Paul Keres: The Road to the Top [Paperback]

Paul Keres (Author), John Nunn (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 1879479354 | ISBN-13: 978-1879479357

Paul Keres was a great player in chess history and a contender for the world championship for a third of a century. This work charts the progress of Keres's career from his early days as a self-taught young talent to his battles for the world title. It also examines the development of his play.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: International Chess Enterprises (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879479354
• ISBN-13: 978-1879479357
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding game annotations, August 15, 2001

By 

"divgulati" (MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paul Keres: The Road to the Top (Paperback)

This book contains Paul Keres' best games played in the period 1929-1950. And as one might imagine, almost all the games are against World class players. What sets this book apart from many others of its genre is the annotations. Another reviewer rightly mentioned that Keres' style of annotation is as good as Bronstein. Those who are familiar with David Bronstein's books will get the point. The book has around 250 pages and covers 50 of Keres' games. This might give you some idea as to how detailed the annotations would be(unlike the lightly annotated books that cover a players' 100 or more games in the same number of pages). The games are all Keres' wins but at no point one feels even the slightest hint of personal bias in his annotations. They are highly objective and very detailed. Keres clearly explains the plans of both the sides and devotes around 5-6 pages to almost every game. He gives detailed variations where necessary but nothing to overwhelm an average player.

The one slight dissappointment that I have from this book is that I expected it to be a complete autobiography of Keres' life. But Keres doesn't talk much about his life in general or shares any interesting chessic stories or incidents that might have happened in his life(unlike Tal in his autobiography). All he mentions is the tournaments and matches he participated in a given year and how he felt his standard of play was compared to other successful players. But this shouldn't keep anyone away from buying this book. This book would've been worth its price even if it had no autobiography. The set of games are worth studying.

Finally I would like to say that even though the games are highly annotated, a sound understanding of both tactics and basic chess strategy is needed. The level of the games is high and so I feel that this book will be most useful to players over 1700(uscf). Also the footnotes added by John Nunn are in no way a nuisance(as mentioned by another reviewer). I was amazed to see that after going over 35 games, there was no occassion when even a single variation given by Keres was completely wrong. All Nunn does is is add to what Keres had to say or point out another interesting idea or variation that Keres probably ignored.

In conclusion I would like to say that these games have been thoroughly scrutinized by their creator and there aren't simply many chess books that match this book's content. So you can't afford to miss it.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, March 29, 2005

By 

Alberto Dominguez - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Paul Keres: The Road to the Top (Paperback)

I have not finished this book, but I was moved to write a review of what I've read so far. Outstanding. I often hear that Alekhine was a great annotator. Bah, humbug! As far as I'm concerned Keres is the model of a perfect annotator, at least for a player below expert strength. The variations provided are plentiful and deep enough to provide food for thought without being overwhelming (unlike say Kasparov's MGP series, which has encyclopedic annotations of some games, which overwhelms the non-master). Beyond simply citing moves, Keres delves into the intricacies of the positions, explaining plans and strategies. This book will help anyone's game improve. Can't wait to finish, and I'm going to buy Vol 2 immediately.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic: Put This One On Your Must-Have List, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Paul Keres: The Road to the Top (Paperback)

The basic material in this book, and its companion, Paul Keres: The Quest for Perfection (also available from Amazon) were previously published under another title. British GM John Nunn has updated the notes and added some games.

The result is a book that every serious chessplayer should have. Keres' deep notes will help players from Class C on up to improve their games and get more enjoyment out of chess.