Customer Reviews

Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book comprises fifty top-flight GM games played over a seven-year period, starting with Gelfand-Dreev Tilburg 1993 and culminating with Anand-Khalifman Shenyang 2000. The games are chronologically ordered and indexed by both player and opening. The notes to each game end with a summary that encapsulates the key moments of the game and provides a verbal summary of the main themes.

If I could give "Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces" six stars I would do so. It joins the pantheon of well-annotated game collections such as Nunn's "Secrets of Grandmaster Chess", Nunn's "Understanding Chess Move by Move" and Timman's "The Art of Chess Analysis". The quality of analysis and explanation to be found is at least equal to that found in these other books.

The book has been written for accomplished players. It is at least one step beyond Nunn's "Understanding Chess Move by Move". Whereas the style of Nunn's book is reminiscent of a patient teacher painstakingly explaining the basics, that of Stohl is of a senior and erudite master expounding high-level ideas at a seminar for junior colleagues.

I particularly liked the discussion of opening theory, where Stohl entertainingly describes the evolution of ideas. A few words from him can often shed light on an entire system. The discussion of current GM understanding of openings is unparalleled and backed up by references to games that have brought about shifts in opinion and sentiment. Of course, the analysis and explanation of other phases of the games is equally outstanding.

As Stohl suggests, one should have not only board and pieces but also a chess-playing program and database when reading the book. His analysis should be tested. And one may have unanswered questions. GM games seldom exist in isolation; they tend to provide a snapshot of chess culture at a particular moment. The games reflect understanding of the pool of chess knowledge, which grows with the passing of time, and they make their own modest contribution to this body. Stohl frequently refers to other games past and present, and to other opening ideas and middlegame strategies that can be looked up in a database.

In summary: the kind of book the Dvoretsky school would adopt for training purposes.

The main drawback is that Stohl gives loads of theoretical variations and explains few of them. For example, he'll give the game's move and then show you 2 paragraphs of side-variations that are inferior......but seldom explains why one side is better (you have to be able to figure that out and then know whether you're reasons are correct).

Another drawback: he doesn't explain why a game is a masterpiece. Sure, all the theory and variations he gives are instructive, but what makes these games "masterpieces"? Do they possess some specific quality that warrants the title of Masterpiece? Hard to know, because he doesn't say. (But let's forgive Stohl if the book's title was chosen by the publisher and not by him.)

The book's strong point is the depth and breath of technical analysis. If you want to improve by following a game, analyzing moves, and checking your analysis, this is a terrific book. But be prepared to really apply yourself, because this is strong GM calculating. Be willing to work hard, or you could be wasting money getting this book.

This book is best-suited for players over 2000. Players rated 1600-2000 can use Stohl's book but will understand less of it and won't benefit as much. These players would get more out of books like The World's Greatest Chess Games by Nunn, Emms, and Burgess...much is explained descriptively, making it more fun to read and learn from, but you also get plenty of variations.

I give it 4 stars because it does a very good job and it's a well-written book for it's best audience (Expert and up). Myself, I play at 1700-1800.

I have recently started to work with this book and it is very useful. When you have the basics in place and do not need a lot of verbal explanation move by move to guide you - buy this one! I guess it is suited for people with rating at least 1800+. I returned to chess two years ago after 15 years of absence and my rating is now c2100 ICC Standard.

Reading the book the normal way would no doubt be interesting, but I use it and think it is best suited for playing solitaire chess. This kind of training is time-consuming but, apart from playing and analysing your own games, it is the best way to improve your actual game and find your weaknesses. There are no quick fixes when you have reached a certain level of play.

The idea is simulate an actual game, taking the side on one player and try to find the best moves. You can work with a clock or just take the time you need. The best way to start is to look at the contents page and then get the moves of the game from a database, in order not to be biased by Stohl's exclamation- or question-marks.

Skip the first 8 moves or so, then cover up the rest of the game. Write down your analysis of crucial variations or at least the moves you think will take place three moves ahead (two by you and one by your opponent). In "key positions" you might want to write down verbally your general observations/evaluations or break down the position in different factors. When ready, uncover the move actually played, the move by your opponent and then continue. If you got all your moves right (my sad experience is that it is not very likely) you can pat yourself on the back and say that you have beaten a world-class player!

When ready with the whole game you should ideally make you own analysis and maybe process the game through a computer program, but only after you have made your own mind up. It is only at this stage that you open the book and compare your notes with Stohl's. Then ask yourself - what kind of (good) moves did I miss and why?

This book is great and the large number of variations and suggestions for improvements in world-class games only make the book more attractive. It demonstrates that chess is a profound and beautiful game.

I first studied this book with a student of mine just after it was published. He purchased it, we would go over a game or two every lesson or so. Then last November, (2003); I purchased my own copy of this book. I can safely say that I have had this book long enough, and also spent enough time studying it - to do a reasonably intelligent review. (I have also chatted with many friends and students who have purchased this book, as well as having received about 10-20 e-mails as concerning this volume.)

First of all, the book is from "Gambit" Books ... suffice it to say that they have many fine chess books in their line and know exactly how to do a good job publishing a chess book. (Paper, binding, editing, etc.)

