During the last two, sadly diminished 'Covid' years, I channelled much of my unavoidably divertedover-the-board chess energy into writing a book about the game's grand historical development. Ididn't originally intend the work, titled Modern Chess: from Steinitz to the 21st Century, to be quite soexpansive. But it grew on me.To be completely candid, my publisher, Thinkers Publishing, had to help coax it out of me. I had firstfloated an idea about a book on Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934), whose significance in the history ofthe development of chess thought remains remarkably under-explored, certainly in books published inEnglish. No go, alas: commercially too risky.After further debate, the project eventually expanded to cover a much more ambitious two centuries.Somewhat unexpectedly, Tarrasch went on to partner McDonnell, Bourdonnais, Anderssen, Morphy,Nimzowitsch, Réti, Judit Polgar, AlphaZero, and all sixteen of the Classical World champions.My much larger aim now was to explore the history of our contemporary game's roots and trajectory,focussing throughout on the subtly varied ways in which all of those great players have thought aboutand played the game, moving it forward. My initial focal point was clear enough: Steinitz!