Brian Stephenson

Elk and Ruby publishes The Art of Living: Memories of Two Chess Friends by Jan Timman and Hans Böhm ***Jan Timman’s parting gift to the chess world!*** Two friends look back in the autumn of their lives. Both began as promising chess players and went on to achieve success at home and abroad. As young men, they travelled the world together, sharing a host of adventures, some of them decidedly bizarre. Grandmaster Jan Timman made chess his life’s calling, rising in 1982 to number two in the world behind his great rival Anatoly Karpov. International Master Hans Böhm took a different path, using chess as a springboard for a successful career in the media. Timman’s achievements at the chessboard gained even greater prominence through the efforts of his friend, who brought them to a wider public on television and radio and in newspapers and magazines. Together they look back on the Flower Power era, the Cold War period with the World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, and the rise of the chess computer. Along the way, they revisit their own ambitions and adventures, their encounters with remarkable people, their many triumphs – and their occasional failures. Together, Timman and Böhm helped bring chess to a mass audience through playful public appearances, numerous books, television courses, and even an LP and chess songs. In these autobiographical recollections, they look back on lives that were turbulent, productive and, above all, adventurous. Ten of Timman’s memorable games and ten of his own studies complement their story, while ten people who played an important role at different stages of their lives contribute recollections of their own. At the same time, the reader is treated to a panorama of post-war Dutch chess history and the extraordinary efforts of the federation, sponsors and wider chess community to mount a credible challenge to Soviet and then Russian domination of the game, while building a grassroots movement that introduced chess to a new generation of youngsters – a bygone age that will never return. *** Grandmaster Jan Timman (1951–2026) devoted his life to chess. He was a frequent contender in world championship cycles, and for decades remained one of the leading figures in international chess. The author of more than thirty books, he won the 2017 ECF Book of the Year Award for Timman’s Titans, his celebrated portrait of ten World Champions. International Master Hans Böhm (b. 1950) is one of the Netherlands’ best-known chess personalities and promoters. His television programmes and radio appearances, books, lectures and other activities have helped popularise the game for generations. For many years he has been a chess columnist for De Telegraaf. This book is available in both black and white paperback and hardback editions and in full-colour hardback. The full-colour hardback edition can be ordered from the Elk and Ruby website or your favourite chess book shop, while the black and white paperback and hardback editions are available from the same sellers plus Amazon. The electronic versions of this book, on Kindle (already available) and Forward Chess (forthcoming), are also full-colour. Extract: dropbox.com/scl/fi/ap7bq7ssf… Buy now: elkandruby.com/books/the-art…