Description

This is a book in Descriptive Chess Notation of great importance not only because of the question it addresses, but because of who asks and then answers that question. Dr. Max Euwe, who was world chess champion from 1935 to 1937, compares and contrasts Bobby Fischer with the three greatest players before him, world champions Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine. Max Euwe is unique in that he had played all of these players in tournaments and had studied all of their games in great detail. He knew more about them and their games than anybody else. He has a chapter devoted to comparing each of these players to Bobby Fischer. The chapters are entitled "Capablanca and Fischer", "Alekhine and Fischer", "Lasker and Fischer" and finally "Fischer and the Living World Champions", Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian and Spassky. No other book makes these comparisons and addresses these questions, certainly none by any player of the stature of Euwe. Was Bobby Fischer the greatest chess player who ever lived? In this book, Max Euwe, himself a past world champion who also acted as referee at the famous Iceland matches in 1972, here compares Fischer with previous holders of the world chess championship titles. Here are analysis of games that Fischer actually played against Botvinnik, Petrosian, Smyslov, Spassky, Tal, and Euwe. More importantly, Grandmaster Euwe compares certain aspects of Fischer's play with the best games of Capablanca, Alekhine, and Lasker, the most highly regarded world champions of recent times, who were deceased by the time Fischer was playing in tournaments.