A New Era

Rating:
Summary: A great buy !
Review: A great book about the greatest player ever, and how he changed the world.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent coverage from inside source.
Review: A New Era was a very interesting book! This book provides coverage of Kasparov's championship defense against Vishy Anand, as well as his two matches against Deep Blue. The difference between this book and other books on the matches is that it is written by one of Kasparov's team, master Mikhail Khodarkovsky. This means that it includes much inside information about how Garry was feeling through the matches as well as fascinating insights into how their team prepared for each game and the general strategy of match play.

Kasparov is a very common hero for chess players not just because he is perhaps the greatest player ever but also because he often shows his emotions both on and off the board. He is a passionate person, as exhibited by his play as well as his views on politics and other topics. This book illustrates this aspect as he goes through the emotional ups and downs that comes from playing at the pinnacle of the game.

The games themselves were fascinating. I also have read Patrick Wolff's account of the 1995 World Championship match as well as Pandolfini's book on the second match against Deep Blue, so I had some background on the games. It is interesting to compare the feelings of Anand in Patrick Wolff's book (he was one of Anand's seconds) with that of Kasparov's during the same match.

My only criticism of the book is with regards to the analysis. It is detailed and includes Kasparov's own preparation and analysis. However, at times I feel it could be over the heads of less than advanced chess players because there is little commentary. However, I felt I could enjoy the games overall anyway. However, I don't think this detracts too much from the book overall as I felt the strength of the book was Khodarkovsky's perspective as an inside person in Kasparov's life.

If you are a fan of Kasparov's, you would do well to read this book. If you are a fan of chess, I also highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, but one-sided and poorly written
Review: For chess players it's a very useful account of Kasparov's matches with Anand and against Deep Blue. However, the style is very dull and, although fluent, it is obvious that the author's first language is not English. Some analysis is presented in this book but not in any useful way - neither in depth for the expert nor descriptive explanation for the novice.

In stark contrast to the quality of writing, Dominic Lawson's book on the Kasparov-Short match, End Game, is a much more enjoyably read as an account of a world championship match, although it lacks any chess analysis.

Khodarkovsky also seems unable to have his own opinions on the matches and appears only to present Kasparov's point of view. He often drones on how intelligent and wonderful Kasparov is, without there being any relevance to the story. There is also a lot of criticism of IBM's behavior in the second Deep Blue match but no attempt to get a perspective from outside the Kasparov team. This is understandable if he wants to remain as a trusted aide for future matches, but it doesn't make for enjoyable reading.

These criticisms of style and approach aside, the book is very worthwhile to the chess player as it gives the world champion's perspective on one of his title matches and also on the most important man-versus-machine games ever played.