This book is for maniacal fans of Alekhine and for guys like me who love chess books and want to own everything good that gets published. Its weight also lets it act as a bench-press machine: lay down on the floor, place the book on your chest and push it straight up. Repeat 200 times. Chess knowledge (ala Alekhine) and thick, corded muscle will make you a feared competitor.

The book covers every tournament Alekhine competed in, and gives every known game (2543 in all!) that he played (many with notes). It gives historical information about all periods of the great man's life, and also offers up some of the feelings that the chess press held for Alekhine at those particular times. Indexes lay out tournament tables, his complete tournament and match record, all his opponents and his openings. An enormous bibliography stuns us at the end (bigger may indeed be better).

A no-nonsense, scholarly work, if you're looking for one book on Alekhine, and if you don't mind shelling out $95.00, then this fine addition to chess literature might as well be it!

One recommendation: a montage of Alekhine photos would have made this book much more enjoyable. In fact, a new photo at the beginning of each section (showing us how his appearance changed with age) would have been extremely interesting (toss in a birth photo, a death photo and a few honeymoon shots with "Philidor's widow" [and his other 28 wives] and a whole new fan base would have been created).

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