Book and software reviews from 2007.

>"Petrosian vs the Elite" by Ray Keene and Julian Simpole. This book is a worthy supplement to Peter Clarke's classic "Petrosians Best Games of Chess" filling in the gaps in that work and bringing Petrosian's career up to date by covering 1963 when he wrestled the World Championship from Botvinnik to his early death in 1983. The authors are (quite correctly in my opinion) at great pains to point out how underestimated and misunderstood Petrosian's unique style was highlighting his prowess at combinations, speed chess and fantastic tournament successes, listing the many major events he has won without loss of a single game. Some key game positions and a few unknown gems against minor masters are given in the introduction but the main body of this work are 71 victories by Petrosian against top class opposition. Throughout, the games are nicely annotated, with an emphasis on transition to and the middle-game itself and on endings. As many of these games can be described as masterpieces much chess wisdom can be earned from their study-one can only echo a frequent comment on Petrosian's style-"He makes it look so easy". Incidently this book shows Ray Keene back in form and producing one to match his other classic books of the 70s.