BOOK OF THE WEEK: How I beat Fischer's record
"Notions of chess have been shattered by a teen-age Hungarian girl - some call her modest and soft-spoken, but many opponents know her as a ferocious tiger over the board - who after years of steady progress began breathing down the necks of the top men and now has broken the barrier of one of the world's most exclusive clubs: she has earned the rank of grandmaster at 15 years, 5 months, one month younger than Bobby Fischer when he did it 34 years ago." - New York Times, 1992
Once again, we continue with our new BOOK OF THE WEEK promotion exclusively for Chess.com. Every week we will feature a new or notable book for purchase via our website at a significant discount using a coupon code.
This week's book is How I beat Fischer’s record.
Judit Polgar is the only woman to become a top-10 GM. Judit became the world's #1 female player at the age of 12 and a GM at 15. How did she do it? Judit's autobiography joyfully teaches readers various chess topics (organized by theme and sorted by chapter) while describing her childhood. Judit's childhood enthusiasm is contagious, you can't help but enjoy yourself as you read. Here is a sample of some of the annotated games in this book.
From Chapter 2 (Mating Attacks):
From Chapter 10 (Attacking the Uncastled King):
"Based on Judit Polgar's games, if to "play like a girl" meant anything in chess, it would mean relentless aggression." - GM Garry Kasparov
This book is well suited for Forward Chess because we already have all of the variations inserted, you only have to click through them. This is a lot more efficient than studying with a board. We also included an opening database and Stockfish 10 to aid your study.
The retail price for the physical copy of How I beat Fischer’s record is $29.99. Our price without a coupon is $19.99. As part of this promotion, we are giving readers a coupon (POLGAR) which you can use to buy Judit's masterpiece for only $14.99.
"I found Judit's work refreshingly honest, surprisingly inspiring, and undeniably as instructive as any "best games"-themed book I have read in a very long time." - IM Daniel Rensch
"How I beat Fischer's Record is one of the most interesting chess books that I've ever read. You can almost feel the child-like joy that she conveys when she shows the games from her youth, sorted by theme, with lots of fun anecdotes. Judit was amazingly strong as a child (she broke 2500-2550 FIDE when she was 12) and she proves with her explanation in this book that she not only understood her games intuitively but also analytically. Judit is an amazing teacher who can explain simply what is going on, the variations complimenting her logical explanation." - Elijah Logozar
"Capturing the youthful joy of playing beautiful chess, Judit Polgar has created an intimate and instructional book for players of all strength." - Joseph Yee
"Sparkling chess, clear instruction from "simple tricks" to more complex positions, interesting anecdotes and photographs -- Judit Polgar has written a chess book for the ages! This is just the first of three planned volumes, which covers her progress to the grandmaster title, and I eagerly await the next volume. This is the book that I'd choose along with Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games" as my "desert island" books." - S. Britton
