BLOOMINGTON, Ill. 鈥� Chair and Associate Professor of Finance Robert Irons has published a book about one of the most famous chess games in history, titled 鈥淪an Sebastian 1911.鈥� 

The book, , is a historical account of an

international chess tournament which took place in San Sebastian, Spain, in spring of 1911. Nine of the ten strongest chess players in the world were invited to participate. 

One of the players, Jos茅 Capablanca, joined the games despite not meeting tournament requirements. Another player, Ossip Bernstein, lodged a formal complaint against Capablanca鈥檚 participation, which was heard and dismissed. 

鈥淭hen Dr. Bernstein had the misfortune to be paired against Capablanca in the very first round of the tournament,鈥� said Irons. 鈥淐apablanca won a game so beautiful that it won the brilliancy prize for the tournament. He followed that by winning the tournament, and then 10 years later he became the 3rd World Chess Champion.鈥�

Irons鈥� book contains stories about the event and the renowned players, as well as a computer-assisted analysis of all 105 games that took place during the tournament.  

鈥淚 bought a copy of the original tournament book just for fun, as it was written in German. My wife reminded me that a good friend spoke German and could translate. When I did a Google search, I found that no English language versions of the tournament book were ever released, so it seemed like an opportunity,鈥� he said.

A love of chess has been with Irons since he was 10. He studied on his own at home and played in a dozen tournaments in the 1980s, but shelved his set after getting married. He revisited the game, beginning to play correspondence chess in 2015 and continues the hobby today. He has served as the correspondence chess editor for the U.S. Chess Federation and is a member of the Chess Journalists of America, serving as a judge for the annual awards.