Product Description
Kasparov vs Karpov, 1986 London, Leningrad Due to the rematch clause of the 1985 match, Garry Kasparov was forced to defend his title against Anatoly Karpov in 1986. On July 28, the match began. GM Lothar Schmid was the chief match arbiter. GM Ray Keene was the chief match organizer for the London leg. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher conducted the color selection. The match marked the first time in chess history that games between two Soviet players for the world title would be played outside Soviet Union. At the time of the match, Kasparov was 23 years old and rated 2740. Karpov was 35 years old and rated 2705. Kasparov's seconds were GM G.Timoschenko and IM E.Vladimirov. They were replaced during match by IM M.Gurevich and IM E.Magerramov GM Lothar Schmid was the chief match arbiter. GM Ray Keene was the chief match organizer for the London leg. Games 1-12 were in London & Games 13-24 were in Leningrad. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Many insights
I like chess books that have both good text with real insights to the play and great games as examples. As you would expect from a giant like Karpov, this book is excellent. I am getting a lot out of it. If you want to tune up your positional strategy, this is a good book to try.
As indicated above, I enjoyed the first part of this book. However, the longest Chapter is on misplaced pieces. I thought that this would be a real treat because there is so little on this topic. However, I found it to be poorly organized and got very little out of it. As a result I am changing my score from 5 stars to 3.

Just what I needed ...
I'm just getting back into chess and this book is just what I needed.When purchasing something like this I find the "Look inside" feature at amazon absolutely indispensible.Having said that, I was quite fortunate to come across this book whilst browsing through a local bookshop.After about a ten minute smooze I decided to get it.Its for the club player (I once was one).

Yes, books like this do have a problem with the translation and, yes, the layout of Russian books tend to scrimp on things like LARGER FONTS for a subsection and things like that (and indexes).But, if you are actually working through the book you come across litte bits of text in italics - they are the important little tidbits etc. so what you do is take out your highlighter pen and highlight that bit. etc. etc. Things like this may seem to show that the book does not have a unifying approach (as well as the two column page layout - but just get used to it!) to the topic, but you can fix that with a highlighter.The print and diagrams are easily read and the binding is great.Also, I prefer figurine notation and the book has this (Descriptive is, well, bluck!).And I don't believe a person like Karpov would just put his name to any old book.

So anyway, I'm half way through the book and my chess understanding is much better (Might even join a club again).I like the modern-ness of books like this.I researched lots of middlegame books and realised that I found all the "old" books quite "starchy" in their approach.Would've grabbed the Pachman book but the notation is old.And I didn't want a book that went right back to beginner territory (like double attacks and forks etc.)Find the Right Plan with Anatoly Karpov.Got it.Glad I did.

PS I find it quite humorous reading reviews when the reviewer has found a handful of typos.Me, I don't expect to be spoon fed ALL of the way.I just need an expert giving me food for thought and encouraging me to think.After all, no chess book is going to help you if you expect the book to do all of the work and I don't give a toss if the translation is sometimes a bit "odd" - I'm a big boy now and I can figure out what the author is saying.

Disappointing
Anatoly Karpov is one of the greatest strategic chess players of all time, and has authored some good books, so a Karpov book titled "Find the Right Plan" sounded very promising. Unfortunately, this book is a big disappointment.

The positional concepts covered by this book are very basic and are covered by many better books. My main criticisms of this book include:1) lack of any unifying approach to the topic; 2) poor translation, apparently by someone who is not a chess player (example: after white plays Bg3 on page 16, the commentary is "Reflects only one of the possible knight manouevres." Huh???; 3) limited number of Karpov's own games (there are twice as many of Alekhine's games or Capablanca's games than there are of Karpov's; 4) few games from the last ten years; 5) pehaps most importantly, no insights or analysis not available in any number of introductory/intermediate level chess books by lesser writers.

I had to include this quote from the book as well, just for its silliness: "Twelve is a good number, sanctified by tradition (there's a reason why there are twelve months in a year)." Huh?? This is used as a justification for including games that lasted 12 moves or less. Of course, these miniatures can hardly illustrate strategic concepts.

I suspect Karpov had very little to do with this book other than lending his name.

Avoid.

A MUST HAVE for the right readers
I'm renaming this book to: "Find the right reader." The criticisms in other reviews are correct: 1. There are Russian translation nits that make some of the language idiosyncratic, but this is not a huge problem. (cd...ed means c takes d, then e takes d-- there are no cxd's etc. as is true in other older and Russian notation convention). 2. For a book titled about planning, it is really not about that-- but what it IS about is even more important. 3. Much of the analysis is not "deep" in the sense of many branching alternatives seen in computerized analysis, and even some missed mates in 5, etc.