Secondly, this comes from a reasonably strong GM ... who is also a chess teacher and an author.

Thirdly, we have the collection. 50 games of recent vintage - no dinosaurs in here. The games are extremely well annotated; sometimes there is a comment after every move during the key part of a game. The emphasis here is on the opening and on tactics, but no phase of the game is neglected. The work here is VERY detailed, as a USCF Master, I found it both entertaining and challenging.

I gladly give this book five stars, even though I had said in the past I would not do this anymore.

There are some slight drawbacks to the book. I would not call them flaws, but I feel it my responsibility to point out a few possible stumbling blocks to a potential buyer.
1. The book is best tackled by someone who is at least 1400-to-1500 in rating. I am quite sure a rank beginner would find this book much too complex and difficult to grasp. (The author could still learn a turn or two from the great Irving Chernev!)
2. I found a few tactical flaws, but to be honest, it took hours and hours to find them using Fritz 8.0. I doubt that even a good 1800 player would notice these if they were not using a very strong chess program.
3. I personally found a few of the variants hard to follow. I also had difficulty assessing a few of the positions. I am sure that the average player would feel the same way, perhaps even a little lost. This could have been resolved by ending each variation with a symbol that stands for which side stands better - and perhaps a brief note explaining why.

And while this might be a very tough and seemingly dense book, I would issue the following challenge. Buy this book, go over all the games and study it in depth. (Take at least a month.) Then every time you go up about 100 points review this book. I am willing to bet this is a book that you would continue to benefit from until your rating has surpassed the authors. (I looked up GM Igor Stohl's rating - ID # 14900025 on the FIDE website ... he is currently rated 2561.)

Gambit publisher and the team of Nunn and Burgess (since the Mammoth Book of Greatest Chess Games) have created the standard for all chess-books. Each game has a short introduction, then the game itself with deep and broad variations, many diagrams and ended with a short summary.
The author uses the games that feature in his Czech magazine column, "Game of the Month." In the magazine, due to the space and time limitations, the games are brief and dense. To write this book, he picked many of those old games and a few new ones. The games are from the period 1993-2000. Every year, there are hundreds of GM and master games. To pick the good ones to include and analyze in a book is not an easy task. The selection depends of the author's taste. GM games are almost always good. It's just how the author presents them and adds his/her analysis and comments. That's where the book sells. Here, Stohl uses some of his old analyses, runs more through chess programs, adds more comments. He also uses other commentators' analyses, and surprisingly his chess column readers. This reminds me some chess opening books mention that many opening move novelties have been discovered by chess amateurs. While on this opening subject, I just have one small question. After the author (not only on this book but in general) has picked a game to annotate, if the opening or defense is not in his specialty, how would s/he explain the fine points?
Anyway, the author presents the games professionally, met the Gambit standard. There are deep and many variations. They are way over my level. I could only follow the main line and short variations with lots of explanations. That means the book is still useful to me for many years to come.

Stohl deeply annotates 50 games between the world's best players. I was inspired almost as much by Stohl's analysis as I was by the games themselves. There isn't a one-sided massacre in the book. Not one game where a Super-GM plays like God and a garden-variety GM or IM sleepwalks all the way. Even the games that look like they're going to be blow-outs have nice comebacks by the eventual losers. Usually the outcome is in doubt until very near the end.

I don't think this book would be very interesting to anyone rated below about USCF 1700-1800; it's that deep. I've been close to 2200 and I wish I could play as well as the LOSERS played in this book.

Another reviewer thought Stohl let Fritz do all the analysis for him. I'm afraid not. Stohl misses too many things! He even overlooks some winning lines that Fritz and Shredder find instantly and gives inconsequential lines instead. I'm not sure to what extent he used computer assistance; definitely not as much as I do when I annotate a game.

Bombadillo's review is spot-on: Stohl puts incredible amounts of computer-assisted work into each game, then synthezises his findings on these beautiful & difficult games in a way that reasonably strong players can understand.

Not an easy book!

Igor Stohl, though not a strong grandmaster, but he had the genius ih annotation of games. All the games chosen are ihstrcutive with deep analysis. one fine point, the lay of the moves are very clear and also
with at two diagrams per page. I strongly recommend those chess players
who have passed the " tactic " and wnat to improve his openigs or positional strength.
I also recommend to book Igor Stoghl ' two volumes of Kasparov greatest Games.

Stohl has very little to add to his computer's analysis--and if that were not already unforgiveable in a chess author, his lack of judgment in the lines he evaluates and includes, too many of which are entirely irrelevant to the themes and motiffs the players are exploring, completes the assessment. I am rated > 2400, and find analysis like this, UNLESS I CONDUCT IT MY SELF, next to useless: it is unlikely that a person can learn mathematics by watching someone else add.

Stohl's two volumes on Kasparov is better, but let's face it, Stohl is not a great chess player, and he is not a great author. He is, as Davies has complained more generally, one of the "organization men" of the chess world, not really needed, but wanting any other form of life, compelled to impose themselves where they would most like to fit.

I rate it one star, but it perhaps deserves two--if I were grading it as a doctoral thesis on the unimportant.

tlt -