Magnus Force

MAGNUS FORCE: HOW CARLSEN BEAT KASPAROV’S RECORD by Colin Crouch is not your usual games’ collection. Instead of presenting a selection of “best games” by the current World Champion, the English IM has chosen to divide his book into two parts. The first examines all of Carlsen’s losses in 2010-12 and the second all of his efforts from London 2012 and Wijk aan Zee 2013. All told there are 29 well-annotated games with an emphasis on explanatory prose commentary over in-depth analysis. This makes this book much more accessible to a wider audience ranging from 1600 to 2400.

Besides the annotated games MAGNUS FORCE: HOW CARLSEN BEAT KASPAROV’S RECORD contains an overview of Carlsen’s accomplishments the past few years including crosstables. The oversize format with plenty of diagrams makes this a user-friendly book.