» Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine

Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: truly awful
Comment:
This book seems like the work of a couple of afternoons in front of a word processor by someone keen to cash in on the popularity of the match. There is no background information to speak of the games are given with only shallow and in many cases inaccurate notes. Try ANY of the other books on this match, they are better.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A book you can't miss
Comment: This is a very good book, but I think Bruce a mistake. I am not gonna really tell you inside this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Big thank to other reviewers.... ;-)
Comment: At first I planned to buy this book and Keene's book on the first match. Somehow I could not get myself to buy them. Then after reading all the reviews for this book, I agreed with most of the comments.
1) For a book of six annotated games, the full retail price is too high.
2) Some reviewers said the book is too shallow. When I read this book the fourth time at a library, I liked and enjoyed it. Lots of explaination. Now after reading the reviews here I agree that Pando's analyses are one-dimensional and not deep enough, like Nunn's or Yermo's. (Thank you, other reviewers, for pointing out that my chess experience is shallow as well; and help me to save $$$. Lots of chess to learn for me.)
This book is good as a teaching tool for 1400's, the price is not reasonable. Used book's price is a better investment. $9.99 is a reasonable price for a new one. Used ones, get the best price as you can here...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great resource for novice to intermediate players
Comment: This is one of my favorite chess books. Pandolfini gives a move by move account of all six games of the match. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates overly-annotated chess games. Pandolfini gives explanation to nearly every move, even the first few moves of openings, which I admit may be too elementary for advanced players, but could be appreciated the novice for the detail. The notation is good, typesetting is pleasing to the eye, and pictures are used at critical junctures. Pandolfini also does a nice job at inserting extra tid-bits of interesting information now and then relative to the topic at hand.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: good report of match, but nothing spectacular
Comment: Pandolfini annotates practically every move of the six games of Kasparov's match loss to Deep Blue (I thought it was called "Deeper Blue"). This is book is written at a fairly basic level. He explains a lot of basic chess terms, such as open files and pinned pieces. All told, the book is interesting for those who want a record of the event, but it's not really instructive. It's also not a great value with only 6 games, though it does provide the game scores (no annotation) of the first match which K. won.

Pandolfini makes some questionable comments - such as calling K. the "last human world champion" - and isn't afraid to express his opinion. He thinks that Kasparov would have won if he'd only played his own game instead of trying to get cute with anti-computer moves.

There's no behind-the-scenes repoortage, nor much here about the technology behind Deep Blue. I think Panda might have written it on his couch from reading the games scores in the newspaper.

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