Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 3

Rating:
Summary: A good book but the other volumes are better
Review: I found this book interesting and well-written but lacking the insight of the other three. For example, Kasparov gives insufficient attention to Spassky as a tremendous sportsman. Spassky bent over backwards to accomodate Fischer and allow the match to be held, in contrast to Karpov three years later who seized on Fischer's mental instability to take the crown and avoid the match. Chess owes a great deal to Spassky's sporting character but discussion of his inate decency is mysteriously missing. (Compare Alekhine avoiding Capablanca, etc).

The discussion of Petrosian's game with Kasparov is good and the book is worth buying though not as good as the two before and the one aferwards, both in lenght and insight.

Rating:
Summary: Another gem
Review: Compared to the two earlier volumes this book is relatively thin, just a 'mere' 332 pages, but its contents are at least as interesting to a reader interested in modern chess. Apart from Petrosian and Spassky, Portisch and L. Stein are also discussed in subdivisions of approximately 45 pages each. (The games of Fischer are in Vol. 4!)

Apart from the contents, the book itself is of excellent quality. Nice quality white paper, the diagrams of the other page are almost not visible and certainly not disturbing. The binding is of fine quality; its possible to lay down the book opened on any page without having to worry about its back.

The quality of the analysis of the games is beyond my judgement. Being a very mediocre chess player I usually just skim the surface, rarely I go over each variation, but I presume they are also interesting to advanced players.
Kasparov remarks often are not completely objective and he likes it a bit too much to point out very explicitely omissions of previous annotators. To some this might be irritating, to others rather amusing. His views on the development of chess and particular ideas are very interesting, just as his anecdotes.

The chosen games are without exception very interesting. Kasparov's gives opinions on tactical matters (match strategy for instance), information about circumstances in which the games are played and he succeeds in bringing games of the past to live.

Maybe the fascination with chess and its past influenced me too much in judging this book but in my opinion its simply a gem.

Rating:
Summary: my mistake
Review: I looked at the book at Barnes&Noble, and my previous review was incorrect. The book itself only has photos of Petrosian and Spassky on the cover, and covers those two world champions. I guess Fischer will wait for the next volume (with Karpov, I assume?). The book is significantly shorter than the previous 2 installments, although the list price isn't much less. Fortunately, we have Amazon to rectify that issue!


Rating:
Summary: A World Champion's perspective on the Pantheon
Review: I've noted in other reviews that Garry Kasparov, the 13th World Champion, did not live up to the expectations of many learned and published titled chessplayers. Nevertheless his body of work on the great ones, and their peers of note, is monumental and in one sense long needed. Can anyone find a good biography on Vassily Smyslov, the 7th champion? Thanks to Kasparov, I now have a greater appreciation and understanding of his style, thus I can interpret his "My Best Games of Chess : 1935-1957" with a much clearer understanding of his principals. Through the volumes he provides a timeline of chess theory and practice (this is best studied in John Watson's Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy) by some of the giants of the times. In volume 3 I particularly liked his review on the life and sample games of Leonid Stein, one of the lesser known lost talents (he died prematurely) who clearly was Candidate strength for the World Title. But some of Kasparov's material has been seen before - his postings on the abilities and approaches to chess by his predecessors were seen years before on his late (and lamented) kasparovchess.com , so his thoughts on Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky are not particular new, only there are more games which he analyzed. On Petrosian I was disappointed that he did not do a better job of comparing Petrosian's style of play to Aron Nimzowitsch (author of My System and one of the leading chess theorists and a contemporary of J.R. Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine). Many chess authors identified and praised Spassky's 'universal style' but Kasparov is the first I've seen to actually discuss the phases of the 10th World Champion's game and actually look into the roots of his training --perhaps Spassky was the more pragmatic player (something often identified with Petrosian) however Spassky played what the board presented and not necessarily steer the positions to what he was 'confortable' with. Once again, better insight into a champion's play. Kasparov's opinions aren't not the only ones to read, but anything from a World Champion, past or present is always worth a look. Sadly, other World Champions have done over all a poor job by either not producing any works (Petrosian for example), poor works (Spassky) or underappreciated works (Botvinnik and Smyslov), or giving us a teaser of what he could do (Fischer - his "60 Memorable Games" has to be one of the most influential chess books in the game's history; in spite of his non-chess rantings, any chessbook Fischer writes about his own games would likely be a New York Times bestseller - Fiction or non-Fiction would be depending on how well the editors keep Bobby to the topic of chess and nothing else).
I recommend this book to any person interested in chess and can read notation to follow the games. I wish there was more on the history of his predecessors and peers (except Botvinnik, which he has a near obsequious chapter). Garry Kimovich isn't done playing chess, but I can't wait to see what his equivalent of "60 Memorable Games" will be to further cement his place on the pantheon when he passes on to The Ages.

