Tony Miles - England's Chess Gladiator

From an early age it was apparent that he had no respect whatsoever for the vaunted Soviet School of chess and held their grandmasters in scant esteem. At the very start of his career victories came in quick succession against such renowned opposition as Bronstein, Geller, Smyslov and Spassky. The culmination was a victory at the head of the British Chess Federation team in the European Team Championship at snow bound Skara in Sweden against the reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov. For the very first time in any anthology of Tony Miles' games this win appears here with Tony's own profound notes. This was an historic win with Miles using the iconoclastic 1...a6 to defeat the champion's habitual 1e4. Amongst Tony's exploits were winning the Junior World Championship, becoming the UK's first FIDE grandmaster in over the board play and leading the BCF team to silver medals behind only the USSR in the prestigious Chess Olympiads. Miles also