The best, the worst, the shortest, the oddest, the longest, the most deceitful, the most memorable, the most brilliant, the dumbest - of players, games, matches, tournaments, books and ideas. These lists are replete with background detail and exact facts.

By the time the greatest tournament in chess history has only five rounds to go, five corpses have been discovered. Just who is the serial killer with a preference for 2700 rated grandmasters?

How does one determine the "best" chess games? What one may see as brilliant, another may see as simply necessary. Like some art lovers, chess fans claim that they know a good game when they see it, and that they know better from good. But "best"? How is this articulated? This book, itself a work of art, is brought together by the use of five criteria: the overall aesthetics (clever and relentless are insufficient qualities); the originality (e.g., not yet another white knight sacrifice in a Sicilian); the level of opposition (the loser played very well); the soundness (i.e., are the...

This thoroughly updated and revised edition of the highly acclaimed 1986 reference work provides a definitive history of all championship events in the United States through April, 2011. Both the games and the occasions are covered in depth, including biographical details, descriptive settings, anecdotes, tournament drama, unusual games, and grandmaster analysis. Included in this edition are 13 new tournaments, 40 new diagrams and 13 additional crosstables.