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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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After a year of writing, I finished a collection of entertaining and fascinating stories about chess players' lives.
They focus mostly on world champions and grandmasters, although there are chapters on historical figures, women in chess, chess cheaters, and quirky chess players.
Some involve Canadian players like Frank Anderson, and famous players going around Canada.
The stories are mostly bite-sized and tremendously funny, if you like light humour :)
If you've enjoyed The King's Gambit; the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman, this will be your cup of tea.
If interested, you can check it out here
Seeing some of Mike's chess analysis online, he is a good story teller. I got my copy of the book of Best Stories today. It's a nice size, pages of 8.5 x 11. Half of the book is stories about the World Champions, ending with Kasparov. There are colourized photos of the World Champions. Some of the more recent World Champions are also mentioned. And a few stories about women. In total, over 150 stories!
I love that several Canadians were mentioned, new players may not be familiar with them: Frank Anderson, Geza Fuster, Igor Ivanov, Kevin Spraggett, Duncan Suttles, Zvonko Vranesic, and George Berner. And Johannes Zukertort and Igor Bondarevsky's visits to Toronto and Paul Keres to Vancouver. Plus Mike's own personal Canadian stories.
Not a book to be read all at once, but just a story here and there.
Last edited by Erik Malmsten; Thursday, 4th September, 2025, 02:58 PM.
Thanks Eric and Hans! Canadians tend to be overlooked on the world chess stage, so this should help keep their history alive at least.
Wished that I could put in more stories about Lawrence Day and Bohartichuk for example, but that will be for another edition.
Tweet
"Best Stories in Chess" book
Rest assured that adults will enjoy too :)
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