|
|
|
Home • Shop
• Chess Books • Software
• Magazine • Chess
Sets & Boards • Computers •
Reviews • Ornate
Sets • Equipment
|
|
|
Contact • Links
• Map • Calendar
• Britbase • Bound
Volumes • Bridge •
Go • Backgammon
• Poker • Other
Games
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
BCM Chess Book Reviews : July 2004Return to the BCM Review Index
| Search for other BCM reviews by keyword
| More about BCM...
|
||||||||||||||||||
This is a nicely-presented collection of 28 themed games deeply annotated
by the author. There are two themes: the bishop pair and strong knights.
Only three of the games involve Timman. But he is a convincing and objective
annotator of his own games as well as others, as attested by his Fischer-Spassky
annotations as a much younger man. As with several other new titles this
month, we have not had much time to appraise this book but it looks very
impressive. JS
This book, written by a US correspondence grandmaster, will be of interest
to advanced players or computer chess buffs. Smith examines the way computers
analyse in considerable depth and then relates this to the human mind
via a number of interesting examples. There are chapters on the relative
strengths of humans and computers, computer-aided analysis methods, and
analysis of the opening, middlegame and endgame. It is quite advanced
material, but interestingly written and will repay close study. JS
A straightforward puzzle book by one of England’s most aggressive
young IMs. It is a pleasant mixture of old and new positions, batched
under chapters headings such as ‘strike in the centre’ and ‘attacking
on opposite sides’. Entertaining and instructive. JS
The review of the previous title largely applies to this new puzzle
book. Some of the author’s preambles are mystifying. For instance,
introducing Cox-Ingram, correspondence 1972, we are told “the remarkable
Mrs E Ingram was known as the ‘Star of Whitchurch’ due to her
success on the English chess scene.” We suspect an in-joke. JS
This hulking Russian-produced tome contains 4,267 combinations, nine
to a page, including composed studies and puzzles and dating in the main
from around the mid-point of the 20th century. Excellent teaching material:
if all else fails, the book can be used as a physical threat to quell
unruly students. JS
This is a follow-up to the same author’s Simple Chess, with chapters
on problem pieces, exchanging pieces, as well as chapters on bishops,
queens, kings and rooks. Emms peppers his narrative with examples from
practical play, and the whole thing makes for easy and instructive reading.
It would suit a player of elementary to intermediate standard, but would
also provide enjoyable “revision” reading for seasoned tournament
players. JS
This is collection of correspondence and email games, selected and annotated
in great depth by correspondence IM Tim Harding. It is very similar in
format (and quality) to his earlier 64 Great Chess Games. Many
of the names of the players may not be familiar to exclusively OTB players,
but Harding has thoughtfully included potted biographies, in some cases
very detailed and interesting. Harding is an assiduous and reliable researcher,
and his end-product very readable. JS
What would chess be without blunders? Probably very much like Linares
2004. And we wouldn’t want that, would we? I’m not so sure about
the second part of the title, but this book is certainly chock-full of
examples of the most egregious blunders around, mainly from the recent
past. Is there anything you can do to avoid them? Angus Dunnington gives
a few sensible hints, such as ‘don’t go for the flashy when
the mundane will do’, but I’m hoping that readers will read
this book to enjoy the humiliation of others rather than for its instructional
value. I know I did. It’s as addictive as one of those out-take TV
shows when they show famous actors fluffing their lines. JS
This is a very useful and practical book by Nigel Davies which gives
wide coverage to the wide variety of lines known under the generic heading
of the Reti. The opening is analysed via 65 annotated games covering the
various different configurations of the opening. Not too many of the games
are from the 21st century, which gives some indication that the opening
is out of fashion, but it is none the worse for that. Davies casts his
net wide and includes variations such as the Symmetrical English, Arkell’s
favourite ‘Speckled Egg’, and what looks more like a Pirc. A
few typos crop up: one venerable English chess writer’s name is rendered
as ‘Golumbek’. JS
This instructional disk contains video and database material to be used
in conjunction with the latest playing software to study the middlegame.
Note: you must have one of the following programs – Fritz 8, Shredder
8, Hiarcs 9 or Junior 8 – running on your computer to use this disk,
plus the latest interface which can be obtained from playchess.com. The
videos (mainly consisting of Peter Wells’ talking head) are of very
good quality, and there is more than three hours of lectures on fairly
advanced middlegame topics on the disk. JS
Fatter than the average Everyman title, this book contains 500 combination
exercises which are taken from games which started with the Sicilian Defence.
The author’s reason for concentrating solely on tactics from the
one opening system, however predominant, is not entirely convincing but
the reviewer was taken with his reason for jettisoning the familiar performance
indicator (‘if you scored 300, you are between Elo 2300-2400’
etc): “I would simply not be able to determine what kind of performance
would equal whatever Elo performance.” Nothing if not honest. As
in Dunnington’s blunders book, Aagaard deals with a number of ‘out-take’
positions: combinations which were brilliant but ultimately flawed. A
very enjoyable read. JS
In this book Glenn Flear deals with the Ruy Lopez (or Spanish) starting
from the position after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0
Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0–0, which forms the backbone of one of
the most famous openings in chess. At least it used to: the reviewer gains
the impression that the Lopez is less central to chess than it once was.
Many players shy away from so-called main lines, so much so that this
perhaps no longer constitutes a true ‘main line’ in terms of
frequency of use. But of course the author still has plenty of modern-day
examples to choose from, with a number of top-line players still defending
the Lopez in the traditional way. 76 games are annotated in some detail
and with the skill and detail we have come to expect from Flear. JS
A collection of articles on contemporary chess, plus full coverage of
the major events of 1907 including the Lasker-Marshall world championship
and the BCF Congress (Crystal Palace), with annotations by leading contemporary
players and journalists; general review of the year by Hoffer; history
of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted and Declined by J Pillado plus statistics
and records, recent problems and a directory for UK chess. JS
The usual mix of topics is present in the latest volume: chess correspondence
and gossip, book reviews (by Glenn Flear) and 30+ surveys of latest opening
theory. Good quality study material. JS
This is a disk-based follow-up to Yasser Seirawan’s first (paper)
Informator monograph on the B12 (Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann).
Additional features include an ‘expert database’ (3,716 reference
games), 556 further annotated games culled from Informator, a ‘test
your skills’ feature with 99 educative examples. The disk comes with
stand-alone software to enable you to access the data, but this can also
be loaded via the software of your choice. JS
This opening disk has 95 texts covering individual lines and over 500
of the 1,000 annotated games have been annotated by the author. There
are two training databases – one from the point of view of White
and the other from that of Black. The database contains over 26,000 games
and the disk comes with an opening tree and built-in reader software.
JS
Another high-quality opening disk packed with information for computer-based
study. This one is more suitable for advanced players and has 62 texts
and 500 annotated model games. The main database has over 27,000 games,
and there is the usual training database, opening tree and reader software.
JS