That said, this is a brilliant book! You could purchase 20 other books, and not have the "bring you up to date" wisdom of this volume in terms of TODAY'S thinking on strategy, especially (and surprisingly), the strategy most IT programmers use to create chess engines. If you read the book with ONLY the lens of "WHY is HIARCS looking at those particular lines and positions, at this particular moment?" you will see the subtle brilliance of this book.

The dings that the analysis isn't deep enough are actually an advantage for the right reader. On the flip side, although Matsukevich misses many other possible lines, he does a masterful job of illustrating the main point of the book, and Karpov's brilliance: IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION AND EXPLOITATION OF SUBTLE POSITIONAL WEAKNESSES. From this perspective, the brilliance of the book begins on page 122, where he introduces "The most important law of chess" -- which the translator states as restricting the mobility of your opponent's pieces, but when correctly translated, would emphasize and bold the immediate recognition statement instead. If you got out of chess, and now are getting back into it, and suddenly find there are about 200 books all claiming to bring you back up to speed on what's been going on in the last 10 years-- THIS IS YOUR BOOK! The pages before page 122 can be knocked by high level players, but if you're even a strong club player, the history of changes in the chain from Greco to Philidor to Morphy/Steinitz and arguably then supercharged by Fischer/Karpov/Kasparov (unfortunately they leave Fischer largely out of this, and much of Kasparov as well), you'll find the "lead up" in the first chapters a GREAT overview of the evolution from romance and drama with brilliant combinations to today's tempo/ timing/ small advantages/ no mistakes/ subtle weakness exploitation play necessitated by machines that do not make ANY big mistakes.

WHY, for example, are control of the center, open lines, positional evaluation (which is actually pawn structure evaluation), opening libraries, and unusual black strategies (the Najdorf/Scheveningen/Sicilian for example) so important to today's engine designers? Answer: the modern era is about VERY FEW or NO, or VERY TEMPORARY mistakes-- mostly in tempo, by the opponent, NOT big gaffes as in the romantic period. The clock is King-- and opening libraries and many other modern features are all about the clock, and more subtly, tempo. Thus, the "7" analytic strategies given on page 21 (Material relationship between forces/direct threats/king safety/open lines/pawn structure via weak/strong squares/center and space and positional development) are overgeneralized compared to the "real" 7 principles given on page 123-- mobility restrictions (subtle, quick, temporary, and needing immediate exploitation): 1. occupied with the defense of a piece or important square; 2. tied down 3. simultaneous threats 4. moving it destroys a plan or connection 5. can't move to a square 6. is blocked by your own or opponent piece or 7. path (of action) blocked by other pieces.

A great positional "companion" for this recent book is the classic Test Your Positional Play: How You Should Think In Chess, unfortunately quite hard to find now. That classic gives many Queen's pawn opening examples, which all tend to be more positional by definition, and really does teach "thinking and planning", including some outstanding self rating exercises in pattern recognition.

From the respect your opponent/small advantage perspective, this book IS all about Karpov's style, regardless of how much he contributed to it. The book's weaknesses are many, but more than made up for by the broad brush, big picture "bring you up to date" value of the theme, which is about respecting your opponent's skill. If you could only bring one book back in time to the pre-Steinitz/ Italian/ Romantic era, or pre Morphy 1862 era, THIS book would be a MUST to understand the amazing shift that happens when you start to assume that your opponent WON'T make ANY of those double question mark moves, and very few (and brief/temporary) single question marks. Ignoring Morphy's double exclamation points and brilliant tactics, the authors rightfully point out the subtle positional planning that was the foundation for those shockers, and in fact, note that it often took the modern computer era to figure out what Morphy was actually doing positionally (because the brilliant tactics seemed, back then, accidental or opportunistic). Sure, you can argue that you could take a big book of openings, or a compendium of Kasparov's or Karpov's games instead-- but that's only if you have the broader context given here of the major assumption of modern grandmaster play-- that your opponent will NOT make major mistakes, and that winning is about small advantages in position, beating the clock and your opponent's subtle weaknesses with tempo, and very quickly seizing rapidly disappearing TEMPORARY positional weaknesses. (Granted, positional strategy and pawn structure are much more about the middle game-- this book also needs to be seen as primarily a middle game exploration). If you're just getting back into chess after a furlough-- this one is a MUST read to bring you up to speed, with many delightful Karpov gems as icing.

