Paul Keres: The Road to the Top

Rating:
Summary: A Classic: Put This One On Your Must-Have List
Review: The basic material in this book, and its companion, Paul Keres: The Quest for Perfection (also available from Amazon) were previously published under another title. British GM John Nunn has updated the notes and added some games.

The result is a book that every serious chessplayer should have. Keres' deep notes will help players from Class C on up to improve their games and get more enjoyment out of chess.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding game annotations
Review: This book contains Paul Keres' best games played in the period 1929-1950. And as one might imagine, almost all the games are against World class players. What sets this book apart from many others of its genre is the annotations. Another reviewer rightly mentioned that Keres' style of annotation is as good as Bronstein. Those who are familiar with David Bronstein's books will get the point. The book has around 250 pages and covers 50 of Keres' games. This might give you some idea as to how detailed the annotations would be(unlike the lightly annotated books that cover a players' 100 or more games in the same number of pages). The games are all Keres' wins but at no point one feels even the slightest hint of personal bias in his annotations. They are highly objective and very detailed. Keres clearly explains the plans of both the sides and devotes around 5-6 pages to almost every game. He gives detailed variations where necessary but nothing to overwhelm an average player.

The one slight dissappointment that I have from this book is that I expected it to be a complete autobiography of Keres' life. But Keres doesn't talk much about his life in general or shares any interesting chessic stories or incidents that might have happened in his life(unlike Tal in his autobiography). All he mentions is the tournaments and matches he participated in a given year and how he felt his standard of play was compared to other successful players. But this shouldn't keep anyone away from buying this book. This book would've been worth its price even if it had no autobiography. The set of games are worth studying.

Finally I would like to say that even though the games are highly annotated, a sound understanding of both tactics and basic chess strategy is needed. The level of the games is high and so I feel that this book will be most useful to players over 1700(uscf). Also the footnotes added by John Nunn are in no way a nuisance(as mentioned by another reviewer). I was amazed to see that after going over 35 games, there was no occassion when even a single variation given by Keres was completely wrong. All Nunn does is is add to what Keres had to say or point out another interesting idea or variation that Keres probably ignored.

In conclusion I would like to say that these games have been thoroughly scrutinized by their creator and there aren't simply many chess books that match this book's content. So you can't afford to miss it.

Rating:
Summary: The crown prince of chess
Review: This is an incredible book. First off, the games alone standout by themselves. Paul Keres' style is crystal clear, without any particular weaknesses in his play. He handled all phases of the game well and was a great attacking and positional player. His games are very instructive for beginners to masters.

Second, his notes are amazing. Each chapter has a collection of few games from one phase in his career and he begins each with a very engaging essay on his thoughts and life during that time. You really get into his mind as he takes you through his ups and downs throughout his life and how he prepares for games. The notes to the games are thorough and engaging. You never feel like an idea, line or variation is left unexplained. I feel Keres was one of the best annotators to ever live.

Finally, the format and translation of this edition are excellent, as with most of John Nunn's reissues. I don't own the first issue, but I can say this one is extremely nice, if you don't mind Nunn's sometimes annoying footnotes. This is must have book, for those who want to study from it, or just enjoy the games. I'm saving up money for the second volume, "Quest for Perfection!"