PETROSIAN VS THE ELITE
by Ray Keene and Julian Simpole, Batsford, 299 pages, £15.99.
British Chess Magazine, UK
Nov 2 2006
BCM Chess Book Reviews : November 2006
Now that we have a manoeuvring, positional player in place as the
undisputed world champion and Garry Kasparov has retired, one wonders
whether fashion will change and there will be shift of focus by
students of the game towards the great technical players of the past.
Kramnik has often been compared to Petrosian, and it seems like a very
opportune moment to review the career of the Armenian world champion
of the 1960s. One of the reviewer’s personal regrets is that I was
too prone to hero-worship the likes of Fischer in my youth.
Like many, I was carried along by the zeitgeist, but I now feel I would
have learnt far more about practical chess technique by studying the
games of Petrosian. Too late for me, but younger readers might do well
to buy this book and study the 71 victories of Iron Tigran contained
within it. Julian Simpole is acknowledged as providing the bulk of
the text. He has not relied on computer analysis, and the contents do
not overlap to any significant degree with Peter Clarke’s collection
of Petrosian games nor Kasparov’s chapter on Petrosian in My Great
Predecessors. This looks like a most enjoyable read. JS.
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