This
fine book gives a great account of the World Championship
match between Karpov and Kamsky. All the games
are deeply annotated, photos are sprinkled throughout,
the complete score of the match and a description
of that day's particular game is given at the
beginning of the moves and notes, and comments/stories
by Henley, Bjelica and others give you a feel
for the match's intrigues and dramas.
All this is offered in the last
130 pages. The first 200 pages are filled with
Karpov's two favorite games (deeply annotated)
of the other World Champions (starting with Steinitz,
though he gives seven when he reaches himself!),
a discussion of what each Champion gave to chess
as a whole, a quick talk about Morphy (plus one
annotated Morphy game), an in-depth discussion
of Kamsky's road to this World Championship match
(lots of games and lots more annotations), all
the games (with notes) of the Karpov-Gelfand match,
and (finally!) all the previous encounters (once
again, many have notes) between Karpov and Kamsky.
This is one of the best three
match books I've ever seen (Tal's book on his
1960 match with Botvinnik is the best, Yasser's
wonderful account of the Fischer-Spassky rematch
has dropped to third behind this Karpov masterpiece);
it gives more than full value for those who wish
to analyze chess games, and it gives more than
full value to those who simply wish to read about
chess history (past and present). I loved it and
I think that you will too. Give it a try and let
me know what you think!
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