Inner Game

'A wonderful achievement... so tense, so gripping and so readable' STEPHEN FRY

'A remarkable book - The Inner Game has all the compulsion of a good thriller' ROBERT HARRIS

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The 1993 World Chess Championship was one of the most eagerly anticipated clashes in the game's rich history.

On one side was Garri Kasparov, the greatest in a long line of Russian World Champions and a player whose remorseless aggression both in play and in person seemed to terrify his opponents.

Across the board was Nigel Short, a bespectacled, guitar-playing 28-year-old Lancastrian who had earned his place in the contest over a gruelling three-year qualification campaign.

Their epic duel of the intellect was fought out in the full glare of the world's media and the intricacies of the battle captivated observers around the world - chess experts and novices alike.

The Inner Game is an intimate and gripping insider's account of this unique sporting contest. It reveals the secrets of chess at the highest level, from dirty tricks behind the scenes to bugged conversations, stolen tapes and sexual intrigue, and opens up the strange inner world of the Chess Grandmasters, men of a narrow but all-consuming passion.

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'Gripping narrative... absorbing between-the-synapses account of an epic drama to which (Lawson) had unique access' Sunday Times

'Brilliantly written' Guardian

'Perhaps the most intimate portrait of a chess genius ever written' ROBERT HARRIS

'Lawson creates great drama out of his material... the tension is brilliantly sustained. And no, you don't have to be a chess expert or even to have played the game at all to enjoy this book' Independent on Sunday

'A riveting narrative' Observer

'Immensely readable... The characters come through very precisely' Daily Telegraph