BOGOLUBOW: THE FATE OF A CHESS PLAYER
Author: Sergei Soloviov
Chess Stars (2004)
280 pages
$27.95

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

When I discovered chess at the age of twelve, I immediately began reading about the lives of the various chess legends. My first chess hero was Alexander Alekhine, and I devoured his best games' collections with gusto. I remember actually quivering in excitement when I got the tournament book of New York 1924 (notes by Alekhine). And, since he was my hero, I carefully looked through the two matches he played against Bogolubow.

At that time, Bogolubow seemed like nothing more than "Alekhine's victim" to me. It was only years later that various anecdotes came to my attention, making me realize that Bogolubow was actually quite an interesting guy (the most basic one is his famous quote: "When I'm White I win because I'm White, and when I'm Black I win because I'm Bogolubow."). Nevertheless, though I did detailed studies of Morphy, Steinitz, Lasker, Rubinstein, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Keres, etc., Bogolubow remained a bit of a mystery. Perhaps this was due to the lack of an interesting book about him, but that problem has now been solved with the appearance of BOGOLUBOW: THE FATE OF A CHESS PLAYER.

As a game collection the book offers 211 annotated games, though be warned that the notes have no words (other than player citations) -- it's just analysis and symbols. What makes the notes enjoyable is the heavy use (blended in with the author's modern analysis) of "classic" analysis by Reti, Spielmann, Tartakower, Nimzowitsch, Lasker, Alekhine, Bogoljubow himself, and many others.

To me, though, what really turns this book into a must buy is the heavy prose (over 70 pages, mixed in with quite a few extremely illuminating crosstables) about Bogoljubow's life. For the first time I was able to see what kind of man Bogoljubow was beyond the bluster and overconfidence. This public persona led me to believe that he was insanely egocentric, and most likely married to the 64 squares and thus unable to demonstrate responsibility to anything but chess. But the reality was very, very different: Here was a man keenly aware of finances and the need to give his wife and children the kind of security that is usually impossible for chess professionals to provide. To this end, he bought his family a nice home, and supplemented his tournament winnings with exhibitions, books, and lectures. I also enjoyed reading that when he sailed to New York for the aforementioned NY 1924 event (which sported a first prize of $1,500 -- an enormous amount of money at that time), he showed his love of family and sense of duty by insuring his life for $40,000 (that had to be a veritable fortune in those days).

Of course, Bogoljubow did have a very high opinion of himself. After winning the Moscow 1925 tournament ahead of such players as Lasker (2nd), Capablanca (3rd), Marshall, Tartokower, Reti, Rubinstein, and many others, he said, "I am particularly happy because my victory reflects the triumph of my style of playing -- a style that I believe will be very important for the further development of the chess art. I think I have managed to save the reputation of chess, which was under threat after Lasker and Capablanca started talking about 'drawing killing chess.'"

BOGOLUBOW: THE FATE OF A CHESS PLAYER is the only book worth getting on this great player's life and games. If you enjoy going over highly tactical chess battles, and if you like being dragged away to another time with stories about many chess legends and their relationships with each other, then you can't go wrong buying this book.

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