The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein

First published in Russian in 2014 and written by Genna Sosonko – widely recognized as the number one writer on the history of Soviet chess – this is a truly unique book about the life and destiny of the great chess player David Bronstein (1924-2006). Emerging from a challenging background – he narrowly escaped the holocaust in WWII, during which he starved, and his father spent seven years in a gulag – Bronstein faced Botvinnik in the world championship match in 1951 and nearly defeated him. But this ‘nearly’ inflicted a wound on David so deep that it would not heal for the rest of his life. Sosonko knew Bronstein well. Their conversations – many of which have made it into this book – not only portray the thoughts and character of one of history’s most original grandmasters but also take us back to a time unlike any other in world history. This is not a biography in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, Sosonko’s fascinating book asks eternal questions which don’t have neat and simple answers. With a foreword to the English edition by Garry Kasparov.

Table of Contents:
Contents Chapter 1: Regrets? I’ve had a few ............................................ 6 Chapter 2: Life had its ups and downs .................................... 21 Chapter 3: The art of being different ....................................... 38 Chapter 4: High noon in the capital........................................ 53 Chapter 5: The post-mortem .................................................. 70 Chapter 6: Moving on ............................................................ 82 Chapter 7: The river only flows in one direction .................... 113 Chapter 8: The Prince of Darkness ....................................... 126 Chapter 9: The Philosopher ................................................. 141 Chapter 10: A free man ........................................................ 162 Chapter 11: Moscow ............................................................ 181 Chapter 12: The Sorcerer’s apartment .................................. 207 Chapter 13: Minsk ............................................................... 246 Chapter 14: Le Misanthrope ................................................ 261 Epilogue: David the Seventh................................................. 267

About the Author :
Genna Sosonko (born 1943, Troitsk, Russia) is a Soviet-born Dutch Grandmaster who is widely recognized as the number one writer on the history of Soviet chess. Playing career Once ranked among the world's top twenty chess players, Genna acted as second to ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal and to ex-World Championship Challenger Victor Korchnoi during world championship candidates matches. He emigrated from the Soviet Union to the Netherlands in 1972, where he continues to live. He won the Dutch Championship in 1973 and 1978 (jointly). His tournament record includes 1st at the Barcelona Zonal Tournament 1975, 1st at Lugano 1976, 1st at Wijk aan Zee 1977, 1st at Nijmegen 1978, 3rd at Amsterdam 1980, 1st at Wijk aan Zee 1981, 3rd at Tilburg 1982 and 4th at Haninge 1988. He also drew a match with Jan Timman (+1 =0 -1) in 1984. Genna played for the Dutch team at the Chess Olympiads eleven times, in 1974-84, and 1988-96. He won two individual medals: gold at Haifa 1976 and bronze at Nice 1974, and two team medals: silver at Haifa 1976 and bronze at Thessaloniki 1988. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded Sosonko the International Master (IM) title in 1974, the GM title in 1976 and the FIDE Senior Trainer title in 2004. Literary career Sosonko has authored six non-technical chess books in English centering heavily on his chess life in the Soviet Union and his relationships with and memories of both leading Soviet players and lesser-known characters in chess history.

Review :
"I don't think I have ever read a story that gripped me more than this one. Firstly, Sosonko does a wonderful job of conveying the atmosphere of Soviet (chess) society from the 1940s onwards...Secondly, it is a powerful, tragic story of a man held captive by the memories of his greatest failure. Every page of the book...breathes one obsession: Botvinnik..." - Grandmaster Matthew Sadler in New In Chess magazine, October 2017 "David Bronstein's limitless creativity was expressed in many ways. No one is more deserving of a great writer like Sosonko's attention." - ex-World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, Twitter, 4 September 2017 "Genna Sosonko is a Dutch grandmaster who was an emigre from the USSR. He has built up a solid reputation as a faithful yet imaginative archivist of the internal workings of the great Soviet chess empire. His new book, The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein (Elk and Ruby Publishing House), is a chess book with no chess in it. Rather it is a fact-based novella, in the style of Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It focuses on the theme of decades-long, gnawing obsession. In Bronstein's case this is of what might have happened had he defeated the Red Czar of Soviet Chess, Mikhail Botvinnik, in their fateful clash for the world chess championship at Moscow in 1951." - Grandmaster Raymond Keene in The Times, 09 September 2017 "Sosonko's memories of Bronstein are well and passionately written." - FIDE Master Johannes Fischer, ChessBase, 25 October 2017 "...power-play is often compared to chess -- and in the Soviet Union that game itself was a diplomatic and political weapon. Genna Sosonko, a Grandmaster who defected to the West in 1972, writes about this with unsurpassed insight. The Rise And Fall Of David Bronstein...is a deeply personal, and possibly most tragic, account of one of the Russian-Jewish geniuses caught up in this struggle." - Dominic Lawson in the Daily Mail, 30 November 2017