Publish great chess books, 66 so far. English Chess Fed Book of the Year winner 2021, short-listed 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024 & for FIDE BOTY in 2021 & 2022.
Elk and Ruby publishes "From Boy to Man to Challenger: The Fiercest Battles of Gukesh D" - by Cyrus Lakdawala.
Available in both PB and HB.
Amazon link:
Sample:
Cover photo by
@davidllada
@davidllada
We have just filed half a dozen complaints to X. But some of these accounts could well come from foreign, esp Russian troll farms just trying to cause trouble.
This is the autobiography that Sally Landau, Mikhail Tal's first wife, wrote in Russian and first published in 1998. It's an amazing memoir of her time with Tal, with whom she remained friends long after they divorced right up until his death.
Happy 83rd birthday to Elk and Ruby author Sally Landau, first wife of Mikhail Tal, whose incredible autobiography "Checkmate! The Love Story of Mikhail Tal and Sally Landau" was short-listed for the English Chess Federation Book of the Year in 2019!🥳🎂🍾
Elk and Ruby publishes Eight Good Men: The 2020-2021 Candidates Tournament, by Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco.
Amazon US link:
Sample:
Currently available in paperback, soon to be available in hardback and on
@ForwardChess
as well.
Elk and Ruby publishes The Livonian Knight: Selected Games of Alvis Vitolins by Zigurds Lanka, Edvins Kengis, Janis Klovans and Janis Vitomskis
Amazon link:
Link to sample:
"Twice a year – on my father’s birthday in November and the anniversary of his death in June – I switch into a special mood. I try to postpone all important matters at work and come home early. A bottle of vodka awaits me in the fridge.
Elk and Ruby publishes Obsession: A Chess Biography of Vsevolod Rauzer by Alexander Konstantinopolsky
Available in both hardback and paperback.
Amazon link:
Sample:
We are glad to announce that Volume 2 of Alexander Nikitin's memoir "Coaching Kasparov", containing 20 previously unpublished training games that
@Kasparov63
played against his coaches in 1982-83, is now available on the
@ForwardChess
app for iOS, Android and desktop computers.
"The world would soon be in flames... It seems remarkable that any chess could be played, let alone major championships, during the bitter years of the Second World War. Yet there are six Soviet Championships covered in this book, with enough drama and intrigue to last a lifetime
Elk and Ruby publishes Checkmate! The Love Story of Mikhail Tal and Sally Landau
Sally Landau, born in 1938, Vitebsk, Soviet Union, was Mikhail Tal’s first wife, a highly talented actress and singer.
@chrono9420
@juliaxrios
@KinngsGambit
Mainly because it reflects the population of chess players as a whole - there are more good male players but also more bad male players. There is data on that,
@IglesiasYosha
posted some for example. The real question is why do many more men play than women.
Elk and Ruby publishes Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume I (1920-1937) by Sergey Voronkov, in both hardback and paperback.
Amazon link:
Sample:
Elk and Ruby publishes Coaching Kasparov, Year by Year and Move by Move, Volume II: The Assassin (1982-1990) by Alexander Nikitin
This book includes 20 secret training games that Garry Kasparov played against his coaches Evgeny Vladimirov and Gennady Timoshchenko in 1982-83
Elk and Ruby publishes Korchnoi Year by Year: Volume II (1969-1980) by Hans Renette and Tibor Karolyi, in hardback and paperback.
Amazon link:
Sample pages:
Petr Konstantinovich Gnusarev. Remember this name. On 28 April 1937 this NKVD monster executed the great Russian chess player Petr Izmailov, as well as 43 other victims of the purges!
Our next book will be on Izmailov, 1928 champion of Soviet Russia. Written by his son Nikolai.
Elk and Ruby publishes Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume III (1948-1953) by Sergey Voronkov in hardback, paperback and interactive electronic format. It is our 50th book, thank you for your support in the last 5 years!
GM Matthew Sadler turns 50 today!
A 2-time British Champion, Sadler played a crucial role in England's victory at the 1997 European Team Championship.
