Ideas, Openings & Improvement

The United States had won four straight Olympiads. Then, over four days of radio transmissions, the Soviet Union announced it was about to own the sport for fifty years.

He calculated less than his rivals and sacrificed more than anyone. In 1960, at 23, that approach was enough to dethrone the most scientific World Champion chess had ever had.

One Soviet official decided chess could raise the cultural level of the working class. What followed was the most successful state chess program the sport has ever seen.