Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov (July 30, 1913 – January 8, 1981) was a Soviet chess grandmaster and author. He was a Soviet champion, a two-time world title Candidate, and a prolific chess author. He was granted the title of International Grandmaster in 1951 by the World Chess Federation. His trilogy of books “Think Like a Grandmaster”, “Play Like a Grandmaster”, and “Train Like a Grandmaster”, are his best known books.Source: Alexander Kotov's Chess Biography on Wikipedia.