The Genius and the Misery of Chess

Publisher: Mongoose Press, 2008, Pages: 224, Paperback

We are used to reading about glorious feats by chess masters from the past, but we often are unaware that chess drove some unfortunate ones to nervous breakdowns, asylums, and poorhouses. In contrast, the lives of child prodigies, the wunderkinds of chess, typically have overflowed with success - these prodigies have achieved unbelievable sports feats at a very young age. Yet, sometimes the promising trajectory of the wunderkind clashes with fate, leaving the youngster to take on the unfortunate plight of a martyr, too.

This book recounts all of these stories - the woe of the aged master, the triumph of the prodigy, the sometime reversal of fortune in the other extreme. From as-Suli of the ninth century to Magnus Carlsen of the twenty first - the triumphs and tragedies that shaped their lives.

About the Author

Zhivko Kaikamjzov, author of 33 chess books, was born in 1931 in Dobrich (Bulgaria) and graduated from the Sofia Institute of Economics. Chess master Zhivko established the first Bulgarian chess school for children in his home town in January of 1962.

Kaikamjozov is well-known in the chess world, particularly to his students; including grandmasters Velikov, Spassov, and Voiska, as well as Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov.

He was the manager of Bulgarian chess federation in the 1980s, and is an international arbiter, elected President of the East-European zone of FIDE and became a member of the FIDE Central Committee in 1986; one of the referees of the world title match Kasparov vs. Karpov in London (1990); an editor of the Bulgarian chess magazine Chess Thought and has been a journalist since the mid 1990s.