In the championships of Russia’s national indoor game some 700,000 competed in 1936. The game: chess. This week, with short-wave radio bridging Moscow and Manhattan, the Russians tried their hand at ...

He boasted a record and a resume as impressive as anyone who ever played the game, but it always seemed that three-time world champion Mikhail Botvinnik was more admired than loved by chess players ...

Andrew Soltis, a fellow chess columnist whom we vastly admire, found himself writing a biography of Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-95). His wife wondered why he would choose "such a cold personality." He ...

Every day for a month Muscovites young & old had jammed October Hall to the doors. They followed the play on giant dummy boards suspended over the flag-decked stage. Generals, admirals and diplomats ...

During the 1960s into the 70s, even today when someone says you are playing chess like Tal, that person is paying you an enormous compliment. Mikhail Tal was an attacking genius. He was called the ...

Commentators choosing the greatest player in the history of chess, never mention Mikhail Botvinnik. Yet he led the Soviet Union’s domination of world chess in the 20th century. In doing so, he became ...