GARRY KASPAROV ON MODERN CHESS, PART ONE: CHESS REVOLUTON IN THE 70s
Authors: Garry Kasparov and Dmitry Plisetsky
Everyman Chess (hardcover, 2007)
416 pages
$45.00

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

Here we have another attractive hardcover book by one of the greatest players of all time. Of course, one has to have high expectations, all the more so since his GREAT PREDECESSOR series was excellent. Even though the title said he was going to discuss modern chess, I wasn't sure what it was about. The foreword put this to rest: "With this volume I open a new, essentially autobiographical 'Modern Chess Series', which will also cover all my matches with Anatoly Karpov, my selected games, and my matches with computers. Initially the history of the openings revolution of the 1970-1980s and the battles with Karpov was conceived as the final part of the project MY GREAT PREDECESSOR, but the chapter about the 12th World Champion brought this to a natural conclusion. What will now be described are events in which I took a direct part."

What follows is a bit odd. The foreword might make the book buyer believe that Kasparov was going to tell us all sorts of juicy things about his Karpov and computer matches. But instead we get analytical and philosophical discussions about a myriad of openings. Here are the chapters: 1) Hedgehog System, 2) Chelyabinsk Variation, 3) Najdorf Variation, 4) Dragon Variation, 5) Classical Scheveningen, 6) Neo-Scheveningen without a7-a6, 7) In the Sicilian Labyrinths, 8) Main Variation of the Grunfeld Defence, 9) The Hungarian Grunfeld, 10) Caro-Kann with 4 Bf5, 11) Caro-Kann with 3.e5, 12) Sicilian 2.c3, 13) French with 3.e5, 14) Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez, 15) Arkhangelsk Variation of the Ruy Lopez, 16) Metamorphoses of the Nimzo-Indian Defence, 17) Queen's Indian Defence with 4.a3, 18) Queen's Gambit Accepted with 3.e4, 19) Semi-Slav Circle, 20) Sergey Makarichev's Triptych, 21) The Chebanenko Line, 22) Volga Gambit, 23) Odds and Ends, 24) The Opinions of 28 World Experts.

Holy mother of god! At first glance this all seemed a bit overwhelming to me (though I'm deeply interested in all these lines and really enjoyed everything Kasparov had to say about them in this book), so how would a 1400 react? How about someone that's 1700? My guess is that even many in the 2200 bracket would question the usefulness of this material and thus the wisdom of such a purchase.

Before we continue the above discussion of who this book is for, let's delve a bit deeper into the content. Let's use Chapter One as a typical example:
The history of each opening in every chapter is explored. We find that William Hartston was the first to bestow the name "Hedgehog" to the setup that's now common in all higher levels of competition. We also find that Reti used many Hedgehog ideas with the White pieces (Kasparov calls this the "compressed spring strategy"). After talking about the history and philosophy of this fascinating system, the author takes a deeper look at the opening's nuances via the use of key games. The first three games (Karpov - Ulf Andersson, Milan 1975; Grigorian - Agzamov, Chelyabinsk 1981; Taimanov - Yusupov, Kislovodsk 1982), filled with deep notes and lots of explanatory prose, show White placing his light-squared Bishop on e2. Games 4 through 8 offer games where White places his Bishop on g2. Game 9 has White sticking the Bishop on the more aggressive d3-square.

This pretty much serves as the template of every chapter (with a different opening under the microscope in each case). And make no mistake about it, this really is great stuff! BUT great for whom?

I think that anyone of any strength that loves chess history and chess philosophy will enjoy GARRY KASPAROV ON MODERN CHESS, PART ONE. And, if you happen to play any of these openings, then the chapters that discuss them might prove particularly useful to you if you're rated 1700 or higher (lots will still be over your head, but you'll also pick up quite a few useful bits of information). Titled players might use the book as simply a good read, looking over everything without a board -- just absorbing the ideas, plans, philosophies, and strategic implications as he glides from page to page.

So different people with different tastes and varying repertoires will all find something of interest. How significant that "something" is will be up to you to find out. This leaves us with one further query: Is that "something" worth $45.00? To me, yes, to you fill in the blank.

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GARRY KASPAROV ON MODERN CHESS PART ONE: REVOLUTION IN THE 70s

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If you're interested in owning one or all five of Kasparov's celebrated MY GREAT PREDECESSORS series ($35.00 a book, SIGNED by Kasparov for $50.00), click to buy:

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, PART ONE

PART ONE, SIGNED BY KASPAROV!

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, PART TWO

PART TWO, SIGNED BY KASPAROV!

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, PART THREE

PART THREE, SIGNED BY KASPAROV!

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, PART FOUR

PART FOUR, SIGNED BY KASPAROV!

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS, PART FIVE