For many years, he reviewed books for New in Chess magazine and authored 8 books himself. His "Queen's Gambit Declined" earned
Elk and Ruby publishes The Creative Power of Bogoljubov Volume II: Attack, Defense, Planning and More by Grigory Bogdanovich
Both paperback (already) and hardback (shortly)
Sample:
Amazon link:
"One of the most oft-quoted records of the siege, scribbled in pencil over the pages of a pocket address book, is that kept by twelve-year-old Tanya Savicheva:
28 December 1941 at 12.30 a.m. – Zhenya died. 25 January 1942 at 3 p.m. – Granny died. 17 March at 5 a.m. – Lyoka died.
Elk and Ruby publishes The Lubyanka Gambit by Sergei Grodzensky and Hero of the Pre-War Olympiads: Grandmaster Vladimirs Petrovs by Dmitry Kryakvin and Galina Petrova-Matisa
Both historically significant titles are available in both hardback and paperback
Petrosian Year by Year: Volume II (1963-1984) by Tibor Karolyi and Tigran Gyozalyan is now available on the
@forwardchess
app. Hurry to take advantage of the early bird discount!
Elk and Ruby publishes The Creative Power of Bogoljubov Volume I: Pawn Play, Sacrifices, Restriction and More, by Grigory Bogdanovich
*****************************
Amazon link:
Link to sample: …/Bogoljubov%20Vol1%20sample.pdf…
Elk and Ruby publishes Selected Games by Peter Romanovsky, with a detailed biography by Sergei Tkachenko. In both paperback and hardback.
***
Amazon link (paperback):
Amazon link (hardback):
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Sample pages:
Happy 87th birthday to Elk and Ruby author Nikolai Izmailov, son of 1928 Russian chess champion Petr Izmailov
Read his heart-rending family story here, with games analysis by Grandmaster
@MihailMarin3
.
My translation of Lilienthal's games collection 'Жизнь - шахматам' - first published in the USSR in 1969 - is due to be published by
@QualityChess
next week (17th July) as 'Chess Survivor'.
An excerpt can now be viewed here:
Elk and Ruby publishes Korchnoi Year by Year: Volume I (1945-1968)
By Hans Renette and Tibor Karolyi
***
Available in hardback and paperback.
550 pages.
Sample:
Fair review of Sergey Voronkov's Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships Vol. 1 in the upcoming issue of
@CHESS_Magazine
by
@CSCTeesside
Look out also for the interview with Genna Sosonko, author of 3 Elk and Ruby books, with
@GreenBGambit
in that issue.
Chess biographies of Vsevolod Rauzer and Boris Verlinsky, great Ukrainian players of the early 20th century with fascinating back-stories, available on
@ForwardChess
Elk and Ruby publishes Petr Izmailov: From Chess Champion of Russia to Enemy of the People - The Truth About My Father, by Nikolai Izmailov and Mihail Marin.
Amazon link here:
Sample here:
Full of detail about Tal and their life together, as well as being a fast moving dramatic romance that could just as well have been a novel. I'm delighted to have signed a contract to publish this book in English later this year.
Elk & Ruby publishes 2 books in new series of endgame studies compiled by Tkachenko, each focusing on a great but underrated composer: Mikhail Zinar's Difficult Pawn Endings and Nikolai Rezvov, from Child Burglar to Grandmaster. and
Elk and Ruby short-listed for Book of the Year by the English Chess Federation for the 4th year in a row, this time with Sergey Voronkov's Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume I (1920-1937).
Alexander Nikitin's two-volume memoir Coaching Kasparov published by Elk and Ruby was short-listed for the
@ecfchess
Book of the Year in 2020.
RIP maestro
Elk and Ruby publishes Grandmaster of Avant-Garde: The Chess Art of Galina Satonina
Galina Satonina (1905–2000) was the leading chess painter of the Soviet era. A multiple-time Kazan and Tatarstan ladies chess champion, she saw life as a game of chess,
This is how
@FIDE_chess
operates. The publishers refuse to send in copies of their books and to be nominated and FIDE carries on as if we are participating.
@QualityChess
did not wish to participate.
