The main characters of this book are the causative agents of chess fever in the young country of the Soviets (Konstantin Mekhonoshin, Vasily Russo, Valerian Eremeev), the founders of the domestic chess composition (Dmitry Clark, Alexey Troitsky, Leonid Kubbel, Alexander Gerbstman, Abram Gurvich, Evgeny Somov-Nasimovich, Vyacheslav Rybakov), graduates of one of the Moscow joint schools - the great champion Vera Menchik and the main chess organizer in the pre-war USSR Vladimir Snegirev. Bright personalities with a tragic, difficult fate.