FIGHTING CHESS WITH M.CARLSEN (Progress in Chess)

Magnus Carlsen was born on 30 November 1990 and, in January 2010, at the age of just nineteen, he became the youngest world number one chess player in history. His early life and career were documented in "Wonderboy" by his former trainer, Simen Agdestein, in 2004. At that point, Magnus's future greatness was clear. A few years on, he is the world number one, with a rating of 2837, the second highest rating ever recorded and just a few points shy of Gary Kasparov's record, and has a string of impressive victories to his credit. He is a megastar in his native Norway, and the face of Burberry in their ad campaign.Agdestein's book included photographs of Magnus and his family as well as plenty of detail about his home-life and playing schedule, making it clear that, far from exploiting the young prodigy in the family, his parents actually had to reign in his enthusiasm and limit the number of tournaments in which he played. It was clear that Magnus retained his essential qualities of humility and humour in the face of great success and fame, as his behaviour both on and off the board makes very clear. I concluded my review of Agdestein's book by saying that a marvellous career awaited the young wunderkind. Now, less than six years later, that career is in full flow, and this book, a much more serious, in-depth examination of his games, as befits one of the best chess-players in history, is an account of that record-breaking career so far. The book highlights the depth of Carlsen's natural understanding of chess, as well as demonstrating the amount of preparation that has to be carried out by a modern chess-player. Also highlighted is Carlsen's pragmatism at the board, and his ability, like Karpov, to exploit small advantages in simplified positions. Carlsen is one of the greatest players of the computer age, making effective use of chess engines to deepen and refine his natural understanding of the game. In addition, he has benefitted from close collaboration with the greatest player of all, Gary Kasparov.The book contains sixty-four of Carlsen's best games, with annotations and diagrams. The production is well-up to Edition Olms's usual high standards, although it would have benefitted from better proof-reading, as a few misprints and omissions have crept in. This very minor caveat aside, however, this is a first-rate chess book offering an insight, not just into one of the best chess-players in history, but into the game of chess at it is played and understood in the modern era.

Okay, I have read enough of the new Edition Olms book, Fighting Chess with Magnus Carlsen, to realise that we are dealing with something really special here. Well done Adrian Mikhalchishin and Oleg Stetskio for producing a real gem! Just the right mixture of background information, analytical variations, and exclamatory prose within a game to make this a real delight, and not just for real chess experts, but also for the likes of me. And all of this on the best active chess player in the world.Chess fans: buy this book