The Life And Games Of Petrosian

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
LOL

When you said "He thumped me in the simul.", I thought you meant he literally thumped you. I was thinking that was a little out of line or that Petrosian must have been a bit playful. Now, I understand that you meant he just gave you a good beating, but I was laughing picturing a thump on the knuckle (or head). 🙂

It's great that you ...[text shortened]... nd started a new one. After losing three miniatures, the amateur decided to throw the towel.

this book arrived today, what i am amazed at is Petrosians character, for despite his immense talent he was in the beginning quite unsure of himself, and trembled before the masters, lost five in a row at his first Moscow tournament, one in only twelve moves and criticised for his style of play. What an inspirational character he is! Did you notice the picture of the young Fischer playing black against Petrosian in 1959 candidates tournament, my goodness he is scowling at the cameraman.

Originally posted by emperor31
is it descriptive or algebraic?

hi, its descriptive, which is a little bit of a pain, but not much, pawn to king four sounds better than 1.e4 anyway. The real beauty of the book is that it gives an insight into the player and his methods, his life and his failures, what others thought of him and of what he thought of others. I wish they would produce more chess books like this, ones that can be read like a novel but are interspersed with beautiful games and excellent annotations. Why do we have to read, 'crushing secrets and killer openings', or reams of 'play the Petroff', and when you open it it looks like pure machine code! If anyone can master this genre, make their books interesting and enjoyable then the chess community would be deeply indebted.

This is one of the most enjoyable chess books that i have read, feel the tension as Petrosian faces the legendary Keres, his hand trembling as his picks up his pieces and gingerly places them on the board! See Geller strut around like a peacock, imagine the lights going out for twenty minutes, both times Fischer gets into difficult positions, suspicious? the arbiter stops the clock and Bobby sits there oblivious as if nothing happened. Its got it all, gossip, intrigue, heroes and scoundrels!

i really think that i have uncovered a reason why so many chess books are unread, they are simply not very interesting to read. This is an exception.