Author: Bernhard Bauer
Date: 00:34:08 10/17/05
Go up one level in this thread
Thank you for your review.
I have not read the book but errors and shortcomings in analysis are common. So
one should never trust such analysis whithout a thorogh look.
Would you mind to post yout web site?
Kind regards
Bernhard
On October 16, 2005 at 20:40:28, John Jack wrote:
> Gary Lack Of Respect For Past World Champs
>
>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.
>
>John E Jack
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