Customer Reviews

EXTREME CHESS World Championships 1935 1937 1972

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This is a three in one volume of the C.J.S. Purdy books: How Euwe Won, The Return of Alekhine, and How Fischer Won. While The Return of Alekhine is the largest of the three none outstrips the other as a far as readability and enjoyability. Purdy was a talented annotator famed for educating the intermediate chessplayer and he doesn't disappoint in these 80 annotated games. Opening nuances; complicated middlegames; well analyzed endings; missed opportunities and hidden combinations are all to be found. A summation of the openings follows each book and as an epilogue there is H.W.M. Lunney's biographical sketch on C.J.S. Purdy: The Annotator. A close reading will reveal Purdy's distinctly high regard for Euwe as both a player and a person. He had a lower opinion of Alekhine yet he had enormous esteem for Alekhine's chess and he completely disregards rumors of his drunkenness during the first match. As concerns Fischer - he is simply a chess deity. It's clear that Purdy strongly favored the two bishops, perhaps almost as much as he favored the term "Sword of Damocles" which is used recurrently. Naturally the book is somewhat dated by its stern opening opinions, but this doesn't detract from the cutthroat chess contained within. The extent of sharp tactics and engaging play that can result from the Slav Defense was truly astounding. Alekhine and Euwe each played it against each other and they were far from boring games. The Fischer-Spassky section is supplemented with a small pamphlet entitled Post Mortem 1976. Given at end of each game are corrections or reconsideration of analysis from the original text. In at least one instance the reader is told, after a column of analysis, that one of the moves was actually a typographical error. Here it may have been better to just correct the mistake than merely note its existence. I was surprised when playing through some of the games that I had never done so before. This might be expected with those from the Alekhine-Euwe matches, but even some of the Fischer-Spassky games as well. If you, too, haven't availed yourself of the opportunity of playing out these games consider Extreme Chess a grand chance to do so. The layout is well organized and there are photos interspersed throughout. The cover is colorful and artistically designed. Recommended.

Chessco/TPI has produced another fine book, that is sure to be a best-seller. It covers the WC Matches between Alekhine and Euwe 35 and 37 and the still-discussed Spassky-Fischer duel of 72. All the games are annotated by Purdy based on his original work, but updated by Chessco; there are photographs I have not seen before. There are articles by Euwe and Alekhine written for papers/magazines give a frank and revealing picture of both champions. The notes are superb - pure unadulterated Purdy - this man had opinions and was not backward in coming forward with them. I like that! Buy this book and have the read of your life!

This Chess book is so exhilarating that I actually feel COMPELLED to write a review on it. I won't bother repeating the information in the accompanying reviews. First of all, in the overall introduction of the whole book, it is suggested that as you progress through the games, you choose the winner (or, in the case of a drawn game, the stronger player) and cover his moves with a card (I folded "Sticky Notes" in half and stuck them on vertically). Then, based on your analysis of the position and the game, announce or write down your move and compare it to the actual move. Granted, this will slow down your progress through the book by great proportions, but, by even greater proportions, it will improve your chess game. That method is called the Tactical Vision Exercise. I took (notice I'm not saying, "...it took me") from around early April 2001 to February 17, 2002 to complete the book doing it this way and my chess understanding has become improved and clarified more than 100-fold (I took about 1 to 2 hour sessions of this at least once or twice per day).
Please don't become critical or skeptical when I tell you that I have lost quite a few games of my own in my trek through this book; after all, chess is a mentally demanding game. But, I have also won many more games against strong opponents than I have in the past. That says a lot for that exercise, but, to do that with this 3-in-1 book in particular, I believe, is an extremely required activity for any good amateur wanting to improve even more greatly in chess, whether to increase your chances at casual victories or to win in more tournament games!
Speaking of tournaments, this book also gives you tremendous insight to what goes through a top-level player's mind as the tournament progresses; it's more than just a series of games. Furthermore, the editors (or was it just Mr. Tykodi?) at various points throughout the book, did an excellent job at providing improved suggestions (moves, that is [whether from a computer or from their own analysis]) where Mr. Purdy (with all due respects) may have been a bit short-sighted.
And then there are the openings!! If you crave openings knowlege and tips, this is truly a recondite handbook to a few of the classically popular ones; the Sicilian only showed up in the Spassky versus Fischer match. I had always been one to spurn the Slav, but, it was definitely the most popular one among Euwe and Alekhine.
I had not studied many Fischer games at all before my journey through the "How Fischer Won" section of this book. And now after playing through his games (via tactical vision), I must say he is a "mad genius" on the chessboard!! Many of his moves left my mouth wide open in awe! I had studied chess consistently for at least 5 years before this book and never have I come across any player more outrageously spectacular than Bobby Fischer; keep in mind I've always been of the "don't believe the hype" mentality. But, I'm from Missouri, and he definitley Showed Me!! He shows that you shouldn't shut a move out of your mind simply because you see that your piece will be captured; play it through in your mind first and calculate beyond that!
Don't be afraid at all to mark in this book like crazy; it's really the only way to imprint the information on your brain and it'll make review of the book much easier (I can't imagine going through this book word-for-word and move-by-move again). It is truly a journey.

I just wanted to add my opinion that, while I agree that the book is excellent, it does not merit the $65+ price tag.
Merits of the book: excellent crosstables of openings used and their success rates, quality annotation in games including context of match.
There is quite a bit of news, story and other opinion in this.

However, there are boatloads of other excellent collections of annotated games. The ridiculously high price here on 'zon and around the web for this book warrants you searching this out in a local library (or NOT local, as in go to your library and do an inter-library loan search!). I do value quality annotated games. Zurich 53, and many other collections surpass or equal this book in quality and quantity of pure chess related information.

Hope this helps!