Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess (Gambit Chess) [Paperback]

Vishy Anand (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gambit Chess | Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Vishy Anand is the strongest chess player ever to come from India, and is currently rated number two in the world, with Kasparov in his sights. His friendly, unpretentious personality makes him extremely popular with chess players around the world. In this, his first book, he presents detailed and entertaining commentaries to forty of his best games. Anand's ability to get to the heart of complex positions, which makes him a deadly opponent over the board, comes across extremely well in his notes, which will amply repay careful study. This book includes: flowing attack masterpieces explained logically step-by-step; anecdotes from top-level events; practical hints from a world-championship challenger; game introducions that set each game in its practical context; and thirty puzzle positions to test your skill.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Gambit Publications specialises in chess and has an unrivalled reputation for originality and editorial excellence. The company is owned and staffed entirely by leading chess masters and grandmasters. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Viswanathan (Vishy) Anand comes from Madras in Southern India. Having shot to fame as a child, playing master-standard chess at lightning speed, he became a grandmaster in 1987 after winning the World Junior Championship. By the start of 1991, at the age of 21, he had established himself among the world's elite by winning the Reggio Emilia tournament ahead of Kasparov and Karpov, defeating both in their individual games. In 1995, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the world championship in New York, and although Kasparov won in the end, it was a tough fight with Anand leading after nine games. Since then, Anand has remained a major threat to Kasparov.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bhb Distribution (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901983005
• ISBN-13: 978-1901983005
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,818,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent games collection, but not perfect, August 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess (Paperback)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anand unleashed, April 19, 2004

By 

Murtuza Hashim "hashimm4" (Vienna, Va United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess (Paperback)

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.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, clean fun. PLUS ... GREAT chess., November 1, 2000

By 

A.J. Goldsby I "A.J.G." (Pensacola, FL (U.S.A.)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess (Gambit Chess) (Paperback)

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!