Kasparov discusses his predecessors Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov and Tal.
Gary Kasparov was still a child when Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995), the patriarch of Soviet chess, saw him as a future champion and a revolutionary, and took him as his favorite student in special school for top talent. By Botvinnik remarkably prescient he was, he could not imagine that restless boy Azerbaijani dissect 30 years after all the games of the world champions with an exemplary and unprecedented depth.
In this second volume, Kasparov analyzes the scientific style that defined his beloved teacher, almost poetic harmony of Vasily Smyslov, volcanic mind in constant eruption of Mikhail Tal and consistency and mental discipline only champion not born in the USSR (or Russian) of who reigned between 1927 and 1972, the Dutchman Max Euwe. The work is completed with a tribute to Justice: Paul Keres, David Bronstein and Efim Geller were champions uncrowned not reached the throne by bad luck or not having been born a few years earlier or later, and is just appearing in this gallery dissected kings whose faces can be seen in 64 pages (one for each square on the board!) dedicated to photos.
Holds each champion Kasparov tends to fossilize, to sleep a little on his laurels after the period of maximum creativity. But now he shows us the nectar of each of the jinn, which he quaffed to become the best player ever ... until another genius do the same with his best games.