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My Great Predecessors #5
Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 5
This book, the fifth in Garry Kasparov's magnificent history of the World Chess Championship, catalogues the post-Fischer period in the 1970's and early 1980's This period was dominated by Anatoly Karpov (world champion from 1975-1985) and his three-time challenger, Viktor Korchnoi.Anatoly Karpov gained the right to challenge Bobby Fischer for the world title by winning through the Candidates series in 1974. As is well known, Fischer refused to defend the title and in 1975 Karpov became champion by default. Although he did not have to contest a Championship match to gain the title, Karpov proved that he was a worthy champion by winning virtually every major tournament over the next decade.In this book, a must for all serious chessplayers, Kasparov analyses deeply Karpov's greatest games and assesses the legacy of this great Russian genius. Also under the microscope are the games of Viktor Korchnoi, who was at his peak during this period and twice challenged Karpov for his world title.
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2006
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419 people want to read
About the author
Garry Kasparov
161 books555 followersRussian (formerly Soviet) chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist, whom many consider the greatest chess player of all time.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 1, 2010
We're now up to Karpov, and the tone of the series becomes very personal. Kasparov/Karpov has several times been listed as one of the great sporting rivalries of all time. They played five matches for the world championship, all of which were extremely close, and many bitter words were said on both sides. These matches will be described later, in Volume 7. Here, we're getting the rest of Karpov's brilliant career. There's so much material that I can only give a few highlights; if you're fond of chess history, and have been following the story, you'll find any amount of stuff to amuse and instruct.
First of all, and I couldn't help feeling it was partly to annoy Karpov, he makes him share the book with Viktor Korchnoi. The three matches Karpov played with Korchnoi were not quite as hard-fought as the ones against Kasparov, but the off-board antics have become myth, and provided a large part of the story behind Chess, The Musical. Kasparov has some wonderful anecdotes, several of which I hadn't heard before, which center around Korchnoi's legendary paranoia. Karpov's team included a psychologist, Dr. Zukhar, whose main function was to help Karpov with his sleep problems. Korchnoi became convinced that Zukhar was a psychic, whose real job was to hypnotise him into playing badly. Karpov, a great pragmatist, decided that he would exploit this. So they told Zukhar to seat himself during the games so that he was as visible as possible to Korchnoi, and then stare at him continuously for the whole five hours of play. Zukhar took his new position very seriously, and abstained from drinking anything with his lunch (he even skipped the soup), so that he wouldn't have to take bathroom breaks. It worked. Korchnoi expended a great deal of energy countering the imaginary threat; this may have been the critical factor when he unexpectedly recovered from 5-2 down to 5-5, but was unable to win the last game. The anecdote I liked most, though, was from the early 90s. Tal, one of the key people on Karpov's 1978 team and notorious for his sense of humour, met Korchnoi at a tournament. "You know, Viktor," he told him in a confidential whisper, "it's a good thing that you didn't win the match. If you had, the KGB had all the plans in place. You'd immediately have been eliminated." This was just a spur-of-the-moment fantasy from Tal, but Korchnoi believed it!
Behind everything, you feel Fischer's presence. Kasparov is tormented by the unanswerable question of what would have happened if he'd defended his title against Karpov. If only Karpov had beaten Fischer! Kasparov beat Karpov, and that would give him a clear right to style himself The Greatest Player Ever. Alas, Fischer refused to play, and no one will ever really know why. Kasparov keeps trying to show that Fischer chickened out, because he thought Karpov's chances were too good. He describes the years of work by all the top Russian Grandmaster, preparing for the match that never happened. Karpov was armed to the teeth with the fruits of a whole country's research. He quotes Petrosian, who said that Fischer's favourite opening lines had all been refuted by 1975.
But Fischer, like no one else, could create new openings when he needed them; this is the man who took the Exchange Ruy Lopez, which had been considered harmless for 50 years, and turned it into a deadly weapon. And he never asked anyone for help. Karpov and Kasparov were incredibly strong players, but Fischer was just in a class by himself, even if he wasn't completely sane. As the English chess humourist Bill Hartston said, the only human being you can sensibly compare him with is Mozart.
First of all, and I couldn't help feeling it was partly to annoy Karpov, he makes him share the book with Viktor Korchnoi. The three matches Karpov played with Korchnoi were not quite as hard-fought as the ones against Kasparov, but the off-board antics have become myth, and provided a large part of the story behind Chess, The Musical. Kasparov has some wonderful anecdotes, several of which I hadn't heard before, which center around Korchnoi's legendary paranoia. Karpov's team included a psychologist, Dr. Zukhar, whose main function was to help Karpov with his sleep problems. Korchnoi became convinced that Zukhar was a psychic, whose real job was to hypnotise him into playing badly. Karpov, a great pragmatist, decided that he would exploit this. So they told Zukhar to seat himself during the games so that he was as visible as possible to Korchnoi, and then stare at him continuously for the whole five hours of play. Zukhar took his new position very seriously, and abstained from drinking anything with his lunch (he even skipped the soup), so that he wouldn't have to take bathroom breaks. It worked. Korchnoi expended a great deal of energy countering the imaginary threat; this may have been the critical factor when he unexpectedly recovered from 5-2 down to 5-5, but was unable to win the last game. The anecdote I liked most, though, was from the early 90s. Tal, one of the key people on Karpov's 1978 team and notorious for his sense of humour, met Korchnoi at a tournament. "You know, Viktor," he told him in a confidential whisper, "it's a good thing that you didn't win the match. If you had, the KGB had all the plans in place. You'd immediately have been eliminated." This was just a spur-of-the-moment fantasy from Tal, but Korchnoi believed it!
