Andrew Soltis, a fellow chess columnist whom we vastly admire, found himself writing a biography of Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-95). His wife wondered why he would choose "such a cold personality." He ...

In the championships of Russia’s national indoor game some 700,000 competed in 1936. The game: chess. This week, with short-wave radio bridging Moscow and Manhattan, the Russians tried their hand at ...