Customer Reviews

Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a collection of excellent games by a popular player, analyzed in a style and depth that an 2160 Elo rated player such as myself would often consider optimal.

The games are exciting and of very high quality. Most of them, however, are quick white middlegame wins often arising from open or half-open openings. So this is no all-round game collection, as it is short on endgames, closed positions etc. But if your preference is towards open, attacking play, this book will be very educational.

Anand's prose is light and easily understandable, which is a plus. But he has usually not gone much deeper than introducing the games and giving variations: the book has rather few anecdotes and not enough insight into his career or his way of thinking. Tal and Larsen are some of the greatest masters of that kind of chess annotation. So that is why I only awarded 4 stars to this book, instead of the 5 that the quality of the games deserves.

This book shows some of Anands best games from the year 1986-2000. They show games against some of the best players in the world such as Kasparov, Kramnik, Shirov etc. Each game teaches a concept, wheter it be positional, tactical or an endgame. I had difficulty following the lines as he gave analysis of 2-3 pages after a move. It seemed that a better job could have been done with a verbal explanation for the average player. This book is good if you are USCF 2000 or above and do not require as much hand holding. The openings played were varied with major emphasis on the Sicilian Richter Rauzer, Najdorf, and Ruy Lopez Anands specialties. Most of the games are extremely tactical and highly interesting, but very difficult to comprehend for a club player. The analysis from each game would need to be reviwed several times to be digested. Highly recommended for the expert level player and above.

I'll be honest. I don't own this book. (Yet.) But I did spend about three hours, (at least!!); one afternoon reading this book at the book store. I naturally took my magnetic set along and went over about 20 of the games. [Of course I am intimately familiar with Anand's games. I have a database inside the ChessBase program on my computer that contains hundreds of his games.]

The book is well-written. The stories in there are entertaining, but not exceptionally so.

What sets this book apart is the CHESS. WOW! Anand is truly a universal player. He can play an all-out, sacrificial mating attack one game. The next can be a positional battle where he squeezes you to death. Or a very good endgame the next. I found the games themselves to be truly entertaining and enjoyable.

A slight criticism is is that I had a hard time following some of the lines and I am a Master. I think the average player could struggle with this book. It would have been helpful to have more explanation here and there.

This is a very good book, definitely above average. Maybe one of the better, if not the best, auto-biographical game collections of the last 25 years. While it may not be in the league of Alekhine's collection of games; or even of Fischer's; it certainly is a good chess book. If you are a fan of Anand, or want to see how the Modern GM's win during the 1990's, this book is a MUST-BUY!

Anand's style of play reminds me of Capablanca, except that Anand specializes in vicious kingside openings rather than Capa's favorite sedate Queen's Gambit!

Anand makes chess look easy because he has such a natural style as compared to a Tal or Shirov who make unusual or dynamic moves but then back up such moves with great analysis. Anand's annotations are excellent but too frequently he resorts to variations to explain why a move is good rather than providing some kind of verbal assessment. Anand will also provide some other playable alternative moves which he could have played along with variations but he won't tell you why he picked the move in the game rather than the alternative.

Other than the lack of explanations as to why he considered certain plans or moves, this book is a top notch chess book although it is not as entertaining as, say Mikhail Tal's Life and Games book.

I went through 15 of the 40 games carefully and was not able to find one major error in the analysis which means that the proofreading and variation checking job done by the editors was excellent.

There's really not that much to say about this book: either you want a book of well-annotated, accessible games by one of the world's top players, or you don't.

If you're interested in Anand's games, you won't find a better book. His notes are clear, concise, and entertaining. Yes, they take work to get through. (This should surprise no-one.) But they're also not presented as mind-numbing lists of variations. Anand has a good knack for finding the right sentence to explain what's going on, rather than simply rely on variation of chess moves.

Fans of deep analysis of every variation will prefer Shirov's book, but for most players this book will be more entertaining and educational. Prospective readers should bear in mind, however, that while Anand does his best to explain his moves for the average player, this is not a book of instruction or of games annotated for the beginner. While this book is certainly one of the most enjoyable books by any top-level player in recent memory (possibly since Tal's autobiography) it's still a book of chess played at an extremely high level. It will require work to get through and understand, even if it is enjoyable.

One of the best games collection book ever written. This book has 57 games from 1986-2000, all won Anand, the world #3 classical chess, and probably the best rapid chess player. Like Tal's book, Anand has a short introduction before each games (not as extensive). What I like about this books is Anand explain very clearly and easy to understand complex positions without all the long variation (some occassion). His stories are very genuine and humble. With the help of computer (and Nunn), there would not be many analysis error as earlier books. As for comparision, this book and Alekhine collection (1908-1937)is my favorite. Although Anand's games is more current and complex, Alekhine's work is more monumental especially for beginner. ~1400 ELO and up will get most out of Anand's book.
This review is for the 2nd Ed. 2001. Not the one shown here.

I'll be honest. I don't own this book. (Yet.) But I did spend about three hours, (at least!!); one afternoon reading this book at the book store. I naturally took my magnetic set along and went over about 20 of the games. [Of course I am intimately familiar with Anand's games. I have a database inside the ChessBase program on my computer that contains hundreds of his games.]

The book is well-written. The stories in there are entertaining, but not exceptionally so.

What sets this book apart is the CHESS. WOW! Anand is truly a universal player. He can play an all-out, sacrificial mating attack one game. The next can be a positional battle where he squeezes you to death. Or a very good endgame the next. I found the games themselves to be truly entertaining and enjoyable.

A slight criticism is is that I had a hard time following some of the lines and I am a Master. I think the average player could struggle with this book. It would have been helpful to have more explanation here and there.

This is a very good book, definitely above average. Maybe one of the better, if not the best, auto-biographical game collections of the last 25 years. While it may not be in the league of Alekhine's collection of games; or even of Fischer's; it certainly is a good chess book. If you are a fan of Anand, or want to see how the Modern GM's win during the 1990's, this book is a MUST-BUY!

Since my earlier review on this book december of 2000, my game has really improved. So I revisited this book again after nearly 2 yrs. I was really fascinated not only by the depth of annotation given by the author, but also the quality of the games. In a fascinating game against Ivanchuck, Anand doubles his pawn structure, exchanges his good bishop and plays all anti positional moves, based on an idea of obtaining connected passed pawns 12 moves later. Moves which an average player or even a master wouldn't even consider. It delves into the psycology of GM games and depth of positional and tactical understanding required to sustain mastery at such level. Highly recommend this book for anyone above 1800+ rating.

One of the finest chess books written in this century,next to Alekhine's wonderful triple masterpieces MY BEST GAMES 1,2,3 and Tal's life and games.Vishy reveals why he should be the next world champion,after his close defeat in Jan'98 to karpov in a very unusual tournament for a crown championship.Finally he in this book shows that he has the stuff that world champions are made of.

Great book worth buying for serious chess players who want to know Anand's great games. Definitely recommended for rated players with 1800 ELO+. The annotations are easy to follow, but the analysis of matches against Kasparov, Kamsky are in depth. This book has great deal of references to many matches played before at some specific positions of every game giving alternatives for win, draw etc. Moreover, some interesting problems with solutions are presented at the end. Anand's opinions and positional comparisons about some openings are presented nicely. One can have a feeling of having listened to him at the end of every game.

If you are looking for Anand's biography, his life etc, then this is not the right book.