By IM John Donaldson, USA Olympic Team Captain and author
Pushing Horizons: The Chess Legacy of GM Vladimir Akopian is a worthy tribute to an outstanding player. Akopian, who is perhaps best known for finishing second behind Alexander Khalifman in the 1999 FIDE World Championship knockout in Las Vegas, is a former World Junior Champion who was a key member of the Armenian Olympic teams which won the 2006, 2008 and 2012 Chess Olympiads plus the 2011 World Team Championship.
This book is divided into two parts. The first half consists of 25 games against some of the very best in the history of chess (Tal, Smyslov, Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik etc.). These are presented with detailed notes that include not only explanatory prose and concrete variations, but background stories behind the games that make for fascinating reading. Akopian has also included fifty fragments from his games, again with excellent notes.
All this could have been a book in itself, but then comes over 160 pages of endgame studies and problems composed by Akopian. Before reading this book I was aware that Jan Timman, Pal Benko and Vassily Smyslov had the distinction of not only being world class players but also world class composers – now add Grandmaster Vladimir Akopian to this select list.
This is a wonderful book that will be appreciated by a wide range of chess players from tournament competitors to those who love studies and problems.
Pushing Horizons – The Chess Legacy of GM Vladimir Akopian – Vladimir Akopian – Thinkers Publishing
