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Title: My Great Predecessors Part 1 Author: Garry Kasparov Language: Pages: 464 Cover: Hardcover Published: 2003 Publisher: Everyman Chess Homepage: http://everymanchess.com Price: £ 25,00 ISBN: 1-85744-330-6 Reviewed by: Soren Sogaard Date: 3/10 2003

My Great Predecessors Part 1

This book by Garry Kasparov about his predecessors is the first in a series of three about the history of the development of chess. The book is written with the participation of the Russian chess journalist Dmitri Plietsky although it is difficult to tell how much each of the two authors worked on the books. It is of course first of all Kasparov's work, but I think that a great deal of the book was made by Plietsky.

What do you Find in the Book?

What do you find in the book? Well, first of all I read the book as a coverage of the history of chess. Not everything is covered but Kasparov took a closer look at each of the World Champions and their contribution to the development of chess. There are also small portraits of other great masters like Chigorin, Tarrasch, Pillsbury, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Reti and other important matches like the Chigorin-Tarrasch match. Let's see what Kasparov said about the book in an online chat at playchess.com:

"It's important to point out I'm not working on the biographies of the players. I am writing about their contributions to the chess world and the game."

With only 100 pages to tell the story of each champion and the period in which he reigned it is of course not possible to go in depth with all the details. Sometimes I wished that the authors didn't just mention a game but also showed it to the reader. It is very frustrating to read something like "...in the first half of the game... and then he missed an opportunity... the turning point... after this the outcome was..." and then we don't get the chance to see the game! Well, you can't have everything but another thing is that I also missed some pictures, tournament tables and records of the matches for the World Championship. That said, I can say that what we do get is very good! First of all you get a book of high quality with its hardcover and paper of good quality. I also found the proofreading to be very good and I only found one or two typos - not bad for a book of 464 pages.

A Fresh Look at the Most Important Games

What makes this book something special is the comments from Kasparov to the games. He (and Fritz!) took a fresh look at many of the games and found a lot of new discoveries. Kasparov's knowledge of how it is to play a tough match for the World Championship is what makes it so interesting to read. I read Sadler's review in New In Chess, and I also found that the coverage of the match between Alekhine and Capablanca was very interesting. The coverage of this match "through the eyes of Alekhine and Capablanca" is for me the best part of the book. Take a look at the excerpt below from the very important 31st game of the match and you can see what I mean.

An Example from the Book

40.Rc8??
    The fatal last move before the time control... 'A geniune tragedy for Capablanca! 40.Rb6!! would have given a straightforward win. Now 40...Nxb6 41.axb6 Rb7 loses......' (Friedstein)

    Instead of this Capa unexpectedly removes the attack on the a6-pawn and releases the black rook.

40...Rb7! 41.Rb8
   This essentially terminates the game. 'After the time wasted on his previous move, White could no longer have prevented Black from getting enough enough counterplay for a draw, for example.....

Here the game was adjourned and Black sealed

41...Rxb8
    On resumption there followed

42.Bxb8
    and... on White's proposal a draw was agreed. 'Of course, Black immediately plays 42...Ke7 43.Kd3 Kd7 44.Kc4 Kc6.' (Alekhine).
    However, as was discovered at the end of the 20th century by the Russian master Goldin, even in this seemingly arid desert White would have retained real winning chances after 45.h4! Nf6 46.Bf4....

After a nearly 2 pages of analysis Kasparov concludes:

    In any case, nowadays such a position would have been played on until the last chance! Why then was Capa in a hurry to offer a draw, if he could have calmly analysed the endgame during the adjournment? Especially since, in view of his birthday (on 19th November the Cuban reached the age of 39) he had been granted an extra free day. Perhaps, being extremely tired and not seeing a winning plan, he decided not to waste his time and energy? Or had he noticed 40.Rb6 and, realising that he had missed a clear win, was terribly upset and could no longer bear the thought of resuming the game?!....

   Strangely enough, the importance of this truly decisive game was underestimated for several decades (everything was eclipsed by the champion's 'fatal' blunder in the 27th game.) Probably because it was poorly analysed. Although because it was the outcome of this game that changed chess history: had Capablanca won, the match score would have become 4-4, and since the Cuban only needed five wins to retain his title, he could well have remained champion...

Whew! I actually read this part twice because it was so good ;-) I think I know most of what happened at top-level in the history of chess from Staunton to Kasparov. I nevertheless enjoyed reading about it from another angle. For people who doesn't know much about the history of chess this is a great book to start with. The book gives you get the best of chess from 1850 until 1943. Highly recommended to all chessplayers from beginners to Grandmasters.

The book has been discussed extensively in Magazines and on the net, and because of the big interest from reviewers and readers there were found several inaccuracies throughout the book. Some historians also found some mistakes that they found were very important, but it didn't disturb me when I read the book. Of course these things should be corrected and I'm sure they will be in the next edition. It doesn't make me change my recommendation though - it is still a very good book ;-)

Contents

• Introduction  (6 pages)

1. Chess before Steinitz  (34 pages)
2. Wilhelm the First  (72 pages)
3. Emanuel the Second  (108 pages)
4. José Raúl the Third  (115 pages)
5. Alexander the Fourth  (118 pages)

• Index of Players
• Index of Openings