World Chess Championship

International Grandmaster Lev Alburt, three-time U.S. champion and former European champion, is one of the most sought-after chess teachers in the world. He lives in New York. Jon Crumiller, of Princeton, N.J., is a national master and expert in computer chess analysis.

"The tradition of producing books on World Championship matches goes way back in time. Many have been written, some published shortly after the last handshake of the match, a few were immediately forgettable, others have become classics, including Tal-Botvinnik 1960 by Mikhail Tal which is still in print. In fact my first "own" (not passed to me by my dad) chess book, was the one on the 1978 match. Do books on World Championship matches still have a place in today's world? After all, with top commentary online and instant analysis by dozens, if not hundreds of experts it might seem unnecessary, especially when such a book might only appear a year or more after the match. Yet, in the case of the present book, I most definitely feel it was worth the wait as it makes for excellent reading. Not only were the authors present throughout the match, but former world champion Vladimir Kramnik has also made a significant input of both analytical and psychological material. This makes the book so much more valuable than the average contribution to the category of tournament and match books.An important feature in this book is that it is not all analysis and long variations, but also includes a great deal of prose and explanations of the ideas behind the moves. Average players are therefore able to understand why the moves were played rather than having an engine spitting out numerical assessments. No doubt this was one of the reasons why the book won the award for Best Instructional Book at the recent CJA awards.An important work that deserves a broad readership."