40 Years of Friendship – 100 Games of Chess by Conover, Pozarek, and Salomon

Three masters recall their four decades as teammates from a strong New Jersey chess club. Annotated games, theoretical novelties in the opening, and wide-ranging anecdotes from the chess scene in Spain, Cuba, and Metro New York from the 1940s through 2014 complement the authors’ personal chess biographies, while Alekhine’s chess set pulls the whole together.

This is the story of a four-decade-long partnership among three friends from vastly different backgrounds. The players’ personal histories and chess careers are interwoven with the story of their meeting and then joining forces as a longstanding and successful U.S. Amateur team from one of the strongest chess clubs in New Jersey, the Westfield Chess Club.

Chess personalities big and small – ranging from Spain to Cuba to Greater New York – make their appearance in first-hand anecdotes, adding color to the basic contours of the narrative, which spans the years 1943-2014. The book’s sections are tied together by the travels and travails of a chess set (featured on the cover) used by then-World Champion Alexander Alekhine at the 1944 Gijón International Tournament in Spain.

Written originally for friends and family to explain the authors’ passion for chess, 40 Years of Friendship – 100 Games of Chess is now available to a wider audience in this Smashwords edition, presenting lessons from more than a century’s worth of combined chess experience. Aspiring young chess players will benefit from the “Lessons” chapter, while ambitious players of all ages will enjoy the annotated games collection and learn from the opening theory section which offers the fruit of the authors’ countless hours of analysis on Alekhine’s set.

Readers with an interest in New Jersey and Metro New York chess history will find this a valuable contribution to the literature which also presents slices of top-level chess in 1940s Spain and 1950s Cuba, as well as a glimpse into international championship correspondence chess.

Each author offers an annotated selection of the best and most significant games of his career, against a roster of opponents including Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Pal Benko, Joel Benjamin, and Alekhine himself.

145 diagrams, 100+7 complete games, 24 illustrations. Opening theory coverage: Leningrad Dutch; Caro-Kann Defense; King’s Indian Defense, Averbakh Variation; Alekhine’s Defense.

Wayne Conover is a FIDE Master and International Correspondence Chess Master. He has played for the United States in several international postal chess tournaments.

Steve Pozarek holds the title of Life Master from the U.S. Chess Federation and is a former New Jersey State Champion.

Gene Salomon represented Spain and Cuba in international team competitions during his first chess career (1943-52) and is a Life Master in both chess and duplicate bridge.