MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, VOLUME FIVE

Author: Garry Kasparov with Dmitry Plisetsky

Everyman (hardcover, 2006)

www.everymanchess.com

480 pages

$40.00

Reviewed by John Donaldson

The fifth volume of Garry Kasparov’s MY GREAT PREDECESSORS covers the careers of Viktor Kortchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. It says something of the place Korchnoi occupies in the chess world that he is the only player in the series without the title of World Champion to warrant a full treatment. Kasparov dedicates almost half the book (200 pages and 49 games) to Korchnoi, the only player in the history of the game to play three times for the World Championship without winning the title.

Some prospective buyers, especially those that have already bought the three volume series on Korchnoi published by Olms, may wonder how much overlap there is. In the biographical sections of the book it is hard for Kasparov and his helper Dmitry Plisetsky to come up with much that is new. In general they prefer to let the participants tell their own story. There is a fair amount of quoting from Viktor Lvovich’s CHESS IS MY LIFE at key stages, for example the match in Baguio. This works pretty well in this instance as Karpov gets his say later on, but not as effectively when we only have Korchnoi’s account of the 1977 Candidates Match between him and Boris Spassky. This match wasn’t covered in volume three (Petrosian and Spassky) for the possible reason that Spassky has yet to write his memoirs.

There doesn’t seem to be much overlap in the games that are covered. Some classics like Filip-Korchnoi, Bucharest 1954, are examined in both volumes. Garry’s work, which has appeared later, expands on the commentary of Korchnoi. Kasparov, who was a great Scheveningen player, annotates early games of Korchnoi’s in this opening with real insight. The brilliant idea of ...h7-h5 when castled kingside is covered in Suetin -Korchnoi, Leningrad 1967 (game 17) and Geller-Korchnoi, Moscow 1971 (game 19) – neither is in Viktor Lvovich’s MY BEST GAMES: VOLUME 2 – GAMES WITH BLACK.

Though they played only one match together that was won decisively by the much younger man, there can be no doubt that Kasparov holds Korchnoi in the highest regard as a chess player. He continually writes with warmth and admiration of Korchnoi’s love for the game, his tremendous work ethic and objectivity and ability to reinvent himself. As Kasparov points out while he and Karpov have more or less retired, Korchnoi still keeps playing!

In the second half of the book, Kasparov writes about an individual with whom he is has spent a lot of time. There can be little doubt that Garry Kasparov would not have become the player he did without the series of brutal matches that he waged with Anatoly Karpov. Again, it’s not so easy to have much original to say about the first stages of Karpov’s career that has been covered in many books. Things start to get interesting about the time of the match with Spassky. Clearly this match was especially fascinating for Garry who spends thirty pages covering it and sees the final result as a clear repudiation of the “clear head” school of chess. Henceforth anyone who wants to climb to the throne must do hard analytical labor in the openings to get the sort of middlegame positions they want. The days of improvising in the opening at the top level ended in 1974 according to Kasparov.

One of the more interesting parts of the section on Karpov is Yury Razuvaev’s discussion of the opening preparation that Tolya was doing for the match with Fischer. Karpov’s team felt Bobby was most vulnerable in the opening – that he didn’t have solid systems when facing 1.d4. Had the match occurred, Anatoly was armed to the teeth for the King’s Indian, Gruenfeld and Modern Benoni. Would Bobby have been playing the Queen’s Gambit Accepted in 1975?

The earliest volumes in this series produced criticism from some reviewers for historical inaccuracies and a reliance on computer generated analysis, but I have not found that to be the case here. There are a few quibbles: on page 168 Kasparov refers to the blitz tournament at Herceg Novi in 1983 as the end of the seven year Soviet boycott while others might point to Lone Pine 1981, but on the whole this is a great piece of work.

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, VOLUME FIVE has been ably translated by Ken Neat and is a handsomely produced hardback with dust jacket.

Highly Recommended

Click to buy (or get more information about) GARRY KASPAROV ON MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, PART 5