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The Guinness Book of Chess Grandmasters
Encompassing some 80 players, this book charts the history of chess through an historical overview of its greatest exponents, from ancient masters such as Lopez, Leonardo and Greco to modern practitioners such as Kasparov, Short and Anand. It examines their playing styles, their often idiosyncratic personalities, and their greatest games, which are illustrated with chessboard diagrams.
224 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1996
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June 23, 2016
For a book with a two-column format of a dictionary, this is quite a concise selection of games, selected by British IM and columnist William Hartston. He has culled 292 of the most instructive games and presented them in algebraic notation (not figurine) with one diagram to a game. The annotation is brief, newspaper column style, but witty and incisive. Cross-references between games (these are numbered 1 through 292) abound for similarity of strategy.
What you will not find here is an exhaustive list of all grandmasters' names. What you will find is numerous games to the more famous grandmasters.
Fischer merits his own chapter (a groan-worthy title: The Fischer King).
There is a wealth of historical information about Morphy, Capablanca, Lasker. Non-world champions with a profound influence on chess thinking (hypermodernism) are given space (Nimzowitsch, Breyer, Reti). The troika of Capablanca, Alekhine and Euwe are called with British wit "Vanity, Arrogance and a Moment of Modesty".
Although I knew all the Fischer Candidates and World Championship games almost by heart, the quick review of a couple of key moments, as well as a recap of a few dying embers of brilliance in the 1992 reprise "San Stefan, Yugoslavia: The rematch", proved evergreen.
The book is a little dated since it leaves Fischer alive and hunkered down in Hungary. Likewise, the last chapter (written in 1996) speaks of hopefuls Vishy Anand!! Kramnik!! who have since been multiple-time world champions as well as ex-world champions. But then, I did not get this book for the news of the moment.
For a Book Of Chess Grandmasters of its modest size, it accomplishes its goals laudably.
What you will not find here is an exhaustive list of all grandmasters' names. What you will find is numerous games to the more famous grandmasters.
Fischer merits his own chapter (a groan-worthy title: The Fischer King).
There is a wealth of historical information about Morphy, Capablanca, Lasker. Non-world champions with a profound influence on chess thinking (hypermodernism) are given space (Nimzowitsch, Breyer, Reti). The troika of Capablanca, Alekhine and Euwe are called with British wit "Vanity, Arrogance and a Moment of Modesty".
Although I knew all the Fischer Candidates and World Championship games almost by heart, the quick review of a couple of key moments, as well as a recap of a few dying embers of brilliance in the 1992 reprise "San Stefan, Yugoslavia: The rematch", proved evergreen.
The book is a little dated since it leaves Fischer alive and hunkered down in Hungary. Likewise, the last chapter (written in 1996) speaks of hopefuls Vishy Anand!! Kramnik!! who have since been multiple-time world champions as well as ex-world champions. But then, I did not get this book for the news of the moment.
For a Book Of Chess Grandmasters of its modest size, it accomplishes its goals laudably.
Displaying 1 of 1 review