Author
Kotov was a great admirer of World Champion Alexander Alekhine, and wrote a comprehensive four-volume biographical series of books on his life and career, which were published between 1953 and 1958. The work significantly contributed to Alekhine's rehabilitation in the Soviet Union.
His trilogy of books Think Like a Grandmaster, Play Like a Grandmaster, and Train Like a Grandmaster, are his best known, with Think Like a Grandmaster, which was translated from the Russian by Bernard Cafferty, and published by Batsford in 1971 being particularly famous. The book is not concerned with advising where pieces should be placed on the board, or tactical motifs, but rather with the method of thinking that should be employed during a game. Kotov's advice to identify candidate moves and methodically examine them to build up an "analysis tree" remains well known today.
Kotov contributed to the Yugoslav series Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO), which began in 1974, and to the associated games book series Chess Informator as an analyst.
The importance and breadth of Kotov's work as a chess author ranks him among the all-time greats in this field.
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