Erwin Brecher was educated in Vienna, Czechoslovakia and London, where he studied physics, economics and engineering. He entered business after World War Two and became a Name at Lloyds of London in 1974. He has written some 22 books on nonfiction subjects, including many chess, bridge and puzzle books. He is a member of Mensa. Leonard Barden studied history at Oxford and has made a career of playing and writing about chess. He was British co-champion in 1954 and was Bobby Fischer's partner in the only consultation game Fischer ever played. In the 1970s Barden was a presenter on the Master Game series on television, he advised Lloyds Bank on its chess sponsorship and administered the British national Grand Prix. He managed the junior England squad in the 1970s and 1980s when the country produced a record number of grandmasters. He has written chess columns for the Guardian, the Evening Standard and the Financial Times for over 50 years.
