Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov: The Exceptional Endgame Skills of the 12th World Champion [Paperback]

Tibor Karolyi (Author), Nick Aplin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2007

With his fine endgame technique Anatoly Karpov managed to win positions which nearly everybody else assessed as a draw. This book takes, for the first time, a closer look at his endgame skills, which have always remained something of an enigma, explaining the finer points better than Karpov himself has ever cared to do. A highly instructive and entertaining book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A most enjoyable and instructive work, with an index of endgame themes which allows the student to concentrate on Karpov’s abilities in specific types of endgame." -- John Saunders in British Chess Magazine

"By far the best work on Karpov’s chess to date." -- ChessToday

"Endgame examples on the absolute world top level, and analysed on a very high level, too. Very nicely edited." -- Peter Doggers at ChessVibes.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: New In Chess,Csi (March 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 905691202X
• ISBN-13: 978-9056912024
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #861,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great Endgame study by arguably THE Endgame Master, Karpov., January 8, 2011

By 

David C. Pangburn (Florida) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov: The Exceptional Endgame Skills of the 12th World Champion (Paperback)

I feel overwhelmingly under-qualified to give this book a review, but I guess someone has to step up. I bought "Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov" first, to enjoy the artistry one of my favorite players ever. And secondly, to eventually augment my Endgame understanding. And that is the author's intent. This is a work dedicated to Karpov's magnificent Endgame skills. In 2007, ChessToday said this is "by far the best work on Karpov's chess to date." The Guardian awarded it their 2007 Chess Book Of The Year. There are many "My Greatest Game's Ever" or "100 Greatest Games of..." books of Champions and Grandmasters. But those encompass an entire game, from Opening to Win. And usually those games selected are dramatic affairs, with brilliant combinations and forced wins in the Middlegame or soon after. But rarer is a tome focusing solely on the astonishing Endgame wins of a single Master. That's a whole different ballgame. I can only recall this honor done for Capablanca ("Capablanca's Best Chess Endings: 60 Complete Games"), and Smyslov ("Vasily Smyslov: Endgame Virtuoso"). Fitting, since it has been said by a lot of Grandmasters that in the strict arena of Endgame, in his prime Karpov was probably the greatest Endgame player ever.

I want to state this is not one of those "how to" Endgame manuals in the traditional sense. And definitely not for a Club player just starting out. If you are looking to learn the Endgame in step-by-step form, for beginner's you start with "Silman's Complete Endgame Course". After Silman, you graduate to either "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" or "Fundamental Chess Endings" by Karsten Muller & Frank Lamprecht. Do that, in that order, and then I believe you will probably get the most out of "Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov". At minimum, this book is definitely best absorbed by someone at least at the level of an advanced Club player, 1600 ELO and above. And that might be pushing it.

As for the layout of this book itself, it covers 105 selected Endgame wins for Karpov from 1961 to 1990. From his beginnings, his rise to the top, to World Champion, thru to the last stage of his years as Kasparov's only real rival. And, yes, there are 8 games with Kasparov in the book. Each game starts off with the notation going 20 to 30-or-so moves deep before the analysis begins. At that point, a diagram is given, the analysis starts. And the analysis is comprehensive. It's common that there is a paragraph of analysis dedicated to almost every pair of moves. At some key points, sometimes you get almost a full page for a move! There are 3 to 4 diagrams per game. Aside from an index in the back on who Karpov played, the really useful reference is the table in the back called Endgame Classification. That table points to which of the 105 games you can find 12 Endgame Types (Opposite Colored Bishops....Knights...Two Pieces vs. Rook, etc.) and 27 kinds of Endgame themes (Open File...Pawns on one side...King maneuver, etc.). The writing is clear and understood easily. No problems with language and grammatical form (probably due in large measure to English co-author Nick Aplin).

I'm waiting for some patzer to get on here eventually and post a 1 to 2 star rating, saying the book is a waste, or too confusing. Regard that person for the amateur that they always will be. Or the other kind of troll; the pretentious wonk armed with an Engine and false-sense of accomplishment. They load up their current version of Fritz and they take the +/- the computer spits out as gospel. Engines are fantastic, but even today's versions of Rybka, Fritz, Shredder, Stockfish, and HIARCS can miss a positional subtlety that IM's and GM's grasp. And Engine analysis can easily be a problematic approach with Karpov. More than any of the greats, Karpov was noted as the master in the endgame of the seemingly innocuous, "quiet" Pawn move that didn't seem to doing much. But after the game was over, the smoke cleared, a win for Karpov, deep analysis found that puzzling move 7 or 13 moves back was the key point in pulling a win from a sure draw. So, yes, your Engine can rightly point out something that has been mis-analyzed by an author. But I would like to point out this isn't Eric Schiller; its IM Tibor Karolyi. A man who helped train Peter Leko in his junior years. As well as some of the Polgar sisters. Unless you're armed with Rybka Cluster, I'll opt to trust Karolyi's analysis to any objections. I am really looking forward to Karolyi's long delayed, two-volume "Karpov's Strategic Wins", hopefully sometime here in 2011. After many unworthy efforts, I'm betting it will finally be the 1st truly correct, dead-on, analytical game collection that has eluded Karpov aficionados all these many years.

"Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov" is definitely recommended to advanced Endgame players, and a must for Karpov fans.

0 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a review but a question, November 2, 2010

By 

BebopBoomer (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov: The Exceptional Endgame Skills of the 12th World Champion (Paperback)

In order to ask a question in this space, Amazon requires that one enter a rating. Though I've not seen a copy of the book (and hence the rating is based on nothing more than the knowledge that Karpov is a superb endgame player), I'd like to know if anyone can answer the following: The Spanish edition of this book states that it deals only with the years 1961-1978 (that is, the years before Karpov attained his full strength as a player). Is the book I'm "reviewing" here similarly confined to just the early period of Karpov's career? I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who knows what the story is here. Thanks!