Note: Apologies if you disagree with my premise that today's top players (and computers!) make far fewer major blunders than in historical games. I'm not trying to insult the past giants, just point out that what has most markedly changed in the past 60 years isn't opening theory, planning, strategy or tactics, it's the fact that far fewer major blunders are made today, due to the advent of the "playing style" of computers-- which simply do not make the type of blunders seen in the past. Dozens of excellent chess books, including Kasparov's huge historical analysis series, attempt to compare the two. Since my major premise in this review is that this book would be good as an updater and historical refresher-- making your game much sharper with small structural advantages and making few or no major blunders ala Karpov-- I'd like to support that contention with one of the greatest "chess improver" books of all time-- John Nunn's John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book, which in our humble opinion is one of the best chess books you can buy in ANY category. See page 66 of that book. It's an eye opener about modern vs. historical blunders! In addition, it isn't a simple puzzle book in the sense of a pastime in a waiting room (try Kakuro for that), but a serious learning tool. Sadly, it's the only one in this genre Nunn has attempted, but is a masterpiece, especially if you're in the 1900+ area trying to break through 2200 consistently.

Mostly Useless
I have always been a big fan of Karpov's books.I own all three of his games collections books (Olms 2008, Batsford 1996, even RHM 1978) and all four books in the Openings in Action series.To say that this book is not in the league of those other brilliant books does not go far enough.This book isn't just un-brilliant, it's downright bad.The analysis isn't just uninspired, but almost nonexistent.The comments are quite mundane and totally uninstructive.This is the type of drivel I expect from Schiller, not Karpov.This book will not teach you to find the right plan, or anything at all about chess really.

I assume that the problem is that Matsukevich rather than Karpov wrote it with Karpov only lending his name to the cover.I will be very suspicious before buying another Karpov book in the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good teaching vehicle.
I am a U.S.C.F. LIFE - Master. I teach chess for a living. I do a lot of teaching nowadays on the Internet. One of my former local students got this book. We spent a lot of time going over the lines and explanations in it. This is one of the better books of its type in the field. The author, a former World Champion, tells you about the opening. You get a brief history of the line, and often he will tell you about some of the general plans in key positions. If you are looking to play these types of openings from either side - or you are just looking for a general book on openings of this type; I can not help but think you will benefit from a careful study of the material presented in this book. Get it! Study! And get better!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Big Disappointment
With Kasparov's name on the title page I was looking forward to analysis on par with his other Pergamon/Cadogan books on matches 2 (New World Chess Champion) and 3 (London/Leningrad Championship Games).I was sadly disappointed.The analysis in here is very weak, on the level of what Keene usually provides in his hack jobs.I recommend the book by Karpov's team (ISBN 0812919238) instead. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Truly Great Book
I purchased this book recently at a local used book store, just a few blocks away from the University of Chicago campus: Thus, it can be found though it may take some effort. Nonetheless, if you manage to find it, youwill think your toil well rewarded, for this is an excellent book---one ofthe great Botvinnik's last works. It featuresgood analysis of some of themost well know and studied games in the history of chess---for example,Polugaevsky Karpov, 2nd match game and Karpov Spassky 8th and llth matchgames. The author and interesting subject matter make this a worthwhileread. ... Read more

Product Description
Author's preface: "I have played a huge amount of tournament and match games during my long chess career, roughly 2,500 altogether. From those games, I have selected only three hundred for this book, - the games I consider my best and most instructive ones.

My goal was to represent my most valuable creative achievements of the thirty years that have passed, from 1966 till 1996. The selection was subordinated to the following three criteria: strong opponent, tense fight, and instructive value. Therefore this collection of games can be treated also as a modern chess instruction book, because the games were played mainly in the strongest events of the last thirty years.

Under such a strict selection procedure, many interesting and instructive games as well as simply beautiful fragments would have inevitably been missing in this book, if the games had been included into it only entirely. Therefore, the final chapter contains a number of my best combinations and finals which are essential for achieving the abovementioned goal; without them, this work would have been incomplete.

I still play a lot and still achieve tournament successes, so it would be premature to accept this book as my final account. I sincerely hope to play a number of good games in upcoming events and to raise my own account of tournament triumphs (I have over 140 of them recently - more than any player in chess history). However, so many chessfriends had expressed their desire to have this book right now that I decided to prepare this sort of an intermediate report on my 30 years in chess. Let reading this work bring you pleasure and improve your understanding of chess inner logic, depth and beauty." ... Read more

Product Description
The insider report of the latest bruising struggle between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov for the world's to chess prize. Contains the complete game scores, 130 diagrams, strategic evaluations, and expert and computer analyses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exciting clash of chess giants - the games & the background
Ray Keene provides an exciting account of the games and facts behind the scenes of one of the biggest clashes ever for the world chess crown. ... Read more