Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces

by Igor Stohl

Igor Stohl has selected 50 outstanding games from recent years and analyzed them in painstaking depth. Here he presents his findings to chess enthusiasts, who will find the games entertaining and the annotations both instructive and illuminating. Stohl is an outstanding theoretical expert, so the opening phase of each game reads like a lesson in the key strategic aspects of the opening played, with an up-to-date survey of current trends. The middlegame is dissected and the critical decisions subjected to scrutiny by an author who invites readers inside his laboratory to join him in his quest for the truth. The endgame phase, if reached, is handled with similar erudition, with insights into the grandmaster's approach to questions of technique.

Genres: Chess

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Serge Pierro · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite Chess magazines was the bi-weekly print publication,“Inside Chess”, which was published by GM Yasser Seirwan. Over the years he would have a variety of writers contribute their talents to the publication, and one such writer was, Igor Stohl. He was well know for his deep analysis of the game at hand. So when I saw that he had an actual book on “Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces”, I was intrigued!

As mentioned above, Stohl is well known for his thoroughness and depth of analysis. He strikes a nice balance between the use of words to describe the situation at hand, as well as providing many lines of analysis. If you enjoy lines of analysis that are preceded by the likes of “3b231”, then you will certainly enjoy seeing some of the games in which Stohl spends a few pages on just one move, showing multiple branches of analysis, often with interesting insights along the way.

Each of the games analyzed have special attention paid to the opening, in terms of what was popular at the time the game was played, as well as what contemporary theory has to say on the subject. Then there is some excellent instruction within the middle game, pointing out various tactical motifs, as well as positional understandings. At the end of the game you are tread with an excellent summary of the game, pointing out the key moves and turning points, as well as psychological insights based on the pressure of the game just played.

Overall this is a brilliant book that will satisfy any serious chess player. There is enough useful instruction for serious club players, as well as deep analysis for the expert/master crowd. Stohl’s reputation precedes himself, and he lives up to expectations by delivering a highly instructional and accessible book for players of all levels. Well worth reading!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a huge book when it's first published and enlarged edition is no less bigger.

I would prefer some training positions in almost 450 pages. There are none of them but you get very well analysed 50 games by top players including Kasparov, Karpov, Anand, Kramnik, Topalov Gelfand, Shirov, Leko between 1993 - 2007. Not a must-read but it's very instructive for sure as the title suggests.

[Alberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars. It has a lot of lines labeled 2b322 for those who like that sort of thing. However, despite (or because of) this, I have three serious beefs with the book.

1) For a book priding itself on depth of analysis, there are a lot of errors, I mean A LOT of errors. More than I find in comparable books.

2) The author gets so lost in the lines that he forgets to evaluate the position for the reader. It's often very difficult to see what's actually going on.

3) It was not an enjoyable read. I don't mind books with a lot of analysis that require a lot of work to get through. I usually find that sort of thing enjoyable, but not this time. This was tough to slough through. Took me forever to work through it.