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Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire
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About Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess
Product Description Hardly anyone paid attention when Sultan Khan arrived in London on April 26, 1929. A humble servant from a village in the Punjab, Khan had little formal education and barely spoke English. He had learned the rules of Western chess only three years earlier, yet within a few months he created a sensation by becoming the British Empire champion. Sultan Khan was taken to England by Sir Umar Hayat Khan, an Indian nobleman and politician who used his servant's successes to promote his own interests in the turbulent years before India gained independence. Sultan Khan remained in Europe for the best part of five years, competing with the leading chess players of the era, including World Champion Alexander Alekhine and former World Champion Jose Raoul Capablanca. His unorthodox style often stunned his opponents, as Daniel King explains in his examination of the key games and tournaments in Khan's career. Daniel King has uncovered a wealth of new facts about Khan, as well as dozens of previously unknown games. For the first time he tells the full story of how Khan, a Muslim outsider, was received in Europe, of his successes in the chess world and his return to obscurity after his departure for India in 1933. Review "Sultan Khan's life makes for an extraordinary story, and it is one without parallel. Daniel King is an excellent writer. This is his most interesting work to date. King has done a simply wonderful job of reanimating the life, times and games of the mysterious Sultan Kahn." -- Sean Mars, CHESS Magazine "King offers a lot more than just the games. He also sketches in the political background behind Sultan Khan's time in England: the discussions concerning the future of the Indian subcontinent which would eventually lead to independence and the partition in 1947. I thought these sections of the book were written with sensitivity and impartiality." -- Richard James, British Chess News "A magnificent book, which is a fine tribute to someone who seemingly emerged from nowhere to win the British Championship three times, take on the world's best players and seemingly disappear from the chess world. The games are annotated in a high-class manner as you would expect from the English grandmaster and there is always a lot of prose to give a background to the event. There are plenty of photos to remind us of another era. A remarkable chess career captured in the style of a gripping novel." -- Gary Lane, International Master, Chess Moves Magazine "I am enjoying Daniel King's new book on Sultan Khan enormously." -- Malcolm Pein, International Master "A wonderful book. It's clear that the key to understanding Sultan Khan's games and achievements is in context, both on a historical level and on a chess level. King provides a lot of historical background for growing tensions between Great Britain and India in the 1930's. A fantastic addition to chess literature!" -- Matthew Sadler, Grandmaster, Game Changer About the Author Daniel King (1963) is an English chess grandmaster, coach, journalist and broadcaster. He has written 16 chess books on topics ranging from opening preparation to the self-tutoring How Good is your Chess? and Test Your Chess.
