|
Title: Leonid Stein, Master of Risk Strategy Author: Eduard Gufeld and Efim Lazarev Publisher: Thinker’s Press Genre: Biography/Game Collection |
|
|
Level: Intermediate / Advanced Intermediate / Advanced Content: This book has two parts, the first is the biography of GM Leonid Stein, and the second is a game collection of the three-time Soviet Champion. The book starts with introductions and then seventy pages of biography where the authors tell you the (quite tragic) life story of Stein, his youth, his late successes in chess and his early death at 37. Above all floats the question how is it that a player that was in the world-top-ten for a whole decade never made it to the candidates. The second part of the book includes 62 analyzed games and 11 endings. |
|
|
|
|
Who is it good for? There are two audiences who will find this book interesting: Those who are interested in chess history and those who are looking for a collection of world-class games.
The Good Things:
-
A biography written with true love for Stein the man, accompanied with photographs from his family albums.
-
The best thing in the book is the game section. On the one hand, young Stein was an attacking player like Tal, Shirov and Morozevich. His creativity is beyond explanation, some of his games just rocked me of my chair (my favorite is game number 26 against Lutikov). On the other hand, his later games also show positional maturity and his instructive endgame technique (e.g. game 50 against Averbakh and game 52 against Keres).
The Bad Things:
-
At some points I sensed that the biographers were too friendly with Stein, as if they did not go to the full depth of why Stein did not fulfill his potential entirely.
Quote: “To play for a win in Black against Polugaevsky was an ungrateful task. Many expected that the game would end up in a quiet draw; that Stein would not risk and would try to make up for the difference in points against less formidable rivals… The course of this game, in its own way, illustrated Emanuel Lasker’s well known thought on the healthy force that was ready to take an extreme risk for the sake of achieving its goal.”
The Bottom Line: An interesting biography and more importantly a great game collection, recommended for those who seek chess inspiration.
Rating: 9/10
Review written by Chessbug..
