In September 1993 Nigel Short was be the first ever British chess player to challenge for the World Chess Crown. The match with Gari Kasparov was an historic one and Dominic Lawson was one of the few journalists allowed behind the scenes. At two months in duration the World Chess Championship was the ultimate sporting marathon, an unprecedented test of will power and mental stamina and Lawson covered not just the game of chess but the three year build up to it; he was with Short during the preparation and training for the match, and in his well-informed and incisive style considers the backstage rivalry and politics as well as the characters of the protagonists.