I've not been playing OTB chess for the last 6 months and rustiness has indeed set in.
In the meantime, I've taken time out to start to reading chess books again and have recently bought a few tournament books.
I'm in the midst of reading Botvinnik - Petrosian (New In Chess) and have gone up till game 3 of their 1963 WCC match and what a fight it was! Despite reaching a drawish looking endgame, the two proceeded to battle it out till move 86! Neither was willing to give up without giving it a good fight.
Sadly, my book is starting to get dog-eared pretty quickly due to my constant page-flipping and rather callous handling of the book. But this book is going to be destined to be one of the few books I finish. :)
As an added incentive, I've bought another book Botvinnik - Smyslov (New In Chess) last weekend and will be looking forward to reading/studying it once I'm done with the Botvinnik - Petrosian book. After this, I'm looking forward to acquiring either San Luis 2005 or Reggio Emilia 2006/2007.
Maybe I'll do a simple book review of it when I'm done! :)
This looks like a great book! I have the Botvinnik-Smyslov book on all three of their WC matches. I am looking forward to digging into that!
ReplyDeleteHi Tommyg,
ReplyDeleteI'm fortunate enough that my wife still has some leftover adhesive book coverings and she covered the 2 books for me so now my 2 New In Chess books are saved from further dog-earing on my part!
Regarding the Botvinnik-Petrosian book, what was nice was the introduction of quite a few photos of the tournament and the players themselves (unlike the Botvinnik-Smyslov book).
In this match, of the 22 games played, none of them were 1.e4 openings (a surprise!) and only 6 were decisive. As the match went on, it was clear Botvinnik was suffering as he could not come to grips with Petrosian's play. I am now up till Game 9's analysis and so far, most of the games have been very hard fought. Only games 4 and 6 ended in theoretical draws and it seems both players wanted to rest their energies for the fight ahead. Games 20, 21 and 22 were added for completeness as Petrosian by then had an insurmontable 3 point lead and Botvinnik knew it was pointless to resist.
Petrosian gave a lengthy 10 page explanation of the match and the circumstances surrounding it and the preparation etc. that resulting in his victory. Botvinnik put up a 2 page review of his performance. Also included were previous games between Botvinnik and Petrosian (with 3 annotated).
It's a pity we don't have books on the Petrosian-Spassky games - that would have been great.
Actually there is!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hardingesimpole.co.uk/biblio/1843820781.htm
I like these Hardinge Simpole books!
They are reprints but the binding is superb!
Thanks Tommyg.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... according to the blurb, it's only 108 pages(?). That's incredibly small to cover 2 WCC matches. I'll check it out at my local bookstore.
Thanks again.