Chessdon

By Don Schultz

Starting in a small town chess club, the story rapidly moves to Iceland and purported KGB attempts to influence the Spassky/Fischer World Championship match. A defection in Thessalonika, an attempt at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967077508
• ISBN13: 9780967077505
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Chess Don Pub
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.3" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

A TO Z

Skip the games and you will likely read the 370 page book from start to finish. I played chess in NYC tournaments in the early sixties and Chessdon brought back many nice memories. Definitely five stars. I especially enjoyed the many inside stories concerning world champions Bobby Fischer, Kasparov and Karpov.

Excellent Book

Easy and a joy to read. Everything you always wanted to know about the famous chessplayers in the world of chess.

Easy Review

Very well written. I learned a great deal about the world of chess. Reads like a novel. I felt I got a good insight into the players. Reading about the behind the scenes goings-on during the Spassky/Fischer match, the deep Blue /Kasparov match and other world class battles was highly interesting. Grandmaster Schwartzman's game reviews was first class.

A Change of Pace

I immediately put down Robb's biography of Victor Hugo to do some serious browsing. I enjoyed that too. The subheadings, lively anecdotal style, index are all helpful for browsing. Since I started to learn chess only a few months ago (at age 69), I assumed I would be able to make no sense at all of the various chess games, but GM Schwartzman's chatty analyses and inclusion of the notation letters/numbers along the edges of the diagrams mean that I cannot only enjoy the chat and but see that with a little effort I'll be able to get beyond it into the details of the games (a little, anyway). I liked reading the accounts of people such as Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Carol Jarecki, Florencio Camponmanes, Frank Camaratta, etc., whose names are familiar to me from internet browsing and/or chess fame. The Acronym appendix is welcome too--now I know what the "A" in LMA stands for!

The best chess book I've ever read!

Pulling no punches, CHESSDON reveals everything from KGB involvement with chess to anecdotes guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes. Chess personalities, ranging from Bobby Fischer to Judit Polgar, are all present and accounted for. Do you know who won the first Earth vs. Outer Space chess game? All this and more. I've read thousands of books--including hundreds of chess books--Don's book is the best book about chess that I've ever read.