Book Description

This is the autobiography of Paul Keres. It is the third and final volume in a series of three books. The other two volumes are The Early Games of Paul Keres Grandmaster of Chess ISBN 4871875407 and The Middle Years of Paul Keres Grandmaster of Chess ISBN 4871875415.

The third volume of Keres' selected games contains the games the grandmaster thinks best from the last phase in his career, and is concerned with the decade 1952-62. During this period he met and defeated practically all the great chess-masters of our time, and this selection includes games won against opponents ranging from Botvinnik and Smyslov to Tal and Spassky.

Abounding in subtlety and brilliance, the games form a perfect model for the aspiring young player, and those who have read the earlier two volumes will know how exhaustive and informative the notes of the games are. Never before has a writer given such an insight into the workings of the mind of a great chess master as Keres has done here.

Harry Golombek, who has translated and edited the book, is Chess Correspondent of The Times and the Observer. He has three times won the British Championship and has figured in the prize list of the Championship on no less than eleven occasions.

About the Author

Paul Keres was born on January 7, 1916 in Narva in what is now Estonia. In this, the third volume, he covers the period from 1952 to 1962, when he kept coming close to earning the right to play a match for the world chess championship, but never quite made it.

Keres had a run of four successive second places in Candidates' tournaments: 1953, 1956, 1959, 1962.