Najdorf Miguel. Zurich 1953: 15 Contenders for the World Chess Championship

Russell Enterprises, Inc., 2012. — 394 p. — ISBN: 978-1-936490-43-1.Introduction by Yuri Averbakh
Foreword by Andy SoltisThis book focuses on one of the most important chess competitions of the twentieth century, the candidates tournament for the world championship, held in Switzerland in the fall of 1953. In the spirit of a marathon, the tournament lasted about two months and consisted of 30 rounds. It was attended by the 15 strongest grandmasters in the world; one of them, Max Euwe, was a former world champion, and two others, Vassily Smyslov and Tigran Petrosian, were future champions.Four candidates, Max Euwe, David Bronstein, Gideon Stahlberg, and Miguel Najdorf, wrote books about this significant event.Miguel Najdorf (1910-1997), the author of this book, belonged to the world chess elite for about 30 years and hardly needs any introduction. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a poor Jewish family. He was then called Moishe, and when he grew up, Mieczyslaw. He became interested in chess relatively late by modem standards, but by the mid-30s of the last century, he was among the strongest chessplayers in the country. In 1 939, he made the Polish team and went to Argentina for the world chess Olympiad in September of that year. Soon afterward, the Second World War broke out. Poland was quickly occupied by German and Soviet armies, and Najdorf, like many other players, decided to stay in South America.
In 1944, he became a citizen of Argentina.