Najdorf: Life and Games

The book is broken into four distinct parts: a very important introduction by his surviving daughter, a 61 page narrative of the life of Najdorf, a series of well-annotated games by a very strong Russian Grandmaster and finally some selected endings and moves from his Najdorf's games. The introduction by his daughter showed a certain viewpoint not seen anywhere else in the book. Much like an introduction to any biography from a loved one. They simply see the man like no one else. The roughly sixty page mini-biography was by far the weakest part of the book and was the main reason for the reduction from five to four stars. An additional minor reason was the shortage of diagrams with many games requiring the use of a chess board to play through the game (some only one diagram for a 25 move game, many two diagrams for a 40+ move game). For the most part, the biography lacked any real consistencies and objectivity. The author was trying to paint a picture of a likable guy but from all accounts, he was much more of a "character" than anything else. This is quite okay, but the inconsistencies about his connection to his wife and daughter (still in Poland) during the war really should have been addressed by the editor. If you are a queen pawn player, this book is a must read. 90 percent of the games are with white (for Najdorf) and he very instructively shows how to beat weaker opponents with dazzling attacks and combinations born from responses to queen pawn like QGD, Nimzo, Queen's Indian etc.. The only rub is that the opposition in general is considerably weaker due to his location of Argentina. Very few games against the world's best and even fewer with the black pieces. Still, his use of pieces to create attacks and combinations is extremely instructive (to me). The final section on endgames positions is an almost "throw in" and really doesn't add much to the book. The over 100 annotated games by mostly the authors (and occasionally other chess players from the day) is the true gem of this book. In the end, this is one of the much better "Life and Games" kind of collections and definitely worth the time.

After reading Najdorf Selected Games by Alexander Beliavsky one cannot avoid the feeling of nostalgia. Imagine a tournemant where you get crushed by former World Champion Euwe after a thrilling fight. Then you take on mark Taimanov one of the new soviet stars and trounce him in a Kings Indian game that will live foirever. Thereafter you thash Tigran Petrosian but thereafter get punished by Efim Geller for treating one of his friends like that. That was Zürich 1953 and those were the days... Najdorf competed there with a decent although not brilliant result. His mastery in tactics and discoveries in the opening (Najdorf variation and different bransches of the Kings Indian for example) took him to heights only a handful of hard-teaining Soviet could match. Unfortunately he didn't get his chance to fight for the WC 1948 which poosibly was his best chance. Therefore we remember Najdorf as one of those outstanding players next to WC-level and Najdorfs other life, aside from chess, was probably no less interesting. That is something of what you will find in Najdorf Selected Games. I would be a fool not to recommend this book. Enjoy!