The Soviet School of Chess

by Alexander Kotov, Mikhail Yudovich, Sam Sloan (Introduction)

“The Soviet School of Chess” is one of the most important books ever written on chess. It starts with the pre-Soviet Era with the beginning of the 19th century and recounts not only the histories of their greatest players up to modern times but also the history of their ideas. A biography is provided for each of the greatest players plus examples from their games and their contributions to chess knowledge and chess opening theory. This revised version has added in Algebraic Notation the complete scores of all 200 games referenced in the book plus the concluding diagram, in the appendix in the back. Here is the name of the player of white and black, the year the game was played, the opening and opening code, the number of moves, the result and the page in the book where the game is referenced. The games are in the order in which they are referenced in the book.

Genres: Chess

512 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1951

About the author

Alexander Kotov (1913—1981) - a Soviet chess grandmaster.

RUS: Александр Александрович Котов

Reviews

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old School Soviet Chess Book from the 1950's by Alexander Kotov for some reason the voice of Ivan and Natasha from Rocky and Bull Winkle comes to mind when I read this book.

Instructional but don't pay any attention to the pro Soviet propaganda that was added to it!

[Corey Butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full of propaganda, so it is mostly of historical interest. The book also contains bios of many of the older Russian GMs.

[Mohit Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

full of propaganda, but a really nice book to shape your chess knowledge(both playing and historical) with.

[Fayçal · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will not complete it because the games are a descriptive notation, and this makes me slow in the movements. This is because I am accustomed to algebraic notation and the modern way. As for the issue of propaganda, this is the same for the Americans, so one cannot talk about the cold war without talking about chess.

[Alberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lit bit of commie propaganda, but still a good book.