KARPOV'S STRATEGIC WINS 1: 1961 - 1985
THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION
Authors: Tibor Karolyi
Quality Chess (2011)
458 pages
Paperback $24.95/Hardcover $38.95

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

Karpov was, for many years, my favorite player. The depth of his strategic understanding boggled the mind, and his games reminded one of Petrosian in that Karpov had the same rare ability to wrap the opponent in his positional coils like a python and then squeeze him into submission. There have been many books about Karpov (a few by Karpov himself), but none take the reader on a year-by-year journey through his career like Karolyi’s book does.

KARPOV’S STRATEGIC WINS 1 offers us a simple but very efficient and interesting format: From 1961 – 1985, each year is explored to some degree, offering (once he became a major player) his rating for the year, biographical information for each year, at least one deeply annotated game (and usually quite a few – obviously, more and more games are presented as Karpov grows stronger), and a summary for that year that lists all his tournaments and matches for that time period plus a colorful circular graph showing his percentages of wins/losses/draws. The ability to easily follow his life, games, and stats makes for compelling reading.

I mentioned the games were all deeply annotated, but there’s more to the notes than that. Karolyi not only gives deep variations and analysis, but he also discusses strategic ideas, and fills the notes with a very nice balance of moves and prose. Here are a couple examples of his smooth prose:

“This move was first played in 1974, although it is not completely clear whether or not it was technically Karpov’s novelty, as there was another game without an exact date. In any case, Karpov writes in My Best Games that the move was an original idea for him. The move was also seen in a game between Samuel Reshevsky and Walter Browne in the 1974 US Championship, in which Black eventually prevailed.”

“Material is level, but Black has a much better pawn structure. His passed a-pawn is an important asset which renders White’s Bishop very passive. Nevertheless, White’s position is difficult to penetrate and he should still be able to draw with accurate defence.”

Other nice features: a bibliography, an index of strategic classifications (which makes it very easy to study a particular idea or theme), a game index by page number, a game index of Karpov’s opponents, an alphabetical game index of non-Karpov games (i.e., games mentioned in the notes to Karpov’s game), a name index, an overall index of statistics, scores against individual opponents (I always find this kind of thing enlightening), tournament record, and tournament summary. WOW! It’s easy to see that lots of thought, planning, love, passion, and hard work were put into this magnificent book.

KARPOV’S STRATEGIC WINS 1 gets my highest recommendation if you enjoy going over master games, are a fan of Karpov, or wish to study high-level positional concepts through the use of Karpov’s games. This is, quite simply, one of the finest game collections I’ve ever seen.

Click to buy (or get more information about):

KARPOV'S STRATEGIC WINS 1: 1961 - 1985. HARDBACK EDITION

KARPOV'S STRATEGIC WINS 1: 1961 - 1985. PAPERBACK EDITION

KARPOV’S STRATEGIC WINS 2: 1986 – 2010
THE PRIME YEARS

Author: Tibor Karolyi

Quality Chess (2011)

576 pages

Hardback: $38.95/Paperback: $24.95

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

This volume continues where Volume 1 left off, and since there are so many massive battles versus the world’s best, the book is even thicker than the first one! We get the same excellent layout, the same wonderful bios and indexes, and the same wonderfully presented notes.

Of course, if you love Book 1 (and how could you not love the first one?) then you will absolutely want Book 2 also!

One personal blip on my “all praise and nothing negative” radar: The second book’s subtitle seems a bit off since it’s clear to everyone that 2010 (and many years before that!) did NOT see Karpov in his prime. In fact, Karpov’s strength began sliding in the late 90s, and just a few years after that he was a shadow of his former self. Of course he was a monster in the 80s and most of the 90s, but in my view he was the best player on Earth in 1974 (not counting Fischer!) – his incredible match wins over Polugaevsky, Spassky, and Korchnoi clearly demonstrate this. Thus, in my opinion Karpov’s prime began in 1974 and continued to the mid 90s (which is a remarkable span). Naturally, this observation has absolutely no bearing on the magnificence of this two-book collection, but it strikes me as a bit odd anyway.

Once again: KARPOV’S STRATEGIC WINS (books 1 & 2) are a triumph for Tibor Karolyi, who cements his reputation as one of the world’s finest chess writers, and for Quality Chess – they just keep cracking out great stuff.

Click to buy (or get more information about):

KARPOV'S STRATEGIC WINS 2: 1986 - 2010. HARDCOVER EDITION

KARPOV'S STRATEGIC WINS 2: 1986 - 2010. PAPERBACK EDITION

Other great books by Tibor Karolyi:

KASPAROV: HOW HIS PREDECESSORS MISLED HIM ABOUT CHESS

GENIUS IN THE BACKGROUND

ENDGAME VIRTUOSO: ANATOLY KARPOV