A game of chess is not an examination of knowledge; it is a battle of nerves.

David Ionovich Bronstein

David Ionovich Bronstein (1924-2006) was a Soviet Chess Grandmaster who almost became World Chess Champion in 1951, when he drew his world title match with the mighty Botvinnik. Botvinnik retained his title, but Bronstein won many new fans with his swashbuckling style. Bronstein approached chess as an art, rather than a game, and he is arguably the most imaginative player the chess world has ever seen. Some of the games he lost contained breathtakingly brilliant ideas - games in which the loser deserves as much credit as the winner. Bronstein was also a top chess theoretician and he wrote a number of important books on the game. His book of the Zurich 1953 World Chess Championship Candidates' Tournament is rightly regarded as one of the greatest chess books ever written.

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