GM Ivan Bukavshin finished 3rd in the Aeroflot Open in 2015, behind Dubov and Nepomniachtchi, and put in a performance rating of 2803. He tragically died just a year later at the age of 20. The book by his friend and coach, GM Jakov Geller, on his life and games, is forthcoming
5 stars awarded by Grandmaster Matthew Sadler in the latest issue of
@NewInChess
magazine to the 2nd part of Sergey Voronkov's epic historical treatise "Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume II (1938-1947)"
Elk and Ruby publishes The Wizard of Warsaw: A Chess Biography of Szymon Wynawer, by Tomasz Lissowski and Grigory Bogdanovich.
Available in hardback and paperback.
Amazon link:
Extract:
“I was reading the book in between games. And I almost finished it. It’s a very…it’s a fascinating story.”
Magnus Carlsen on "Checkmate! The Love Story of Mikhail Tal and Sally Landau" by Sally Landau
Magnus Carlsen registers his fifth tournament victory of the year by winning the
@LindoresAbbey
Chess 2019 Rapid in Scotland.
Exclusive interview with ChessBase India after his win:
We are Elk and Ruby.
No cheap marketing gimmicks on 1 April aimed at generating publicity.
Just great, original chess books.
And our CEO is not available for hire at any price...
Elk and Ruby publishes First Grandmaster of the Soviet Union: A Chess Biography of Boris Verlinsky, by Sergei Tkachenko, in both hardback and paperback
Amazon link:
Extract:
"It is impossible for a single review to do justice to the richness of the historical sources, intriguing games and beautifully told stories contained within this book...If you are looking for the ideal Christmas gift the three volumes of this series are what you are looking for.
At Elk and Ruby we don't do summer sales.
We don't do winter sales, spring sales or autumn sales.
We don't do Easter sales or Xmas sales.
We don't do sales.
I shut myself in the kitchen, place my father’s portrait in front of me, light a candle, open the bottle, and my father and I start to drink, snack and chat from the heart..."
- Gera Tal writing in Sally Landau's memoir "Checkmate! The Love Story of Mikhail Tal and Sally Landau"
Interviewed by De Telegraaf Korchnoi commented: “FIDE never wants any trouble. FIDE is corrupt. FIDE only deals with the biggest power in chess, Russia.” From the forthcoming Vol 2 of "Korchnoi Year by Year" to be published by Elk and Ruby.
Elk and Ruby publishes HARDBACK versions of Petrosian Year by Year: Volume I (1942-1962) and The Creative Power of Bogoljubov Volume I: Pawn Play, Sacrifices, Restriction and More - by popular demand
"11 at night. The phone rings... It’s Beilin, the head of the Soviet delegation. He wants to meet me. Then he comes into my room, no. 1920 (earlier I had joked that I shuddered every time I walked past rooms 1917, 1918 and 1919)." From G. Sosonko’s forthcoming book on Smyslov
"I first saw Smyslov on the Kirov Islands... It was some chess event... A tall, classy gentleman strolling from table to table and a thick circle of spectators around the players. That was way back in 1956; it feels like pre-historic times now."
Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume I (1920-1937) by Sergey Voronkov, published by Elk and Ruby, is the English Chess Federation's Book Of The Year 2021!
Rauzer – Zhuk, Kiev 1926.
In this position, Rauzer delivers the killer blow 14.Bg5!
From the chess biography of Vsevolod Rauzer, written by Alexander Konstantinopolsky and edited by Grigory Bogdanovich, to be published by Elk and Ruby in a few months.
It's no secret, of course, but the late Evgeny Vasiukov's win v. Loek van Wely from the 2002 Aeroflot Open in Moscow is an absolutely stunning game. Vasiukov annotated it for '64' (№ 2, 2002). I suspect it also features prominently in
@ilan_ruby
's biography of Vasiukov.
When
@MagnusCarlsen
reads this amazing memoir by Sally Landau, Mikhail Tal's first wife, it will take his mind on a journey to places he never imagined could exist!
Mikhail Tal's son gifts
@MagnusCarlsen
a ruby chess set that was given to his father when he became the World Champion in 1960. Along with it he was also given the book: Checkmate!: The Love Story of Mikhail Tal and Sally Landau.