Our short life together was fun, fascinating and happy. I accompanied
my husband to chess tournaments. We traveled a lot, saw a lot, met the
most interesting people. Meeting Alekhine, Euwe, Flohr, Capablanca,
Keres was unforgettable. We became friends with many of them. Now, when
I turn the pages of my life and remember my family, which was
obliterated so ruthlessly, the old wounds open again and start
bleeding.
This book tells the story of one of the most enigmatic and tragic
figures in chess history - the Latvian grandmaster Vladimirs Petrovs
(1908 - 1943). His name was struck out of chess literature for decades.
His games and biography are largely unknown to the public - even though
Petrovs defeated Alekhine, Fine, Reshevsky, Boleslavsky and many other
great players of the past, gained prizes at supertournaments including
joint first at the famous Kemeri 1937 tournament, and performed strongly
for Latvia at chess Olympiads. According to the Chessmetrics website,
Petrovs was ranked no. 14 in the world in November 1938, and his
performance at Kemeri 1937 was 2709. He had a 2.5-2.5 lifetime score
against Alekhine.
In the first part of this book, grandmaster and chess historian Dmitry
Kryakvin instructively analyzes Petrovs' career through 52 games and
fragments. As well as the above players, opponents include Smyslov,
Euwe, Bogoljubov, Keres, Stahlberg, Flohr, Spielmann, and many other
global stars of pre-war chess. In the second part, Petrovs' widow Galina
Petrova-Matisa recounts the tragic fate of her husband and family
members and her search for the truth of what happened to Petrovs. She
further provides biographical details of their short, blissful family
life for four-and-a-half years, including unforgettable meetings with
the world's strongest chess players and their families. The work
contains a large number of rare family and tournament photos.
