Anatoly Karpov's Best Games

This contains 43 games of Karpov, covering 25 years of his career from 1969 to 1994. The games are brilliant, but the book is relatively short. Some of his famous victories, e.g. vs Topalov in Linares 94, are missing. Also notable is that Karpov has White in the vast majority of the selected games.

Anatoly Karpov's chess are some of the best positional games of all time. While he has been accused of playing a very dull style this couldnt be the furthest thing from the truth! Anatoly's games are fantastic for instructional purposes and the collection of games in this book will definately help players with there game and understanding the theory and its application of positional chess. While a great many people, including myself, love attacking chess, after studying Karpov's games you soon learn that all tactical maneuvers are born from a sound position. A great book from one of the best of all time!

Karpov's play is rich, deep, and brilliant. In fact, I have always considered him, in some ways, to be the successor of another great---Petrosian, whose deep strategic play and sharp tactics I have always admired. However, while the public has recognized the richness and depth of his play, Karpov has often been accused of being dull. This book finally puts an end to that pernicious lie. In this work, we see the full brilliance of Karpov's play demonstrated---much of which, sadly perhaps, occurred only in the latent variations of his games. Nonetheless, there is a wealth of real brilliance in this collection---just look at his games against Tatai, Korchnoi, and Kasparov. My Lord, Tatai-Karpov features a positional pawn sacrifice which is later followed by a queen sacrifice: If that is not brilliant, I don't know what is! Anatoly Karpov's Best Games's only flaw is that its selection of games is too limited! (Games from Karpov's 1974 candidates matches are conspicuously absent.) Yet this is hardly a significant flaw. If you get the chance, purchase this book: It is a collection of deeply annotated, richly strategic brilliancies from one of the greatest players of all time.