Rating:
Summary: Big improvement on the previous volumes
Review: Kasparov to his credit has taken note of a number of criticisms of his previous volumes to produce an interesting study on Tigran Petrosian (1963-1969) and Boris Spassky (1969-1972). There are also detailed sections on their great contemporaries Stein, Portisch and Gligoric.

This volume is also helped by the fact that Kasparov knew and played with the champs in this book, so there were interesting personal anecdotes. The opinions of such a towering player like Kasparov are always most significant. Kasparov is most respectful of these great players and humbly includes his losses to them.

Unfortunately there are still a number of analytical and historical errors as other reviewers have pointed out. So how much is still ghost-written?

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, subjective
Review: This is an excellent work!

You get Kasparov's opinion on the games of World Champions Spassky and Petrossian plus some other players from the same era (Leonid Stein, Lev Polugaevsky).

Do not be intimidated by some people's small-minded comments about some historical inaccuracies or analytical errors (most people who have never published any relevant analysis are just powering up their engines, find differences and without understanding anything claim "they" had "found many mistakes").

The point is: You buy this book to get Kasparov's very own, subjective interpretation of chess history, and nothing else. People who tell you that something is wrong with his perspective usually do not explain the one point: If he is so much wrong, why does he play so strongly then? It is all about what you want from a book. Reading "correct" computer analysis will not improve your game much, but learning about and understanding the perspective of one of the greatest players of chess ever might well do so.

If you are not interested in that, simply do not buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as his earlier books
Review: This is my review of Garry's new book, please see my reviews of the earlier volumes. (This is my short review, I may post a longer one on my web site.)

Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest players who ever lived, and earlier efforts have also demonstrated that he can be a good author - if he applies himself. This volume has also received much attention in the press, some chess websites have treated these volumes as if they were the greatest thing to ever happen to the chess world.

This volume is part three of a series of books. It focuses primarily on two {former} World Champions, Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky. (The introduction informs us that the authors will also be looking at the contemporaries of these two players: Gligoric, Polugayevsky, Portisch and Stein.)

In a way, this book is important - I have a fairly large chess library, so I naturally have many books on both of these players. However, current books on Petrosian are hard to find, many are out of print and impossible to obtain.

Petrosian is well known for his defensive capabilities, but some of the other qualities of his play are not understood. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, Petrosian might have been the best blitz player in the world. He had excellent tactics, an incredible grasp of the opening, and an uncanny knack for finding the weakest part of an opponent's position. And on the days when he felt like exerting himself, he could be one of the games deepest thinkers. (See his victory over Unzicker at Hamburg, Germany; 1960. White marches his King all the way across the board, a triumph of chess strategy, with an incredibly beautiful finish. This volume also fails to examine this contest ... which is a terrible shame.)

Spassky is one of the greatest players who ever lived, his ability and all-round dynamic approach to the game has never been fully appreciated by most amateurs. This volume is filled with his beautiful victories ... although a few of his greatest games are missing from this particular volume.

Now down to brass tacks. The authors have fewer games in here that do not concern the principal players of the volume, so the lack of focus has improved. (Although there are still games that seemingly don't belong in here. Garry's inclusion of a loss to Petrosian in 1979 has no real bearing on the life of this great player. Kasparov almost appears to be looking for some moral justification for his defeat ... which is really sad.)

There are still quite a few historical inaccuracies, and while the authors have improved in this area, the pundits on the Internet clearly proved they have not completely solved this problem, either.

