This is the fascinating story of the lifelong rivalry between the two most vain chess players in history: Siegbert Tarrasch and Aron Nimzowitsch. They clashed as personalities, as players and as chess writers, both searching for the truth in chess, but with very different perspectives. Tarrasch is seen as the dogmatic theorist and, according to Nimzowitsch, didn't offer much more than the well-meaning advice of a housewife. Nimzowitsch is the philosopher, the designer of a complete 'system' that explains everything there is to know about chess to future generations of students. Are these caricatures correct? Does the chess world treat these giants fairly? And what was the role of the third protagonist in this debate, Semyon Alapin? All this and more is answered by the renowned chess historian and author Willy Hendriks in his third book on the history of chess. Hendriks offers a wonderful and often highly entertaining look at the dealings of Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch and Alapin. The many chess fragments nicely illustrate how our expertise evolved in this turbulent period of chess history.