Customer Reviews

Pal Benko: My Life, Games, and Compositions

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all this book is over 600 pages! I haven't seen a chess book this big that wasn't in several volumes. I've read several game collections and this is by far the most informative. I just got this book and am very impressed with how thorough each game is analyzed. Everything is laid out well and the games are easy to find. There is a lot of prose used to comment on the games, which is typical for Silman. The authors discuss the plans that each player is employing and they do a good job of telling you why they did or didn't choose a variation when complications arise. And there are tons of compositions...hard compositions. Pal Benko's life is also very interesting. It is interspersed throughout the games, which lightens up the density of the material. These games are very intense so it's good to get a little back story of what was going on in those times. He went through great hardship to get where he is today, and is still arm wrestling strongly!!! I am very happy I bought this book and am sure it will give me much pleasure for years to come.

Oh no--three authors! (GM Benko, IM Silman, and IM Watson). This usually means, in chess circles, that the "big name" Grandmaster (Benko) donated nothing more than his name (and perhaps his notes), and let the co-authors do all the real work.

Fortunately, in this case, this suspicion is unfounded. Each author contributed what he is best at: Benko contributed over 130 deeply-annotated games--including a whole section on the development of the Benko gambit--and 300(!) engames and studies. Silman added long and very interesting interviews, as well as "milking" Benko for information about his life and views of other leading players, resulting in almost 100 pages of candid interviews, as well as (in the "games" section) Benko's recollections of his life and his opinions of numerous famous players. Finally Watson (an opening expert) gives us over 100 pages analyzing Benko's significant contributions to opening theory.

No stops were pulled in the production department. A huge, large-format hardback of over 650 pages, it contains, apart from all of the above, many high-quality, rarely-seen photographs of Benko himself and his other chess masters. This is how a chess autobiography should be written.

My only problem with this splendid volume is that there is really very little biography included. The biography is broken up by 130 well-annotated games, resulting in less than 1/4 of the book being pure biography. We also have an entirely superfluous interview section.

The book itself is a wonderful oversized hardcover edition that will hold up to repeated readings and playing through of the chess games. This is a volume that will last generations.

After the biography we have both a 3rd party survey of Benko's openings from both sides, and a selection of his problems, mate in x, helpmate, selfmate and endgame studies.

This all adds up to a complete view of Benko the chess player. I was hoping for a bit more of Benko the person.

Still, it ranks with Tal's autobiography in the annals of chess biography.

From a distance, Pal Benko is one of those players that forms some of the more frequently quoted footnotes in chess history. For example, in biographies of Tal (wearing sunglasses). This book however, does an excellent job in bringing Benko out of the recesses of chess, and gives glimses of his personality, as well as some others both well known and less so. The book strikes an excellent balance between biography, games (well annotated), opening survey, and endgame compositions (something Benko was well known for and very good at, and would be familiar to readers of Chess Life). The production standards are uniformly excellent quality and the content well laid out and easy to read. The book would be on a par with Lawson's on Morphy, but a bit thin in content when compared to Skinner and Verhoeven on Alekhine (probably the best games collection ever written), as it aims to strike a balance across the full range of Benko's chess interests. I feel that if this is the objective, the book achieves its objectives very well, and it dwarfs anything written on Lasker, Pillsbury, Fischer, Spassky, Botvinnik, and Smyslov for example. At the price quoted in Amazon it is a bargain and will become a collector's item, and not least a very good read in the meantime. The pictures of Fischer visiting Tal in hospital in 1962 are alone worth the price of admission.

I'm not one to write book reviews, but when I received this book (after long anticipation), yesterday, I was astounded. Other reviewers have mentioned its length, which can be daunting. Benko/Silman/Watson have packed in as much material (annotated games, biographies, opening analysis, endgame problems) to fill up three or four traditional chess tomes, and they truly cover, at great depth, every aspect of the game. One thing that seems not to have been brought up in the other reviews are the short biographies of other grandmasters, inset in shaded boxes throughout the games section. These, along with the included interviews, really brought home to me the fact that chess is a game fought between two -people- and not only two minds. The pschyological aspect of chess, and its unfortunate victims (a tragic story about Raymond Weinstein is related in his biography), is a repeated sub-theme in the work: Benko's perpetual time problems. All in all, an extremely impressive work; few relevant adjectives can really do justice to it. The authors have surpassed themselves. And, as a side note, it is possible to purchase the book at much less than $45; some searching around should solve that problem.

This is an excellent book about chess in general and about Grandmaster Pal Benko in particular. Benko was a Candidate for the World Championship on two occasions, 1959 and 1962.

In the first part of the book, Benko tells about his life and annotates more than 130 of his best games. These include games against Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, and Fischer. It includes a fascinating description of life in Hungary during World War Two and of life under Communist rule in Hungary after the war. In 1957, Benko escaped from Hungary via Iceland to the West. Seven years later, Benko, now an American, was given amnesty by Hungary and was able to return there. Eventually, he wound up spending half his time in Hungary and half in the US.

Benko includes a section on his development of the Benko Gambit (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5). There are eleven games in this section, all Benko Gambits. Benko has Black in ten of them. The eleventh is a game with White, against Berry.

The book also has a fine section by John Watson analyzing Benko's openings both with White and Black and concludes with a large selection of Benko's chess problems and compositions.

I highly recommend this book.

To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of Benko... until I read this book! I must have more than 100 chess books in my collection, yet this volume stands out, head and shoulders above the rest. Why?

For starters, it is a tremendous effort by two of the best writers in the business: Jeremy Silman and John Watson. They took 5 years to put this together - 5 years! Most chess books nowadays are written in a few months with the help of large databases and computer analysis. Not this one. Care was taken to find some amazing old photographs with lots of stories about legendary players. It was also a very enjoyable read, with stories woven into instructive games. Finally, the way it is presented is very pleasing - hardcover with lots of big diagrams and clear fonts.

At $30, this is truly a bargain. Together with My Great Predecessors I and II, this book should be on every chessplayers
' bookshelf.

(The writer of this review is rated around 2200 and owns above 100 chess books)

Simply the finest biography and game collection. Bravo!
Silman really pushed the standard of what quality chess books should look like.
It has everything, the history of Pal Benko, his life's stories, compositions, feelings, games, openings preparation, theoretical stand point and so much more.
Beautiful!

I like the book and found his games interesting and his life an inspiration. I met Pal benko at a World Open chess Tournament in Philadelphia and he offered some words of advice during a review of one of my games. When I told him I was playing not to lose in a game in which I was clearly at an advantage that ended in a draw, he encouraged me to go for the win and believe in your instincts and go for the win when you have the advantage or you will miss out on the rewards of winning, in words to that effect. I have not for forgotten our meeting though it was years ago.

This book is amazing, Silman apparently did a lot of the writing and I'm glad he did, Benko's compelling life stories and Silman's writing skills combine into an incredible book. Not only is the non-chess material gripping, but the games chosen are fascinating games and the annotations will improve any chessplayer's middle game (and endgame and opening!) play. One of the most enjoyable chess reads I've ever had, I love this book!