Introduction
Leonid Stein, Lev Polugaevsky, David Bronstein, Paul Keres, and Lajos Portisch, the five legends explored in Marin’s Learn From the Legends 2, have a common trait, and, even though their styles are distinctive and unique, share an affinity towards attacking play. Marin writes: “…it became clear that tactical abilities and attacking skills were common elements in the styles of my heroes. This discovery gave me the general direction for the book, turning it into a slightly unusual form of tactical and attacking manual, within a biographical framework.”
“Readers can expect to enjoy a feast of attacking chess games backed up by often unusual ideas. This book will doubtlessly do well, and it deserves to. It is a timely reminder to the online generation that we still have much to learn from the games of the great chess legends.” ― Sean Marsh, Chess Magazine
In a way, Marin has deviated away from what I enjoyed most about the first volume of Legends. I always loved the book precisely because the chapters, titled “Rubinstein’s Rook Endgames”, or “Fischer’s Bishop”, gave me a great sense of direction and provided effortless learning of advanced concepts. The second volume is a book on attacking strategy, planning and executing attacks, calculation, and dynamic play. One needn’t view it as less valuable conceptually compared to the first book, just different.
About the Author
Mihail Marin is a Romanian Grandmaster and an accomplished author. His greatest chess achievement may be qualifying for the 1987 Interzonal. He has also won three Romanian Championships and has played in the Olympiads twelve times.
Marin has written numerous remarkable books, including Secrets of Attacking chess, an English Opening Repertoire in two volumes, a Pirc Defense Repertoire, a Leningrad Dutch Repertoire, a Dutch Sidelines Repertoire, and a Spanish Repertoire, all part of the great Grandmaster Repertoire series by Quality Chess. He has also written Learn from the Legends, his most famous work ever, and Learn From Bent Larsen.
“One day I will give Marin fewer than five stars, but today is not that day! A really lovely book, that I read at a joyously furious pace!” ― GM Matthew Sadler, New in Chess Magazine
Learn from the Legends – the original
The original book first came out as a series of articles in Romanian and Swedish publications. Only after it had already been well received, had it been transformed into a book. Books that come about that way are usually great. Learn From the Legends is no exception. Tried and tested material reworked on a higher level.
The four original articles, from which four of the chapters in the book were created, were written by Marin and his family members while they were trying to graduate from the school of chess trainers – they were their “master theses”. It consists of eight chapters, devoted to eight chess legends, six of whom became World Champions; Rubinstein, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, Karpov, and Korchnoi, and their technique in a specific type of position – one they were most famous for.
Structure of Learn From the Legends 2
The second volume follows the same structure as the first, since each chapter is devoted to one player. As I’ve said before, though, the chapters are themed, and apart from players’ names, they may as well be a single chapter. Marin highlights the differences between the players’ styles and attacking approaches though, which makes each part of the book relatively distinctive.
Each chapter consists of an introduction, often my favorite part. For some, it’s disappointingly brief, but for most, such as the one for the chapter on Paul Keres, it’s full of interesting information that provides insight into Keres’ mind and playing style.
The main body of the book are the excellently annotated games. Each chapter consists of multiple games, with detailed explanations of each move.
One of the main additions to the second volume are the test positions, which weren’t in the original. Each of the five chapters comes with complex test positions and very detailed solutions, adding depth to the book. Seldom are problems explained in such detail. Each test question is very detailed – it’s phrased very specifically, and asks the reader a very precise question, such as: “White is more active and the black queen is awkwardly placed. How did Keres take advantage of these elements?”
Quality of Annotations
What I wrote in my review of the first volume applies to the sequel too: “I don’t believe I’m about to say this, but the annotations are flawless. Every book I’ve read and reviewed so far has had the same flaw, more or less obvious – inadequate annotations, either in quality or quantity. Learn from the Legends is the first exception.”
Mihail Marin has managed to both explain each move, each idea, and each principle and instructive point in detail, and he has managed to find a perfect balance between variations, their depth, and the amount of annotations.” So Learn From the Legends 2 is the second book on my list of perfectly annotated chess books.
The difference between the annotations, both their quality and quantity in the two books, doesn’t exist. They are flawless.
Difficulty
Marin’s teaching approach and the way the material is presented, as was the case in the first volume as well, may be best suited for advanced players. They are, however, just as important for beginner and intermediate level players to master. Since Learn From the Legends 2 is a game collection more than anything else, I believe that anyone could follow it with a board on the side. My conclusion is that anyone above beginner level, say 1400 online, would greatly benefit from the book, but advanced players, 1800 FIDE and above, should think of Learn from the Legends 1 and 2 as must-read books for improving their technique.
The test positions are difficult, but well within any advanced player’s skill level. My completion rate was almost perfect.
How should you use the book?
Here is what worked for me: I went through the book with a board, and I was setting up all the positions and analyzing all the sidelines. I paused whenever something Marin wrote wasn’t immediately clear. If I was unfamiliar with the concept he was explaining, or if I couldn’t understand the position, I would treat it as a problem I had to solve. I think that approach would work best for all readers. I was engaged, and the process felt like training, but it remained fun.
Conclusion
A perfectly annotated attacking manual, game collection, and a short biographical overview of the lives and playing styles of five lesser known chess geniuses of the 20th century, Leonid Stein, Lev Polugaevsky, David Bronstein, Paul Keres, and Lajos Portisch, who were living and playing, and still remain in the shadow of the true celebrities of their time, like Fischer and Tal.
