Soviet Outcast by Grigory Levenfish

Descripción

Grigory Levenfish was twice Soviet Champion and drew a match with the great Botvinnik, yet despite his

skills, he was never a favoured son of the Soviet Union. Rejected for selection to key events and the only

Soviet grandmaster to be denied a stipend in later life, Levenfish was a Soviet Outcast.

Levenfish describes in vivid detail the atmosphere of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia, giving first-

hand impressions of some of the most famous names in early-twentieth-century chess, such as Lasker,

Rubinstein, Alekhine and Capablanca – all of whom were personally known to him. Some of the stories

stay long in the memory: descriptions of the hardships endured by players in the first USSR

Championship that took place in the difficult years of the Civil War; of idyllic trips to the Caucasus and

Crimea; of grim struggles for survival in the winter of 1941.

Sample pages