This volume was supposed to be of a much higher standard in terms of analysis, a U.S. representative of the publisher personally assured me of this, via a USPS letter. However, I see no real change in the overall level of the analysis, I spotted many errors just casually playing through the book - without even putting them on the PC and running them by the computer's wizardry.

I decided - after much thought and perusal - to only deeply analyze one game in this volume, in this way I could complete my review in a timely manner. {I eventually plan to publish my complete analysis on my web site.}

The game that I chose was L. Stein - S. Furman; from the 37th URS Championships, 1969. (Game # 68, page # 253 - of the English edition.) On first blush, the analysis appears to be very detailed and well done. However upon deeper inspection the authors only updated previous analysis ... and did not do a very good job. I found somewhere between 15-20 errors, and these range from only minor all the way up to jaw-dropping blunders and oversights. Space would not allow a comprehensive review or analysis here, I will confine myself to just a few examples to make a point.

The computer likes the move 14...Qb6; however the authors quote a game where this was played and Black lost horribly. (Smirin - Gelfand; Sverdlovsk; 1987.) The authors make no comment on the moves of this game, but 17...Kc8?? was a terrible mistake, any analysis engine will confirm that taking with the Bishop was forced.

Nor is this the only failure by the annotators, I will not dabble with many of the smaller mistakes and oversights, but save those for my web page. 17.dxc6 appears to be a routine re-capture, but White had 17.Qe8+!! winning very rapidly. (The authors make absolutely no comment at all at this point.) Nor is this the only time that I found an improvement, I found at least five major improvements over the game or analysis ... many of these required no real work, only some close scrutiny with an analysis engine.

The authors do analyze possibilities after White's 30th move ... but come to the wrong conclusion. And there is some confusion over what move Black actually played on his 37th move. One book - and several Internet sources - give the move of "37...K-N5." (...King to the b4-square.) And while the majority of other sources give 37...Kb5; as Kasparov and company do here; this still does not entirely resolve the problem. If Black's 37th move is incorrect, then the authors failed to do basic move verification. And if the 37th move of ...Kb5 is what was actually played in the game - as given by MGP - this still does not explain why the authors failed to comment on Black's 38th move ... which was basically a DOUBLE-QUESTION mark blunder ... which White failed to notice, (or capitalize on).

I could go on and on ... but I trust by now you get the point. If you are just an average player looking for some interesting games, decently annotated; then you should buy this book. However, if you are looking for high-quality analysis of the truest caliber, then this volume does not get a passing grade.


Rating:
Summary: Between Tal and Fischer
Review: This volumes covers the careers of Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky, and their contemporaries. (Stein, Keres, Gilgoric, et al...) Petrosian's style of play made many people yawn with boredom, but the analyses in this book show the depth of Petrosian's thinking. (Kasparov admitted as much, in the analysis of the famous game he played against Petrosian, Tilburg 1981.) Spassky's play was more universal in nature, and he often gets overlooked due to his loss to Fischer. (Fischer and his contemporaries will cover the 4th volume in this series.)

The analysis is superb, and overdetailed for about 99.5% of chessplayers. But no matter. There is a joy in getting lost in the variations, as if you are struggling to get out of a forest. You sense that Kasparov is trying to get to the truth of the matter, coupling his brain (it easily could be said that Kasparov is the greatest player in the history of chess) with those of the latest chess software. Analysis of a single game in this volume, if examining all the side annotations, can take at least 30 minutes per game, if using a chessboard, as opposed to a computer chess program.

Kasparov's firsthand knowledge of these world champions and contenders is evidenced by his manner of presentation. (The first volume, covering from 1600 to Alekhine, was more neutral in tone, if you will.) Highly recommended, if you have the will to wade through the analyses Kasparov provides.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading Book Description
Review: When I originally placed this order, Bobby Fischer was part of this 3rd volume...now I find out that he has been removed without any notice (though not from Amazon's cover example...as of the time of this review). While I have not finished this volume, I have found it fairly thorough to this point. Overall, I would have liked to have seen more material on Petrosian and Spassky since Fischer was removed. His removal created a fairly thin volume. I am disappointed about the removal of B. Fischer from Vol. 3, and can only surmise that it is due to the fact that G. Kasparov was not able to prepare his material on B. Fischer on time.