Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors Part III

I initially bought this book because I wanted to acquire a collection of Petrosian games that were well annotated. I figured Kasparov would be a good annotator :-)What I found out is that the section on Petrosian (181 pages) is one long story, where Kasparov shows how ideas were formed, tested adopted, refuted and so on. Throughout the weaving of the progression of chess ideas during Petrosian's time, he incrementally adds to Petrosian's life to give the reader a complete picture of him.This is unlike any other chess book I've purchased, and I was amazed once I figured out what I was reading. I was stunned at how readable it is at one level, although you could spend hours on each game if you delve into all of the analysis.I highly recommend it!

This is Volume Three of the five-volume set of My Great Predecessors. I had to do a lot of shopping around to find each volume at a price I could afford, but if you are serious about developing an understanding of chess strategy, this set is an excellent resource. The books cover the history of great chessmasters, detailing many of their games. I don't start at page one and read through them sequentially; rather, I look up a particular strategy and lay out the game on my chessboard to move through it. One game usually leads to another, and I can spend hours going through the volumes this way. [NOTE that this review is authored by my 19-year-old son.]

Loved the book. And I'm also amazed how fast the seller shipped the books. Very satisfied

This book provides an excellent discussion of the development and rise of these two champions. There is a lot of narrative history and illustrative games annotated (quite deeply) by Kasparov with help from computer software. The games are a who's who of the greats in history, including the two principals and Tal, Korchnoi, Portisch, Fischer, Polugayevsky, Stein, Geller, Kasparov himself, and Larsen et al. Interestingly, both Spassky and Petrosian defeated Kasparov twice in tournament play (something I was unaware of) and all these games are presented.As with all of Kasparov's books, the print quality is excellent, and there are a lot of diagrams presented within each game.Where the book is deficient, however, is what it leaves out. There is no discussion at all about Spassky's world title match with Fischer in 1972 (or their match in 1992)-you have to buy his book on Fischer for that. Even so, Kasparov should have included and annotated games 15 and/or 18 from the 1972 match (which are not included in the Fischer book), and a couple of Spassky's games from the 1992 match . Likewise, there is no coverage of Spassky's 1977 Candidate's match with Korchnoi-you have to buy his book on Korchnoi/Karpov for that; even so he should have included a couple of games from this match that are not in the Korchnoi/Karpov book (there are plenty to chose from, it was an epic battle). Also missing in the Petrosian section is any game coverage of his Candidate's matches with Korchnoi in 1977 and 1980, which is curious, since none of these games is in the Korchnoi/Karpov book either.

The almost forgotten GM Leonid Stein seems to be the best part of this book

Tells Kasparov's point of view which is well worth listening to.

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.