--- product_id: 4607762 title: "Karpov's Strategic Wins" price: "€ 72.98" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.fi/products/4607762-karpovs-strategic-wins store_origin: FI region: Finland --- # Karpov's Strategic Wins **Price:** € 72.98 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Karpov's Strategic Wins - **How much does it cost?** € 72.98 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fi](https://www.desertcart.fi/products/4607762-karpovs-strategic-wins) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Anatoly Karpov is one of the chess world’s greatest World Champions, with his prime strength being his subtle maneuvering and positional play. Many of his opponents have been baffled by the profundity of his strategies, but here Karolyi explains Karpov’s genius. This volume features Karpov’s most entertaining and instructive strategic wins from 1961-1985 as the Russian star proved he was a worthy successor to Bobby Fischer’s title. The book starts with Karpov as a precocious youngster and tells the story of the making of a champion. Review: Destined to Become a Classic - Anatoly Karpov's games are legendary among chess enthusiasts. Some GM's have even acknowledged that their path to the GM title involved a long and intensive study of Karpov's play. Were it not for one Garry Kasparov, Karpov would have likely held the title of World Champion for 20 years, so strong was his play for so long. This 2 volume work may well be the best extant work on Karpov's games, with competition only from Karpov's own "My Best Games", which includes 100 games. This volume alone has 76 Karpov games, and several dozen other games as a bonus. This work, as the title implies, focuses only on Karpov's strategic wins. While Anatoly could play great attacking games on occasion, his real claim to fame is as a strategic genius, and it is his strategic play that gets center attention here. Karpov was known for his ability to slowly and surely squeeze his opponent like a python, often placing most of his pieces on his own first rank, where their influence still strangled the opponent's postion. The notes to the games show that this work is a real labor of love. Karolyi gives clear, well thought out explanations of the play. Analysis of variations is in plenty of depth, but the real shining feature is the rich, plentiful explanations in WORDS of what is going on. There is a tremendously rich education in positional/strategic play to be found here. Here is just one of hundreds of such notes, taken from Karpov-Unzicker, 1974 Olympiad: (after 35.Bh5!) "Completing the manoeurvre. In this particular case the side w/ extra space is happy to exchage a pair of pieces, considering that we are talking about Black's best defensive piece. The text move illustrates another important principle: in positions w/ a space advantage , one of the most effective strategies is to attack on both flanks. The defending side may be able to protect one weakness, but the difficulties associated w/ transferring defensive pieces from one side to the other will often prove insurmountable." It is not often that I have seen so much distilled chess wisdom in a games collection. In addition to the pleasure of playing over the games of one of the all-time greats, you will be slowly but surely increasing your strategic understanding, and hence your results, as you play through these masterpieces. Highly recommended. Review: I bought the chess book of the yr for under $20 - Professional chess reviewers are calling this the book of the year. I agree! Karpov became 1974-1985 world champion, when Fischer walked away from a $5 million match offer. K was an active world champion, who played played in and won a couple dozen super-tournaments & 7/9 world title matches. In their 5 matches(146 games) Kasparov finished with only +2. This immense book features 76 deeply annotated games (notes for some games run 10-15 pages, lots of diagrams, deep analysis). Chapters are by year, starting with K at 11 yrs old, with 18 junior level games before K enters GM level competitions. Most games have introductory comments,(including K's won-loss record vs each opponent). Tournament results are given in the text(I would have liked an appendix listing for results & also for openings-- though there is appendix of strategic themes). Karolyi stays with his task to describe how the greatest positional player developed his game(a few draws and lucky escapes are even included). Karpov's was known for his efficient, positional squeeze and yet he can also aggressively get in the face of opponents. The English prose is reliable, the notes seem to be error-free, (except the odd date mistake). Production values are excellent, the book lays flat when I study the games, has a sturdy binding. For the current price this is a steal!! This book is a nice complement to other Karpov collections(Mednis,Karpov,Kasparov), with only a few duplicated games. Many famous Karpov wins do not appear in this book. Karolyi selected games based on "instructive and artistic value" & credits other analysts throughout his book. For Karpov's personal history & background stories - read Kasparov & Seirawan. Karolyi is well-known for coaching the Polgars & Leko. I suspect many of these games have been used as student exercises, which explains Karolyi's explanatory writing style. This is a book for long-term studying; as many of Karpov's seemingly simple moves and re-grouping strategies are understandable only under repeated examination. ## Features - Used Book in Good Condition ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #800,085 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #791 in Chess (Books) #56,927 in Biographies (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 85 Reviews | ## Images ![Karpov's Strategic Wins - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61DKKW+DRlL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Destined to Become a Classic *by R***S on May 6, 2013* Anatoly Karpov's games are legendary among chess enthusiasts. Some GM's have even acknowledged that their path to the GM title involved a long and intensive study of Karpov's play. Were it not for one Garry Kasparov, Karpov would