The Mental Game (Hardcover)

We all have an intuitive feeling of the stress, pressure and frustration on the path to winning a World Championship in sport, but rarely will you get as unfiltered and raw an insight into the struggle to succeed as in The Mental Game.

Aleksandra Maltsevskaya won the 2018 World Junior Championship and 2022 European Rapid Championship. This book reveals the inside story of an 18-month period in which she worked with Grandmaster Alexander Galkin. A year later, Maltsevskaya became World Junior Champion. Galkin holds nothing back in revealing the highs, lows, jubilations and frustrations that were experienced in their collaboration, all while providing expert insights that will benefit chess players and coaches alike. The book contains a wealth of bonus material, including all eleven annotated games from Maltsevskaya’s World Championship victory.

Alexander Galkin became a Grandmaster at the age of 18 and won the 1999 World Junior Championship. He later played in two knockout World Championships and the 2007 World Cup. He has focused on writing and training for over a decade, yet remains ranked within the world’s top 200.

Reviews

Sean Marsh (CHESS magazine):
“This really is a ‘warts and all’ presentation of a difficult working relationship between a player and her coach, and it is highly apparent that tension is there from the start.”