Learn from the Legends: Chess Champions At Their Best Paperback – March 1, 2006

The book itself seems to contain extremely in depth chess studies, and that is exactly why I ordered it.My disappointment is that the product itself arrived damaged, the box it came in was fine. For about $30 new, I was pretty annoyed at Amazon.

This chess book is one of the kind. Most people with expirience when reading a new chess book find a lot of familiar or well known subjects and themes in it. And when u buy some world champions biography book, esentially u buy a book about one person and one style of play, with lot of similary played games in it. Lets say u buy an excellent Shirov book "Fire on board". You know more or less exactly in what direction every game would lead. And you will have a lot of inspiring tactics training in it. Or u buy great Gligoric book "I Play Against Pieces", and suddenly feel like a great strategist.But this book, this Mihail Marin one is everything of that compiled in just one book trying to tell the most important things everyone of these eight great players learned us in chess. And it succedes in it very well indeed. Its like saying: Lets get to work, we have no pages to trash here. So Marin went to work, and hit everyone of those great masters frontally, in the head. He succesfully realised what were the best strenghts of everyone, and jumped in the right chair in every chapter.My favorite chapter nevetheless is still the last one about Korchnoi, maybe because I like the guy and his atitude, and although author titles his chapter as Victor Korchnoi-an Universal player, to me the story tells us about fighting spirit of the great man.I think that after reading the Petrosian chapter, I wouldnt be scared sacryficing an exchange any more, and I would be playing an opposite coloured bishop endings better and in different way after reading a Karpov chapter.There are few small mistakes I was able to detect, mostely in analysis part, but they are not of serious nature, most of those are only tipfelers. Let me ilustrate that: on page 256 is said: "Black already threatens Rh6"; it should be sad Bh6, or on page 217 63.Ke3 move is impossible, since enemy king is on d2; or the name of Ljubomir Ljubojevic is written on page 218 as Lubomir etc. Those are really small mistakes that dont influence the overall performance of this excellent book.I can say nothing more but absolutely recommend this title to everyone.

If you like 'master level plus' analysis of great chess games, this book is for you. This is not a book for beginners, but for serious students. I was and am extremely impressed with this quality book. Want to work at understanding chess? This book will give you all the work and learning about chess you could want. Well written, thoughtful, great analysis . . . buy it! You will not be disappointed.

This book is so good,I actually bought it twice! As a result, I gave a copy to a friend rather than send it back-I know he will benefit from it. Playing through the annotated lines first( with a board and pieces) and then going back through the variations(on the computer) helped me to get the most from the ideas presented.I have started to use the ideas in many of my online games and my opponents have not realized what's going on. I f you are a positional player, this will reinforce what you know and introduce you to concepts in a different way. If you are a tactical player, you will learn positional concepts to base your attacks around.

If you like to read chess books, whether you are an expert at chess or a novice, then Mihail Marin is a good choice. His writing is easily understood, besides being entertaining, and ALWAYS educational. Even a Master chess player can learn a thing or two from Mr Marin! I suggest reading ALL his books about chess.

It may be the best chess book written in the past 20 years but, the subject is not so simple and it may be better understood by a player with no less than a 2200 rating, although it is very nicely explained by GM Marin !!

Written with clarity and grace. The best book on chess that I have ever read. After reading this, I ordered every one of Marin's books I could find, just because he is the author. An instant classic.

Chapters on specific endgame types presented by focusing on how a legendary player played them, often on how he won theoretically drawn ones. The focus on a specific legend makes it easier to read. Each chapter gives deep analysis of a small number of endgames. Marin gives his description of the play [in words]. This is supplemented by computer analysis and detailed analysis of lines not played. .... Brilliantly, Marin uses a smaller font for these last 2 so it is easy to follow the main thread of the endgame actually played. Also it is easy to return to the analysis later and look at fantasy lines not played. This is not a primer or manual or comprehensive endgame guide. It is a collection of interesting, instructive and sometimes quirky endgames, explained in depth. I found the chapter on winning opposite color bishop endings unique and there are several examples of 4 rook endgames, also rare in books but pretty common in actual games. .. Overall, I liked it enough to play thru every page on a physical board even though my time for chess is very limited.

Viele spannende Analysen über verschiedene Schachlegenden. Mit diesem Buch erhält man einen kleinen Einblick in die Kunst von ganz grossen Schachspielern. Herzlichst zu empfehlen!

Magnífico libro, esta edición corregida, muy ampliada y bien editada en tapa dura. Los temas que trata Marin en el libro lo hace en profundidad pero de manera accesible y a la vez muy didáctica e instructiva. He disfrutado enormemente leyendo esta obra maestra de Mihail Marin.Quisiera añadir que el servicio de amazon como siempre excelente

This is serious book with high level content that has been worked on and perfected for years.If you are an already strong player (2000+) with hopes to get higher, this is certainly a book to consider along those training books by Dvoretsky and Yusupov.Futhermore it is such a nice hardback with extra quality paper that sometimes I like just to hold it in my hands.A bit more and I would sleep with it ! A great book to have in your library !

Marin writes very enthusiastically about mainly the various endgame styles of some great players. Some of the analysis is very deep with long variations.Good chapters on Rubinstein and Korchnoi- the best info I have seen on these 2 apart from Korchnoi's own books.I was amazed at how Karpov squeezed out wins in very barren looking opposite colour bishop endings.

Una obra imprescindible. Solo hecho en falta una seccion de Capablanca, aunque el autor se decanto por Alekhine, otro titan del ajedrez