This literary work is, in a sense, a retrospective of the largest chess competitions from the first international tournament in 1851 in London to the tournament in Brussels in 1987. Out of countless different competitions, the book includes two dozen of the most significant, in the opinion of the authors, in chess history, which most importantly influenced the course of its development.

When selecting the authors, they were guided by the idea of including large-scale international competitions in their book, which is undeservedly deprived of attention by the chess chronicle, not giving preference to the candidate and champion competitions from the world championship cycles, widely covered by the press. The narration is about the organization of the tournament, the situation at it and the situation around it, the nature of the chess fight and its key moments, as well as the significance of the competition in history, examples of the best games with commentary are given.