Zurich 1953: 15 Contenders for the World Chess Championship

When I was a teenager, I played through nearly every game in the Dover edition of Bronstein's Zurich 1953, where I learned a lot about every phase of the chess game. It has been a pleasure revisiting some of these classics with Najdorf's notes, alongside my dog-eared copy of Bronstein's, especially since I have been most interested in looking at historic games with the King's Indian Defense, where these two were among the "kings" of their era. Najdorf's book adds another dimension to my understanding, beginning with his notes on his first encounter with Bronstein himself in Round 2 -- a King's Indian, of course. Besides an additional set of notes, the book has pictures, biographies, and the opening index I had always wished for in Bronstein's, without which I'd have to do some internet searching to hunt down the list of King's Indians in the tournament (nearly 50, and the most common opening by far that was played there). I have noticed only one major error so far, but it is not a problem for me since I have Bronstein's book to compare -- and I think every chess player should really have both books if they can afford them. Because of the errors, which several reviewers have pointed out, I guess I'm glad that I picked up my copy at a significant discount (it had been on my wish list for a while until the price dropped). But it's definitely a book worth having for anyone studying these games.

Having just finished reading "Zurich 1953" I feel strongly compelled to congratulate the publisher for making a wonderful addition to chess literature. It may take a while for the dust to settle, but Zurich 1953 may just be my favorite book in my extensive chess book collection. While Mr. Najdorf deserves the credit for a brilliant creative effort, exhaustive analytical attention, and all the while maintaining a graceful and humble voice which is so refreshing in today's age; Mr. Russell and his team earn the credit for excavating this treasure. In particular, I would like to highlight the following noteworthy aspects:A beautiful binding and physical presentationAn engaging translation from the original Spanish along with sensitive translation notesA perfect introduction and forward by Mr. Averbakh and Mr. SoltisA truly fascinating online PDF accompaniment with the Rybka analysisI love the book. After reading through it, I laid it out on my dining room table next to a nice chess set, a pot of coffee, and other books with annotations by Bronstein, Smyslov, Reshevshy, and Keres. This gave me hours of enjoyment comparing all the ideas. So again, congratulations on a fantastic publication.

This great tournament featured the best players of the day trying to win the right to challenge the World Champ, Botvinnik. Unfortunately, there were no books in English. Bronstein's book was first published in Russian and called a classic; it came out in English in around 1980 and was greatly appreciated. Najdorf's book, actually his only book, was originally written in Spanish, and has only recently been translated into English. Kudos to the crisp English translation, which streamlined Najdorf's sometimes verbose prose but without losing the flavour at all. Najdorf's book is even better than Bronstein's: Najdorf's enthusiasm for the tournament and chess in general, respect for all the players, his personal touch, more extensive notes, and clear marking of the games' key points (as he saw them) with punctuation of the moves.

Ever since first hearing about Najdorf's book on Zurich 1953 (mentioned by Soltis as one of his favorite chessbooks in an interview), I was looking forward to reading this. Previously, the book was only available in Spanish, so I was happy to find out an English version was available.Najdorf's annotations are instructive and much more pleasant to read than Bronstein's. What ruined the experience for me was the poor editing. For instance, in the 2nd game between Najdorf and Reshevsky, moves 9 and 10 were omitted and in game 5 between Szabo and Geller, in the note to move 16, it gives 16. ...Ng4 which isn't possible (Nb4 was probably what he meant). These both came from the 1st round games and if it is an indicator of what is to come...Najdorf deserved better than this.

This book provides a wonderful perspective of the players and analysis of the games from this tournament. While I have long enjoyed reading and studying Bronstein's work, I only recently discovered Najdorf's magnum opus, which, if possible, seems even better than Bronstein's. My recommendation is to get both Bronstein's and Najdorf's books on this tournament and study them -- two very great masters given chess instruction on the same games is something not to be missed. It will make you a stronger player and much more appreciative of chess culture and the awesome strengths of these masters from a by-gone era.

I ordered this book for my boyfriend, who belongs to the US Chess Federation and plays postal in the CCLA. He has accumulated over 400 chess books over the last 50 years. When he started the games in this book, he noticed right away that some moves were missing, that some diagrams did not reflect the game annotated, and that the annotations were incorrect. As most chess masters, he analyses the games and studies the annotations. This book was so poorly edited, and obviously not translated correctly, that he does not want to waste any more time with the other games in the book. I wrote an email to the publisher, Russell Enterprises, apprising them of the editorial errors, but did not receive a reply.

An invaluable, if slightly flawed, resource for students of chess.

A lot more analysis than the one "written" by Bronstein. There is a lot more text in the other version. It turns out that Boris Veinstein wrote most of that version.As a great book it has more in common with New York 1924, Moscow 1935 and AVRO 1938.

It's a fascinating alternative to Bronstein's classic, but the publishers should shoot their editor. Although only halfway through Round 4, I've found 5 major errors in the game scores: 5 missing moves (in four games), and moves transposed from the end of the game to the middle (in one game). Although a moderately savvy chess fan could reconstruct what should be there, it hardly seems right that such sloppiness should be accepted.

Zurich 1953 is one of the legendary tournaments in chess history. But there are a number of typos and missing moves. Thankfully my various chess databases and experience worked out the omissions. If they re-print without the errors then would be an excellent first book of top tournament play for budding players.