The Livonian Knight

Alvis Vitolins (1946-1997) was a seven-time chess champion of Latvia, a player with a ferocious attacking style, and one of the game’s last true openings innovators in the pre-computer age. He was a world-class blitz player and was a regular blitz sparring-partner of his friend, world champion Mikhail Tal.

Vitolins often deployed gambits, and his attack-minded novelties in the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian set trends that were copied at top-level chess, including in world championship and candidates matches. He gained the International Master title in 1980.

Through an analysis of 25 of his most exciting games, this book, first published in Latvia in 2008, tells the reader of Alvis’s chess legacy, which includes many breathtaking Talesque sacrifices. Additional full games and fragments from Vitolins’s career are incorporated in the annotations. Opponents include the authors of this book as well as grandmasters Alexei Shirov, Vladimir Bagirov, Vladimir Tukmakov and other stars of Soviet and post-Soviet chess.
The book contains a new foreword specially written for the English edition by Genna Sosonko, who met Vitolins on several occasions.

Zigurds Lanka (born 1960) and Edvins Kengis (born 1959) are Latvian Grandmasters, coaches and multiple chess champions of Latvia (two and eight times, respectively). Janis Klovans (1935-2010) was a Latvian Grandmaster and correspondence chess Grandmaster, nine-time champion of Latvia and three-time world senior champion. Janis Vitomskis (1936-2009) was a Latvian correspondence chess Grandmaster and European correspondence chess champion.

Reviews

Stjepan Tomić (chessreads.com)
“Alvis Vitolins was a chess master from Latvia not many people have heard of. He was an attacking genius, often playing for the initiative and sacrificing material despite the consequences, mimicking the style of Mikhail Tal, his most famous compatriot. The Livonian Knight is a short, remarkably fresh collection of chess games that depicts Vitolins’ playing style, his contribution to theory, and his remarkable ability to create dynamic complications regardless of his opponent’s strength.”
(full review in English)