"Behind the Scenes of Kramnik's Title Matches"
Winner of the English Chess Federation 2008 Book of the Year Award!
"One of the most original and interesting books to have won the Book of the Year Award."
Shortlisted for The Guardian 2008 Book of the Year Award
Shortlisted for the ChessCafe 2007 Book of the Year Award
Part 1: Overthrow of a Colossus: London 2000, Part 2: Photo Finish in Brissago: 2004, Part 3: Big Brother in Chess City: Elista 2006
An extraordinary account of the main battles in the life of Vladimir Kramnik, a World Champion and a Samurai, in Bareev’s words.
From London to Elista gives a fascinating look behind the scenes of top-level chess. It provides superb analysis of all the games by Bareev, but it does much more.
In Socrates-style dialogues, Bareev and co-author Ilya Levitov reveal everything about the preparation, the progress and the aftermath, about the secret strategy and the brutal stress of the three battles.
This rich book is indispensable for anyone who wants to know what makes top grandmasters tick. It is written from the horse’s mouth, and it is full of honesty, irony, history, wit, anger, wisdom, and even poetry. With many photographs.
Evgeny Bareev is one of the world’s strongest grandmasters today. He was Kramnik’s second during the matches against Kasparov in 2000 and against Leko in 2004, and was in close contact with the Kramnik team during the scandal-plagued match with Topalov in Elista. Ilya Levitov has been an ardent chess amateur all his life. He is a close friend of Vladimir Kramnik and Evgeny Bareev.
