"But essentially the essence of the book is trying to present the life of a chess pro who is struggling.

We all know about the stories of Magnus and so on, but what about 99 percent of chess pros who are making a hand-to-mouth existence, who are surviving from week to week, maybe an article here, a chess lesson there.

That’s what I wanted to convey to the reader, that it’s not all sweetness and light, that there’s this hidden struggle that we don’t always see portrayed by the chess media, who like to make out the life of a chess player to be one glorious cycle. And I hope I have achieved it in the book!"

http://en.chessbase.com/post/an-int...

One of the most chess depressing and very honest chess books I've read.

No.

It is the most chess depressing and very honest chess books I've read.

I bought mine for £2.99 in a 2nd hand shop. It's been quite a while since I bought a new chess book. I honestly cannot remember the last one bought new and I have (again) 500+ of the things. I usually manage to pick up three or four every month on my travels.

I sold 400+ of them in one go back in 1994.

I've bought one of my book twice from a 2nd hand shops. That always cheers me up.

I've almost never seen a reasonable chess book in a second hand/charity shop. There was one shop I used to regularly visit that had, like clockwork, a different beginner's chess book every month. It seemed that there was some poor sod sitting nearby DESPERATE to learn chess but finding book after book just too difficult.

On Edgware Road I once got a book by Polugaevsky; that was my best result.

New books are a very dicey business. Recently I bought Cyrus Lakdawala 's book on Bent Larsen.

There are loads of charity shops in Edinburgh. A few keep chess books aside for me.

Been lucky, the full set of Kasparov Predecessors for £10.00 and a doubler of Vol II a few days ago.

Recently Wade's 'Soviet Chess', Botvinnik's best Games, Chernev's 'The Russians Play Chess' and Kosten's book on endgames (which will join the pile of other unread books on the ending.)

Opening books, hundreds of the bloody things. I used to grab an obscure note and work that into my rep.

"Firstly, a rare grumble. In the hot and sunny weather of mid-June I travelled down to Kenilworth’s Holiday Inn hotel to compete in the English championships. This wasn't the first time I had played - I had also played in the same tournament last year, where I failed to win a prize.

This time I tied for third with 5/7, but there were so many players on this score that I won barely anything. Having spent £157 on the train ticket, I got back £90 in prize money, which wasn't even enough to cover my travel.

Add in the expense of food, and you start to look at a big loss. Sure, instead of eating in the hotel bar every night I could have saved on money by purchasing a dull and stale sandwich or salad from the local supermarket, eaten in my room no doubt. But part of the appeal of playing chess for a living is the good life.

Good life no more, because I can no longer afford these shuddering losses in expenses and am wondering if I should bother to continue with this life as a chess professional. Certainly, these sorts of tournaments where I end up with a big loss are becoming increasingly less attractive.