Garry Kasparov by Mikhail Yudovich
Cover of the English translation
Garri Kasparov. His Career in Chess is a biography of the Russian chess grandmaster, written by Mikhail Yudovich and published by Raduga, Moscow in 1988. Three years earlier, at age 22, Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion by defeating Anatoly Karpov. The book comes in English and Spanish translations. It includes notes on how children are taught chess in the USSR, a list of his oppenents, and an index to openings. [Antiquesportsbooks]
The cover design by Liubov Cheltsova uses a typeface with an unconventional distribution of thicks and thins. The origin of this whimsical design is unclear to me. It’s shown in an undated (ca. 1977) Typeshop catalog as Implode, without further information. [It was designed by Ben Sands, see comments.] In 2011, Nick Curtis made a faithful digital interpretation based on a showing in Alphabete: Ein Schriftatlas von A bis Z (Novum Press, 1984), and released it as Phunky Ella NF. The interior (not pictured) is set in the IBM Selectric version of Univers.
Glyph set of Implode as shown in a Typeshop catalog
Cover and spine of the Spanish translation
Title page of the Spanish translation by Alejandro Kotsóev, Garri Kasparov: su camino deportivo y creador
1 Comment on “Garry Kasparov by Mikhail Yudovich”
Matt Sands kindly let us know that Implode was designed by his father, Ben Sands, in the late 1960s.
Ben Sands (1920–2016) was a British commercial artist and typographic designer. You can see more of his work, including spectacular woodcuts and linocuts, in an article on Whitstable Views as well as on Ben Sands Prints, a site maintained by the Sands family.