How Karpov Wins: Second, Enlarged Edition

by Edmar Mednis

Book Overview

Revised, enlarged edition of book focusing on Russian chess master's tactics and strategy against Bronstein, Smyslov, Spassky, Korchnoi, other greats. 100 games analyzed. Over 300 chess diagrams.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486278816
• ISBN13: 9780486278810
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Karpov's Technique

This book covers one hundered of Karpov's games up to 1972. The games are outdated but the book has got excellent annotations and reasoning behind Karpov's moves. It shows how Karpov uses his technique to grind out a win. It is a good example of how to win from a winning position. Another similar book is Turning Advantage into Victory which shows how to use technique to win a won game. Both books are best read side by side. You can learn to improve your technique by playing through these games and see how GM Karpov wins in effortless fashion.

Karpov is Dissected with this book

Full Packed book on Karpov! It has statistics on Karpov's chess records during the 1970's era, which includes favorite openings used, wins / losses / draws against IM's and GM's, etc.The work done by Mednis here is more for the "easy reading" type of chess player, unlike Botvinnik or Kotov's books which are jam-packed with variations and analysis and more analysis. The reader is to be entertained. Mednis often praises Karpov here when Anatoly makes those "multi-purpose" moves. Karpov has a knack of making such moves. Learn some of those tricks from this book.I am a 1800 - 2000 rated player, and regularly play in the school-university tournaments. I used the material in this book (the openings Karpov plays, the karpov Middlegame Technique, the 'How -to-win-ala-Karpov' commandments that Mednis gave) to capture the gold medal in the year-round tournament.

A Great book!!

This book is a must have for EVERY chessplayer.This book is very instructive.You will learn a lot from this book about chess strategy and positional play.The author Edmar Mednis once a strong chessplayer and with a victory against Bobby Fischer himself has done a great job on explaining the way Karpov plays. I remember Kramnik when asked how many chessbooks he had read . Kramnik said that he had not read that many books. But he said that he had a book with Karpovs games which he studied in depth.If you want to understand Karpovs game you cant be without this book.Many people rate books with 5 points without hesitation but this book is a REAL 5 pointer.I have many chessbooks and this one is on the absolute top.It's just fantastic to see Karpov slowly squeeze and finally destroy his helpless opponents.To me it looks like an anacondas victory over his helpless victims.The opponents often get desperat.The author annotates with many words.You will get very much from every game.You can use the knowledge you get from this book on your opponents! SPECIALLY RECOMMENDEDBuy it now !!

Breaks down the elements of Karpov's style.

I'm a mixed fan of Mednis (I don't like his repertoire books, like "From the opening to the endgame," but his endgame books are superb), but this is an exceptional book. He breaks down the elements of Karpov's style both statistically and analytically, and does a good job of showing Karpov's approach to the game. Karpov's style may not appeal to everyone (not terribly exciting), but he always plays to win and is notoriously difficult to beat. Mednis shows the openings he plays, the middlegames he prefers, and his preference for clear endgames over advantageous middlegames. Most useful for ELO 1600+ players.

Excellent annotated collection of Karpov's games.

Mednis' books are usually pretty good, and this is one of his best. The annotations are insightful with regard to Karpov's style of play, and instructive to the intermediate player. Descriptive notation. Typical Dover high quality paperback. Probably one of my top 10 "desert island" books.