For every player who has dreamed of sitting down and picking the brain of a world-class grandmaster – maybe even analyzing a game or two – this book just might fill the void. The book’s format is simple: after an introduction that provides a brief background on the chapter’s focus, the authors pose questions to nine (generally) world class grandmasters. They also ask the player to present their best game, and their choice for the best game ever played. The shortest chapter encompasses nine pages (Sofia Polgar), while Yasser Seirawan gets the most coverage with 20 pages. The other players interviewed are Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Alexander Khalifman, Joel Lautier, Julian Hodgson, Emil Sutovsky, and Jonathan Rowson.

I must admit to thinking, when first reading about this book, that it would be a throwaway read – would there really be all that much that was new and fresh in the discussion? Would I really care what these players had to say? In the end, this turned out to be one of those “guilty pleasures” reads – I could not put the book down, and I was continually struck by the interesting nature of the dialogue. What makes this such a fun book?

First, the authors picked a good assortment of grandmasters that offer a lot of useful material. They run the gamut, from a member of the glamour girls of chess family (Polgar) to the erudite (Rowson); from the urbane (Seirwan) to the pub gatherers (Adams). In between are the world’s least known world champion (Khalifman), perhaps the generation’s least known world champion finalist (Short), and perhaps one of the better known and liked pro circuit players (Hodgson).

The authors also asked some good questions. There is not a canned feeling that each player is being set up on an assembly line and asked the same routine set of questions. The book has much more of a feel of a conversation among friends, and that is a strong point. According to the book’s introduction, Claire Summerscale spent a fair amount of time at tournaments asking players what information they would like to get from grandmasters. While it’s unclear whether this exercise proved useful, I gather that the authors spent a lot of time learning about their grandmaster interviewees and formulating questions that would benefit their target audience.

The result is a fascinating insight into these players’ world, both as chess players and as people. In some, the discussion of chess is paramount, and in others the focus goes beyond the 64 squares. Regardless, it is an absorbing read.

Of course, we can’t really call it a chess book without some games, right? Perhaps as a sop to those who cannot buy a chess book without some games in it, there are 18 – two in each chapter. While the games by the participants were at least somewhat interesting (after all, these help to define the individual), the games they picked for the greatest game of all time weren’t exactly big surprises. First, most were recent games, including Kasparov wins over Topolov, Anand, and Karpov (twice). The oldest game was the 1920 Adams-Torre clash picked by Polgar, while the only fairly unknown games were Khalifman’s selection of Tolush-Boleslavsky from Moscow 1945, and Hodgson’s choice of Lautier-Leko from Ubeda 1997. Perhaps the most interesting insight here is that Hodgson chose this as his best game ever played while Lautier (the victor) did not choose it as his best game.

While there is much to like about the book, one area that was never clear to me was the division of material between the authors. From the introduction, I gather that the interviews were conducted by Claire Summerscale, but there is no indication what role the GM half of the Summerscale family took in the project. It may be that he did the annotations to the games presented, as the players themselves are noted when they make comments during these games. At $20 for 140 pages, some may find the content to price ratio a little less than they would hope.

At the same time, I think it is important for chess players to feel comfortable with purchasing and enjoying books that are not solely focused on the technical aspects of the game. Chess at its best can be a social, humanizing activity. I have met many people who are life long friends through the game, and it is perfectly understandable that we would want to connect with our chess champions in this way. This book makes that connection, and I believe that many players will benefit from that discovery.

In summary, this is a book about chess without filling us full of moves and strategies. The authors do a fine job of discussing important chess (and non-chess) topics with an interesting mix of chess grandmasters. There is much insight here that will interest the true fans of the royal game.

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