mr. Schonberg begins with François…

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Topics

Chess

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Sports biographies

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Why read it?

1 author picked Grandmasters of Chess as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Brin-Jonathan Butler

Author

Harold Schonberg explores the nuances of what goes into creating a brilliant chess player across the vast history of chess. The characters he details within this gem of a book rival anything he assembled in his other breathtaking tomb on classical music, “The Lives Of Great Composers.” Schonberg’s backstories of the rogues gallery of chess great add such texture and nuance to the vast eccentricity at the heart of genius chess players and also highlights the times in which they lived so that they and it comes to life. Probably my favorite resource for my work with “The Grandmaster.”

From Brin-Jonathan's list on The most compelling books from the world of chess that I encountered researching my book.