19 January 2011
Hello everybody!
Thanks for your help! Alexandra’s book “Diary of a Chess Queen” made it to the final of the ChessCafe Book of the Year Contest, as reported on ChessCafe this morning.
Thanks to everybody who voted for my book and to those who sent me copies of the email, I am touched by your kind words of support and so happy you liked my book!
Three books have been elected to be the finalists of this prestigious competition:
– Yasser Seirawan’s “Chess Duels: My Games with the World Champions”
– Daniel Naroditsky “Mastering Positional Chess”
– Alexandra Kosteniuk “Diary of a Chess Queen”
LAST HELP NEEDED:
Now I need your help to please vote for it as your favorite chess book (of course if you’ve read it and like it!), by sending a short email to bookoftheyear@chesscafe.com stating you vote for it and a short reason why (for example great chess games, nice story with lots of photos, emotional account of a chess professional who achieved her goal, etc. it should be your text).
Your email should arrive before the end of January, and the results and winner will be declared on February 2. Even if you’ve already voted for Round 1 you need to vote again for your vote to count. Just copy and paste your last email, or do a “forward” of your first one, just mentioning it’s for the final round.
Here’s some more information about my book:
“Diary of a Chess Queen” contains my whole life story, with 64 commented games, but also lots of text (I’d say over 1/3 of the book), and over 100 photographs. I worked on it quite a bit since I got the title of women’s world chess champion at the end of 2008, it’s the work of my life to date.If you’d like more information about my book, here are some useful links:Here are some reviews from Amazon buyers:Seth: The structural layout of Alexandra’s book very much resembles Tal’s classic, “The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal.” Kosteniuk’s book is, like Tal’s work, an autobiography. There is much prose (normally at the beginning of each chapter). She starts at her childhood, and takes the reader right up to (and a bit past!) her 2008 World Championship match. Many game fragments are sprinkled throughout each chapter, as well as a substantial number of full-length, annotated games. Alexandra’s writing is easily accessible to players of every skill level, whether they be young, old, beginners or masters. I found that she mixed the number of variations and explanations evenly. Since Alexandra typically plays a slashing, aggressive brand of chess, the games are never boring! Also, the translation (sometimes a problem in chess books) made the English read naturally (shout out to the translator, fellow Michigander Jim Marfia!!). She drops various tips and tricks of the Grandmaster trade along the way. The Women’s World Champ clearly invested alot of time and effort into writing this book. I wonder if she’ll write another some day?So to sum up, “Diary of a Chess Queen,” is a very interesting read, and you probably won’t be disappointed if you purchase it.Cajunmaster: Alexandra Kosteniuk’s autobiography should be of great interest to any chess player, male or female, young or old, experienced or not. This candid and well crafted book is, to chess literature, very much like the breeze of fresh air that Alexandra and many other talented women have let into the stuffy atmosphere of the old chess world in the past decade. There is no turning back, luckily, and this book proves it beyond a doubt. Ms. Kosteniuk, who was the 10th woman in history to be recognized as an overall (i.e., unisex) Grandmaster of the game and is the current World Champion among women, has produced a winner. Her book is both highly entertaining and of great technical interest. This cannot be said of many of the innumerable books written by men, whether it be in the 19th century or today. Very simply, Alexandra Kosteniuk, recognized by the United States Chess Federation as the outstanding chess journalist of the year for 2009, should perhaps be considered by many to be a role model worthy of emulation, something that a host young girls throughout the World already know!Posted by Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk12th Women’s World Chess ChampionAuthor of “Diary of a Chess Queen”