Behind everything, you feel Fischer's presence. Kasparov is tormented by the unanswerable question of what would have happened if he'd defended his title against Karpov. If only Karpov had beaten Fischer! Kasparov beat Karpov, and that would give him a clear right to style himself The Greatest Player Ever. Alas, Fischer refused to play, and no one will ever really know why. Kasparov keeps trying to show that Fischer chickened out, because he thought Karpov's chances were too good. He describes the years of work by all the top Russian Grandmaster, preparing for the match that never happened. Karpov was armed to the teeth with the fruits of a whole country's research. He quotes Petrosian, who said that Fischer's favourite opening lines had all been refuted by 1975.
But Fischer, like no one else, could create new openings when he needed them; this is the man who took the Exchange Ruy Lopez, which had been considered harmless for 50 years, and turned it into a deadly weapon. And he never asked anyone for help. Karpov and Kasparov were incredibly strong players, but Fischer was just in a class by himself, even if he wasn't completely sane. As the English chess humourist Bill Hartston said, the only human being you can sensibly compare him with is Mozart.
November 6, 2020
While the nature of the events becomes more personal as the series approaches Karpov, the intricate analysis and variations given leave the reader in awe and very rarely disappoint.
June 1, 2019
Volume five of "My Great Predecessors" is just as amazing as the previous books in the series. This time Kasparov focuses on Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. I found the chapters on Korchnoi to be quite fascinating. Although I was familiar with some of the anecdotes and such, Kasparov was able to illuminate much of Korchnoi's personal life and talent at the board. I came away with a greater respect for Korchnoi's games and style.
Of course the main topic of the book is that of Anatoly Karpov. I was a little disappointed to see that there wasn't going to be any coverage of the epic battles between Karpov and Kasparov (this is to be covered in a future volume), but it was interesting to see what Kasparov had to say of both the young Karpov and his rise to being a World Champion. I was also surprised at how complimentary he was toward Karpov, seeing as how they never really "got along".
Needless to say the analysis of both Korchnoi's and Karpov's games by Kasparov is simply amazing. When it comes to the history of the world champions, this series of books has to be considered the definitive analysis provided by perhaps the greatest player of all-time. Very highly recommended!
Of course the main topic of the book is that of Anatoly Karpov. I was a little disappointed to see that there wasn't going to be any coverage of the epic battles between Karpov and Kasparov (this is to be covered in a future volume), but it was interesting to see what Kasparov had to say of both the young Karpov and his rise to being a World Champion. I was also surprised at how complimentary he was toward Karpov, seeing as how they never really "got along".
Needless to say the analysis of both Korchnoi's and Karpov's games by Kasparov is simply amazing. When it comes to the history of the world champions, this series of books has to be considered the definitive analysis provided by perhaps the greatest player of all-time. Very highly recommended!
May 13, 2020
Moeilijk om aan te geven wat de kracht van dit boek is.
Als je flarden van de match Kortsjnoi-Karpov hebt gevolgd in de Nederlandse pers en de opkomst van Kasparov in New in Chess dat toen anders heette- dacht ik- dan kun je alleen maar bewondering hebben voor de schaaktechnische wijze waarop de match in dit boek worden behandeld. Gelukkig niet te veel aandacht voor de schandaalkant al is het natuurlijk onvermijdelijk om
er wat over te zeggen.
Het schaakspel is te moeilijk voor mij. Bridge is eenvoudiger te begrijpen, niet om te spelen. Laat daar geen misverstand over bestaan. Daarom is mijn bezwaar tegen The Predecessors dat er te veel uitgebreide( computer) analyses in staan. Zo had het kunnen gaan maar zo ging het niet, denk ik dan.
Als je flarden van de match Kortsjnoi-Karpov hebt gevolgd in de Nederlandse pers en de opkomst van Kasparov in New in Chess dat toen anders heette- dacht ik- dan kun je alleen maar bewondering hebben voor de schaaktechnische wijze waarop de match in dit boek worden behandeld. Gelukkig niet te veel aandacht voor de schandaalkant al is het natuurlijk onvermijdelijk om
er wat over te zeggen.
Het schaakspel is te moeilijk voor mij. Bridge is eenvoudiger te begrijpen, niet om te spelen. Laat daar geen misverstand over bestaan. Daarom is mijn bezwaar tegen The Predecessors dat er te veel uitgebreide( computer) analyses in staan. Zo had het kunnen gaan maar zo ging het niet, denk ik dan.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews