After Alexander Alekhine died in 1946, the chess world suddenly had no reigning champion. FIDE resolved that Alekhine’s successor would be decided by a tournament in The Hague and Moscow in early 1948. Five top grandmasters – Botvinnik, Smyslov, Reshevsky, Keres, and Euwe – battled for the vacant title for over two months. Mikhail Botvinnik emerged as the new world champion, initiating the Soviet dominance of the international chess scene that would endure until the 1970s.

Paul Keres’ classic tournament book on the 1948 World Chess Championship has been widely praised as one of the best chess books ever written. Garry Kasparov and Boris Gelfand rate it among their top-five favourites, and the reader studying the games and commentaries will quickly understand why. Copious verbal explanations are agreeably balanced with judicious concrete analysis. Keres’ annotations are also marked by exceptional clarity, accuracy, and objectivity, probing all aspects of the game and guiding the keen reader to a deeper overall understanding of chess.

This extensively revised third edition includes numerous coloured photos from the tournament, which help bring Keres’ World Chess Championship 1948 to life. It is a must-read for chess enthusiasts, historians, and advanced players eager to take their next step toward chess mastery.

Updates:

The third edition has undergone careful proofreading, and the language has got a lift.
Photos from the tournament have been found, colorized, and added.
New cover, in the same style as the Akiba Rubinstein book.
Layout inside the book has been improved.