The Best Combinations of the World Champions, Volume 2

The Best Combinations of the World Champions

Volume 2: From Petrosian to Carlsen

By Karsten Müller and Jerzy Konikowski

Joachim Beyer Verlag, 2022

ISBN: 9783959209960

A welcome second helping.

This book, like the earlier volume, is an anthology of combinations taken from the games of players who have worn the highest crown. It also serves as a workbook of tactical puzzles.

There are, in this second volume, chapters devoted to all the world champions of the past 60 years: Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand and the current incumbent (though not for long) Magnus Carlsen.

Despite their considerable difference in style and approach to chess – contrast, for example, Kasparov’s ultra-aggressive power play with Petrosian’s safety first policy – all these champions were skilled tacticians. And a facility for combinative play was integral to their success. In Petrosian’s case, his tactical skill likely had an added benefit: he could sniff out possible combinations for his opponent, and snuff them out before they could come about in reality. In his prime, Petrosian acted as a poacher turned gamekeeper.

What is most fascinating, in fact, is seeing how combinations arise in each of these players’ games. Spassky and Kasparov were aggressors, so tactics were meat and drink to them; combinations appear as sparks flying off the wheel of a speeding car; sharp play, a haughty initiative, brings them into being. Look at Karpov, though, and it is a completely different story. There the tactics are subordinate to strategy; they are a way of implementing a plan, or getting it to work, or defusing an opponent’s counterplay. While Fischer’s combinations (and, to a large extent, Kramnik’s too) have an air of inevitability about them, they are the logical outcome of precise positional play. And so you could go on.

The chapters highlight a particular characteristic of each champion’s play (exchange sacrifices when it comes to Petrosian, initiative and attacking play for Spassky, dominance and restraining strategy in the case of Carlsen) and they include special exercises showing them in action. Many classic games (or rather game fragments) are here. There is even the odd twenty first century classic, such as Carlsen’s Qh6+ against Karjakin in the final game from the match played at New York 2016; a victory that meant that Carlsen retained the world championship. Yet there are also a goodly proportion of less familiar but still precious gems.

It is interesting, as well, to look at those situations where a world champion embarked on a combination that was messy or unclear, because it seemed like the best option available. Some of these positions are like that. And a few positions even feature swindles; the combination here being a desperate last try to save a lost position. That is OK, we can admit that it happens in a chess game, notwithstanding that the player may be a world champion. We can talk about it, really, we can. There is no shame, or not much anyway.

Combinations and sacrifices are beautiful, but are they necessary? Recently, Carlsen wrote a course called ‘Attacking without Sacrificing’, an intriguing title and, on the surface at least, one that makes a lot of sense. Attacks succeed (as Steinitz said) because the attacker has superiority in force. Why, therefore, should you sacrifice, voluntarily weaken your army, by giving up pieces? Doesn’t sacrificing mean that your attack is less likely to succeed?

In actual practice, mind, sacrifices occur; and they are effective. Why is this so? Well, because a sacrifice is a violent act. Usually, it is a move that involves a capture, or it has the effect of opening up a line of attack. You might think of it as an assault that draws blood, or that shreds a protective armour prior to a fatal lunge.

Within the pages of the book, there are photos of each player. Spassky looks by far the nicest man, whereas a middle-aged Fischer seems injured and haunted. Carlsen is serious and brooding, Anand is lost in thought, preoccupied with how to escape from a concealed labyrinth. Kasparov surveys the chessboard like a belligerent emperor.

I got a lot of pleasure and profit out of this book, and I relished volume 1 too, come to that. For along with the resplendent, informative snapshots of each and every world champion, there were beautiful combinations to discover, and difficult (and not so difficult) exercises that served to strengthen and sharpen my tactical vision. To be clear, there are about 300 tactical puzzles in total. Of these, 64 are ‘special exercises’ where the combinations align with a specific theme.

The publisher’s description of The Best Combinations of the World Champions, Volume 2: From Petrosian to Carlsen is here.