Sunday, May 22, 2011

Kasparov on Kasparov

Gary Kasparov has a new book coming out in September, Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, Part 1: 1973-1985. Upon learning this I could not help but think of what GM Nigel Short wrote in the best chess magazine to ever grace our planet, New in Chess, 2011/1. "Times were clearly a-changing, but nevertheless it came as a shock to me when, in Sarajevo, a few years later, while admiring the excellent library at the home of the German Ambassador, Garry Kimovich mentioned to me, sotto voce, that he didn't really read chess books anymore. What would the patriarch of Soviet chess, Mikhail Botvinnik, have said about that, eh? Ironically, Garry is now author of the splendid unread series of our time-'My Great Predecessors'. Almost everyone has them, of course,-probably even the Anish Giri generation-as if the pocession of these magnificent works by an undisputed genius suffices by itself to raise one's Elo. But, as I have often found when mentioning some classic game and being met by a blank stare that not too many people have taken the trouble to examine the contents. Garry's analysis is far too intimidating and requires one not only take out a board and set but to painstakingly grapple with labyrinthine variations. No-it is far easier to plonk them on the shelf and admire the hard covers in their nice, red dust-jackets..."
The thing about Kasparov's books is that one does not know what is from Garry and what is from his Vulcan mind-meld with the computer. Nigel writes about this, "With his customary vision Garry Kasparov was one of the first of the old school to fully embrace the new technology."
When one reads a book like Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, he knows the analysis is from the greatest chess player who ever lived. Because players actually read Bobby's book he was able to succeed where Kasparov has failed. GM Andy Soltis wrote in Chess Life that a book like Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein could not be published today because it lacks exactly what Kasparov's books have in abundance, reams of analysis. What it does have is WORDS to illustrate IDEAS, which is EXACTLY what a student of the Royal game needs. It is, therefore, a better book than all of Kasparov's books combined.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gary Kasparov and the Flying Penis May 19, 2008 ... A press conference by Gary Kasparov is interrupted by a flying penis.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbnySBqioB0

Anonymous said...

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