Miles was England's first grandmaster and one of its most successful players ever. He died unexpectedly in 2001 from diabetes. TONY MILES: 'IT'S ONLY ME' is mainly a collection of games annotated by Miles, but also includes articles by him and tributes from Leonard Barden, Mike Fox, Malcolm Hunt, and Geoff Lawton (the book's compiler). A particularly personal and fascinating article is his "diary" from Tilburg 1985, a tournament that Miles played most of while lying on a stretcher! This was due to a back condition, and such a mode of play led to considerable controversy. Miles tied for first in the tournament. The article was published in NEW IN CHESS and probably hasn't been read by a majority of jeremysilman.com readers; they should have fun doing so.

This is simply a great, entertaining book, full of Miles' sharp wit and sarcasm. His annotations tend to be impressionistic and funny. The games reflect what came to be known as Miles' style: tremendous skill in irrational positions and an incredible tenacity. Reading his annotations over the years, I became used to the pattern: time and again Miles would achieve lost or bad positions and then create so much chaos that his adversary would collapse. This happened so much so that I remember rooting against Miles as I played over the game, already knowing that he had won, out of sheer pity for his opponent! His fighting qualities and dogged determination are mentioned in this book and have been noted by several reviewers. This characterization is of course true, but I also have the impression that the competitive qualities didn't always come out until Miles was in trouble or at least surprised by an unexpectedly strong move.

One thing that I wasn't aware of is what a strong endgame player Miles was, something that accounted for much of his success. There are many instructive examples to demonstrate this. For those looking for more detail, Matthew Sadler has written a marvelous review of the book in NEW IN CHESS number 5, 2003. The reader should understand that TONY MILES: 'IT'S ONLY ME' is not a biography (something that might prove fascinating), but a tribute. I very much like and recommend this entertaining work.

Click to see reviews of this book by Bauer, Donaldson and Saidy.