This definitive work on the Englishman Amos Burn assembles and analyzes all extant games and provides a thorough biography of the famous chess master of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It chronicles in exceptional detail the broader picture of chess development throughout that era. Active for a long time, Burn was a fighting player who relished tactical battles against his more romantic rivals but was also one of the world's best defensive players.Burn's life is painstakingly traced from his birth in 1848 to his death of a stroke at age 76. Extensive quotations of notes by Burn and his peers accompany accounts of the great international tournaments in which he took part. Where necessary, old analysis is corrected and supplemented. Meticulous research has been undertaken in newspapers and periodicals from numerous countries, and many forgotten games have been unearthed.

The book features approximately 800 games played by Burn, almost all of them annotated, 859 chess diagrams, and 209 photographs. There are three appendices, notes, bibliography, and indices of openings, annotators, games, players, and general subjects.