Воспоминания шахматиста

Alexander Koblenz's book is not only extremely interesting, it is very significant in this sense, it appeared exactly when it should have appeared. Before us is a whole series of wonderful fanatics, disinterested romantics, whose loyalty to their beloved cause could not be shaken either by the condescending and dismissive attitude of others, or the hardships of exhausting battles at the board, or the specter of unsecured old age. There are few books of this kind, there are almost none, and the need for them is growing and will grow even more rapidly, because the understanding that chess is not only a game, that it is a special kind of creative activity that arose at the intersection of art and science, the understanding of this has finally become , available to the general public. Now, for example, no one will say about a chess player - “player”, a word with its disrespectful overtones is finally assigned either to adventurers or fans of gambling.