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BCM Chess Book Reviews : March 2004Return to the BCM Review Index
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The author is the mother of Gawain Jones, the 16-year-old English chess
prodigy, now of IM strength, and a writer of comic novels in her own right.
Clearly, a good sense of humour is required of any parent who finds that
his or her offspring becomes infected by the ‘chess bug’. But
we have no need to fear for the author, who has clearly overcome all the
seemingly insurmountable hurdles put in the way of the chess parent, and
is now sufficiently ‘savvy’ to be able to teach the next generation
of parents. The reviewer examined the book for any of the usual tell-tale
signs of cynicism and bitterness against chess, but found none. Ms Jones
has put chess players and people under the microscope, examined us closely
for peculiarities, and pronounced us normal.
Well, “mainly harmless” anyway, as in Douglas
Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Her narrative
is interspersed with some games played and annotated by her son. Particularly
good are the explanations of chess technical terms in the footnotes. We
have no qualms in recommending this highly literate and amusing account
of the realities of chess parenting. Indeed, we look forward to further
titles from her: perhaps a ‘Chess Parent Challenge’ quiz book?
“Your six-year-old has just poked his opponent in the eye with a
captured bishop: do you (a) give him a clip around the ear; (b) call a
lawyer; (c) say, loudly and clearly, ‘I’ve never seen this child
before’ and leave the room at high speed”, etc, etc. JS
The Rubinstein variation (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3) is probably
the most commonly-seen line of the Nimzo-Indian, with quite a number of
sub-variations. The author divides his material into three main chapters:
lines with 4...b6, 4...c5 and 4...0–0 with a view to following up
with ...d5. Those familiar with Dunnington’s writing style will know
to expect plenty of clear explanatory text rather than variation spaghetti.
Consequently, the concentration on fundamental ideas and structures means
that ‘only’ 18 games have been included, and not every option
has been explored. But this is completely consistent with the author’s
stated aims for the book and, if anything, make it more suitable as a
starting point for anyone thinking of taking up the Nimzo-Indian on either
side. JS
And still they keep coming... this is the third title in the series,
and Ward has also written three broadly similar It’s Your Move
books for Everyman. But who’s complaining, because they are very
popular and good fun. There are four tests, each of 20 questions, and
you have to choose the best of five solutions to each poser. Pick the
right answer and award yourself points. Ideal reading for sitting on trains,
though if the trains you use are as bad and slow as the ones the reviewer
uses, make sure that you take two or even all three volumes with you.
JS
Volume one was reviewed on page 365 of the July
2003 BCM. This one contains 186 annotated games, plus 100+ pages devoted
to crosstables and career statistics. As in the first volume, there are
overlaps with the Cadogan book on Smyslov, 125 Selected Games,
but it remains a valuable chess autobiography by one of the 20th century’s
greatest players. JS
The author’s name is unfamiliar in Europe. This is not surprising as, despite holding the IM title, he has confined himself to competition in domestic US events and seems to have been relatively inactive for more than a decade. This is a collection of 84 games and part-games, heavily-annotated and nearly all of them played by the author. He explores various different themes, including opening selection against stronger players, the initiative, outposts, etc. It’s well written and he’s a good analyst, though the selected material seems rather elderly, with only passing references to games played or books published since 1989. JS
The blurb sets the scene: “the rules of ‘The Greatest Tournament
in Chess History’, the $20 million Sheldrake Memorial Tournament,
held in Los Voraces, 2019, are: no seconds, no agents, no computers...
the 14 greatest chess players in the world gather to compete for money,
fame and eccentricity – and start turning up dead. Everyone is under
suspicion.” Originally serialised at the ChessCafé website
in 2001, this is satirical chess sci-fi, portraying chess as it might
be soon. Soltis’ vision of the future is beginning to look optimistic
– 14 players? Any more than one top player in the same room playing
chess is a minor miracle in 2004, and a prize fund of $20 million will
surely only be achieved by way of rampant inflation over the next 15 years.
It’s good fun, and the (mainly) fictionalised games very entertaining.
JS
This book falls into the proof-reader’s equivalent of Fool’s
Mate – two grammatical mistakes in the first sentence of chapter
one. There have not been too many books on the Two Knight’s Defence
(and even fewer good ones) in recent years so this book sets out to plug
a gap. However it draws heavily on Palkovi’s book for the Hungarian
publisher Caissa Kft in 2001 and it is not clear whether it adds much
to what was covered in the earlier book. JS
The editors of this Brooklyn-based periodical were WE Napier, Magnus Smith and Charles Nugent. Volume One covers June-November 1908 and contains 25 issues. It consists mainly of brief coverage of world events, plus some domestic US action. JS
These CDs are electronic versions of the same titles by Kalinin, with extra material in both cases. The computer implementations are based on Chess Assistant, with all the usual features of that database system. This can be a bit bewildering if, like the reviewer, you are more used to ChessBase, but handling is fairly intuitive. JS