have likely held the title of World Champion for 20 years, so strong was his play for so long. This 2 volume work may well be the best extant work on Karpov's games, with competition only from Karpov's own "My Best Games", which includes 100 games. This volume alone has 76 Karpov games, and several dozen other games as a bonus. This work, as the title implies, focuses only on Karpov's strategic wins. While Anatoly could play great attacking games on occasion, his real claim to fame is as a strategic genius, and it is his strategic play that gets center attention here. Karpov was known for his ability to slowly and surely squeeze his opponent like a python, often placing most of his pieces on his own first rank, where their influence still strangled the opponent's postion. The notes to the games show that this work is a real labor of love. Karolyi gives clear, well thought out explanations of the play. Analysis of variations is in plenty of depth, but the real shining feature is the rich, plentiful explanations in WORDS of what is going on. There is a tremendously rich education in positional/strategic play to be found here. Here is just one of hundreds of such notes, taken from Karpov-Unzicker, 1974 Olympiad: (after 35.Bh5!) "Completing the manoeurvre. In this particular case the side w/ extra space is happy to exchage a pair of pieces, considering that we are talking about Black's best defensive piece. The text move illustrates another important principle: in positions w/ a space advantage , one of the most effective strategies is to attack on both flanks. The defending side may be able to protect one weakness, but the difficulties associated w/ transferring defensive pieces from one side to the other will often prove insurmountable." It is not often that I have seen so much distilled chess wisdom in a games collection. In addition to the pleasure of playing over the games of one of the all-time greats, you will be slowly but surely increasing your strategic understanding, and hence your results, as you play through these masterpieces. Highly recommended. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I bought the chess book of the yr for under $20 *by M***0 on August 1, 2011* Professional chess reviewers are calling this the book of the year. I agree! Karpov became 1974-1985 world champion, when Fischer walked away from a $5 million match offer. K was an active world champion, who played played in and won a couple dozen super-tournaments & 7/9 world title matches. In their 5 matches(146 games) Kasparov finished with only +2. This immense book features 76 deeply annotated games (notes for some games run 10-15 pages, lots of diagrams, deep analysis). Chapters are by year, starting with K at 11 yrs old, with 18 junior level games before K enters GM level competitions. Most games have introductory comments,(including K's won-loss record vs each opponent). Tournament results are given in the text(I would have liked an appendix listing for results & also for openings-- though there is appendix of strategic themes). Karolyi stays with his task to describe how the greatest positional player developed his game(a few draws and lucky escapes are even included). Karpov's was known for his efficient, positional squeeze and yet he can also aggressively get in the face of opponents. The English prose is reliable, the notes seem to be error-free, (except the odd date mistake). Production values are excellent, the book lays flat when I study the games, has a sturdy binding. For the current price this is a steal!! This book is a nice complement to other Karpov collections(Mednis,Karpov,Kasparov), with only a few duplicated games. Many famous Karpov wins do not appear in this book. Karolyi selected games based on "instructive and artistic value" & credits other analysts throughout his book. For Karpov's personal history & background stories - read Kasparov & Seirawan. Karolyi is well-known for coaching the Polgars & Leko. I suspect many of these games have been used as student exercises, which explains Karolyi's explanatory writing style. This is a book for long-term studying; as many of Karpov's seemingly simple moves and re-grouping strategies are understandable only under repeated examination. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great new chess books! *by L***N on October 21, 2011* The last really great book to explain Karpov's way of playing was, "How Karpov Wins", by Grandmaster Edmar Mednis, (1975/1994). GM Mednis has passed away but this book lives on as possibly his most educational. Now comes along Two new books on Karpov's Play, "Karpovs Strategic Wins 1 - 1961-1985", 458 p.p. Quality Chess (2011). & "Karpov's Strategic Wins 2 - 1986-2010, 576 (!) p.p. Quality Chess (2011). Like the Mednis book, these two volumes by the very experienced International Master, Tibor Károlyi (Who also wrote two fantastic volumes on Gary Kasparov, and another good book about Judit Polgar, among others), was well worth waiting for - Superbly indexed, with detailed indexes, and many statistics (Including how Karpov's opponent's did against other world champions), is included in the two volumes. Of course the most important thing is how well the games are annotated & explained - Here again I was thrilled to see a fine blend of deep analysis (where necessary), and verbal explanation that rival's Mednis' earlier work. If you are a chess player with an understanding of the game between experienced beginner, and advanced amateur, and you desire to become a master-level player, then you cannot make a better choice then these two volumes - And even if you don't progress much in your chess ability from reading them, you will come away with hundreds of hours of enjoyment and learning about the play of one of the 3 greatest World Champions since 1972. ## Frequently Bought Together - Karpov's Strategic Wins: The Making Of A Champion 1961-1985 - Karpov's Strategic Wins 2: The Prime Years: 1986-2009 --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.fi/products/4607762-karpovs-strategic-wins](https://www.desertcart.fi/products/4607762-karpovs-strategic-wins) --- *Product available on Desertcart Finland* *Store origin: FI* *Last updated: 2026-05-25*