Welcome to The Great Crapovsky, where the chess is real, the cartoons are hilarious, the advice is unpredictable, and the grandmaster may be three moves ahead—or three vodkas behind. This is not an ordinary chess book. It is part chess book, part memoir, part comic adventure, and occasionally a complete muddle involving three identities who do not always understand their own relationship with one another. Bob writes the book. Graanfer plays the chess. Crapovsky supplies the wisdom, the insults and the vodka. The games are real games played by Bob on Lichess under the name Graanfer. They contain genuine chess lessons, tactical opportunities, blunders, brilliant ideas and the occasional move that leaves everyone wondering what on earth just happened. Hilarious cartoons bring the games to life, capturing the mistakes, the madness and the absurdities of chess. But there is more to this book than chess. Alongside the games are stories drawn from Bob's own life with chess: yarns, jokes, unexpected encounters and strange situations that sometimes seem too ridiculous to be true. Part memoir, part reminiscence, they reveal the people, experiences and occasional lunacy that surround a life spent among chessboards and chess players. Now we come to the characters. Crapovsky, Graanfer and Bob. Do they know one another? Bob knows Crapovsky because he invented him, inspired by a man he met while playing in a chess tournament in the jolly city of Murmansk in 1991, the world's largest Arctic city. Bob can't talk to Crapovsky because he isn't watching the game! Graanfer is Bob's name on Lichess, but Crapovsky doesn't know this. Somehow, Crapovsky is watching Graanfer playing live chess on Lichess. How is this possible? I can't explain it. Nobody knows who they are. Even the author is confused! Bob occasionally interrupts his own story with sudden, unnecessary comments about a game he isn't watching. These interjections shouldn't happen, because he can't see the moves. Yet they happen all the same. This is about making the impossible possible. And who is the fellow responsible for all this nonsense? An 87-year-old, recently retired, crazy truck driver. His driving licence is still valid, and his next medical is in 2029. Naturally, he's sure he'll pass. Then he'll be back in his 1977 Volvo F8. He still misses jolly old Saudi Arabia! The result is real chess, practical instruction, hilarious cartoons, memoir, comedy, absurd conversations and a Russian grandmaster who is convinced that he is right about practically everything. Written for ordinary chess players, particularly those around club level, The Great Crapovsky offers lessons to take to the board, mistakes to learn from and plenty of opportunities to laugh at the game—and ourselves. Three identities. Real chess. Hilarious cartoons. True-life yarns and bizarre situations. One chaotic Russian grandmaster. And an author who may have made a terrible mistake by bringing him to life. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, set up the board and prepare for chess according to Crapovsky. Just don't expect him to behave.
