Catalogue text:

This book gives Korchnoi's best games with White, which are particularly noteworthy for his original methods of fighting for the initiative.

"Korchnoi's master trick is to persuade the reader that he plays chess in much the way you and I do. Realistic or not, such an approach is well calculated to send the reader back to the chessboard with a determination to improve..."
Chris Ravilious in CHESS

"This work is one of the few that deserves to sit on the shelf alongside such classics as Fischer's Sixty Memorable Games and Tal's Life and Games. In fact, it should probably take pride of place as it is likely to be of far more practical use to the vast majority of chess players who, like the author, would not claim to be chess geniuses. Although we know he is, of course... This book is a reminder that there is still one live dinosaur out there in Caissic Park. And he's still got very sharp teeth."
British Chess Magazine

Victor Korchnoi has defeated all the world champions, beginning with Botvinnik, and all the strongest players of the present and the past. Not only from this generation, but even from the following one. I can't nearly wait for the next volume! Highly recommended!
John Elburg 's Book Reviews

Foreword:

"Edition Olms has published this collection of my selected games in two volumes: Volume 1 - fifty games where I played White, and Volume 2 - fifty of my 'Black' games. A young grandmaster compiling such a book probably have to rack his brains over where to find a hundred games that he had won. But I had to choose one hundred games out of roughly two thousand that I have won... Not everyone approved of my choice. Sometimes even the translator of these books was surprised. I must tell the reader about the criteria by which I selected these games.

The games cover a period of half a century - from 1951 to the year two thousand. The first criterion by which I was guided was that the games should be more or less evenly spread over the entire five decades.

I have played against players of four generations, and against hundreds of masters and grandmasters. My second most important criterion was definitely to give games against representatives of all four generations. And in general: the more opponents, the better!

In my career I have played dozens of diverse opening positions. There are many different aspects to chess, and I wanted to reflect this in my book. Avoid repetition! The greater the number of positions, dissimilar one from another, the better!

The fourth criterion - only the fourth - was the quality of the games. They should contain few bad mistakes, especially by me. However, they had to be fighting games, not those where the play is all one way. Well, and in a fierce struggle, mistakes are inevitable...

And one more thing. Chess is my life, and these games are fragments of this life. And, naturally, I wanted to accompany each such fragment with a conversation with chess enthusiasts. If during the course of a game I found there was nothing to disclose to the readers, I rejected it, however good the game!

Whether I have succeeded with my book, it is not clear. But I very much hope that, as he delves into it, the reader will not be bored..."