Winner of English Chess Federation 'Book of the Year' 2009
Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part 2: Kasparov vs Karpov 1975-1985
RRP $45 OUR PRICE $32.95
424 pages, hardcover
UPDATE: Winner of the ECF 'Book of the Year' 2009.
Comments from the panel... Excellent though the other books on the shortlist were, the judges had no difficulty in selecting the winner this year.
Kasparov has written earlier in the 1980s about some of these matches. But here, he writes in the preface “I now see many situations more deeply, through the prism of my life experience…….My commentaries have become more frank, and far more accurate. But the evaluation of individual moves will take into account the psychology of the struggle!” All this is reflected in the book, plus lengthy descriptions of the background to the matches and in particular Kasparov’s views of the controversial first match termination.
The book can be read on several levels - as a dramatic story, or as providing insights into opening theory, or as great games enhanced by deep analytical annotations. Kasparov succeeds triumphantly in illuminating every aspect of this historic struggle. He is establishing as formidable a reputation as an author, as he did as a player.
Finally, Everyman have produced the book to the same high standards they have used throughout the series.
Panel: R B Edwards, J Farrand, D Friedgood - 9th October 2009
The history of sport has seen many great gladiatorial clashes: Ali v Frazier in boxing, McEnroe v Borg in tennis, Prost v Senna in motor racing. None however can quite compare to the intensity of the rivalry between those two great world chess champions: Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. Between 1984 and 1990 they contested an astonishing five World Championship matches consisting of 144 individual encounters. This volume concentrates on the first two of those matches.The epic 1984/85 contest which lasted six months before being controversially halted "without result" by the President of FIDE Florencio Campomanes and the 1985 match when Kasparov brilliantly won the final game to take the title and become, at the age of 22, the youngest ever world champion.
The Kasparov v Karpov encounters mirrored a battle between the new Russia and old Russia with Kasparov seen as a symbol of the new ideology emerging under Gorbachev whereas Karpov was seen to represent the old regime of die-hard Communists such as Brezhnev. In this volume Garry Kasparov (world champion between 1985 and 2000 and generally regarded as the greatest player ever) analyses in depth the clashes from 1984 and 1985, giving his opinions both on the political machinations surrounding the matches as well as the games themselves.
The Modern Chess series is the follow-on from Kasparov's award-winning My Great Predecessors series, and is projected to be another 5-volume set.
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