Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part 1: Revolution in the 70's

Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess #1

by Garry Kasparov

his book is the first in a brand new series that follows on from My Great Predecessors and sees chess legend Garry Kasparov reflecting on a pivotal time in chess history. Bobby Fischer's spurt towards the chess summit (1970-1972) marked the approach of a new era affecting all aspects of the game and opening theory in particular. Fischer demonstrated the need for deep preparation with both colours, expanded the range of openings knowledge, and laid the foundations for present-day professional chess.

The leader of the new generation, Anatoly Karpov, fully reaped the benefits of the Fischer revolution by mastering the lessons of his great predecessor. Of the players of the older generation, only Victor Korchnoi was able to achieve such a high level of professionalism.

Alas, Fischer then left the chess stage. However, the tectonic shifts he had brought about led to the beginning of a genuine revolution in opening theory and a revolution that overturned traditional impressions about many typical positions. Between 1972 and 1975 alone, progress in the field of opening theory was more significant than in the entire preceding decade! Under Fischer's influence chess was radically regenerated, a process which then continued to accelerate. As a result, from the 1972 Fischer-Spassky world championship match to 1984 and the Kasparov-Karpov matches, the overall picture of chess openings changed almost beyond recognition.

This fascinating book tells the story of this opening revolution. This story is told not only with the insight of Garry Kasparov, but also as seen through the eyes of the leading players who were at the forefront of the development of chess theory during those key years. The reader will witness at first hand how rapidly and inexorably chess development approached the coming computer era.

Genres: Chess, Games

1065 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Russian (formerly Soviet) chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist, whom many consider the greatest chess player of all time.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garry Kasparov's books are always seething with emotion, but it's a little hard to see that if you're not a chessplayer yourself. This book is a drenched-in-nostalgia look at the 70s, the Golden Age of chess analysis. Fischer had just captured the world title mainly due to his stunning opening preparation. Under his influence, top players everywhere - but particularly in the Soviet Union - were busily creating new systems. Kasparov tells you about their exciting discoveries - the Hedgehog, the Sveshnikov Variation, the resurgent Petrov Defence, Larsen's reinterpretation of the Meran, and many more.

And now all these lands are under the wave... with grandmaster-level software generally available, anyone can be a chess analyst. The rigorous clarity that Kasparov so painfully acquired is obsolete. It's very tragic. So, in an attempt to provide subtitles, here's

If Revolution in the 70s Had Been Written By Ray Bradbury

"What's your name?" Montag asked.

"Cassie," she said. "I'm your neighbour. We moved in a few weeks ago."

"And what do you do?" he continued, not knowing what else to say.

"I'm a chessplayer," she said defiantly. "Or, more exactly, a chess analyst."

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)

[Serge Pierro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garry Kasparov has been releasing a stream of high quality books over the years and in this series “Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess”, the first book deals with “Revolution in the 70’s”. The book reads almost like an openings manual, except here each chapter deals with a specific opening that was “revolutionized” during the 70’s. However, what really makes this interesting is that Kasparov breaks down how the opening was previously played, when relevant, and then shows the progression of how the evolution/revolution developed over a period of time. Not surprisingly, Kasparov’s analysis is fascinating and the backstory on many contemporary openings are brought to a better understanding. Chess fans are in for a treat as Kasparov tackles openings such as the Hedgehog, the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian, as well as a host of now standard openings such as the Gruenfeld, Archangel variation of the Ruy Lopez, as well as many others.

Another fascinating aspect of the book is the inclusion of the thoughts of many of the top Grandmasters from that period and their thoughts on the subject matter. I was really impressed by the thoughts of Sveshnikov on his contributions to opening theory.

This looks like another winning series by Kasparov and I look forward to see what his thoughts are in the following volumes, as there are three more in the series and they all deal with his games with Anatoly Karpov. (Kasparov vs Karpov 1975-1985), (Kasparov vs. Karpov 1986-1987) and (Kasparov vs. Karpov 1988-2009)

[Eli Viola · Rating 3 out of 5]

The format of this book is that each chapter Garry talks about an opening variation which was either created or underwent drastic changes in the 70's. Some of these chapters are very nice like the chapter on the Chelyabinsk Variation (Sveshnikov Sicilian), and the 'Hedgehog System' both of which I greatly enjoyed. My biggest problem with the book is the chapters without any notated games. These chapters all tended to be very difficult to follow because Garry constantly switches sub-variations or moves back a few moves in the analysis. Some of the chapters with plenty of notated games also were a little boring, namely the chapter on the Grunfeld defense where almost all of the variations were endgames where White had an enduring initiative. Although I didn't mind it too much, all the chapters mainly focused on how the 'Revolution in the 70's', changed the opening at grandmaster level, meaning that most of the lines discussed probably occur more and more rarely the lower the ratings of the players are. I would probably say the book isn't especially helpful if a player below 2200 (unfortunately a category that includes me...) wants to learn a new opening or two as typically only the critical lines evolution (during the second half of the 20th century) are covered in the book. On the whole it wasn't bad, and I was able to enjoy it, but I don't think it's amazing (in contrast, I am currently reading the first volume of Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, which I think is quite stupendous.)

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garry Kasparov was World Champion of Chess from 1985-2000. In 2005, he left competitive chess to pursue other interests, such as Russian politics.

Russian politics seems to be a somewhat dangerous thing. Not long after Kasparov left competitive chess, he was hit over the head with a chessboard by a demented young man. Just a few years ago, Kasparov was arrested at a protest of Putin, and spent a few days in jail.

Kasparov though is still connected to chess in other ways. For example, a few years ago, FIDE, which is the international chess organization, held an election for its President. The incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is a Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman and politician, who had stated to the press that he was once on board an alien spaceship. Karpov, who was Kasparov's great rival in chess, yet received Kasparov's public support when Karpov ran against Kirsan. Mr. I-Flew-On-A-UFO won re-election, which some of us think is not good for the image of chess.

Kasparov also has written a series of books on chess history. In this book, Kasparov does what I think historians should do: make a case for an interesting claim. The claim in this book is that in the 1970s there was a revolution in the way the opening was played in chess. The book also contains essays by prominent grand-masters of the 70s. Though I agree with one of the them, John Nunn, that "revolution" is perhaps too strong a word. I think there was more of a revolution in chess in the 1920's, when 'hyper-modern' opening systems were developed.

Yet there were interesting developments in chess in the 1970s. Years before this book came out, a National Master, Marvin Dandridge, told me about the Hedgehog. This is a opening system for Black which was developed in the 1970s. In this system, Black has no pawns or pieces beyond the third rank. It is a compact set-up, no holes. The downside is that White has a space advantage. Wikipedia has a good article and diagram about the Hedgehog:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog...

Another opening system discussed in the book is the Sveshnikov Sicilian. It is dynamic, counter-attacking system.
The Wikipedi article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sveshnikov

[Friday]

A reference...