Book Reviews by John
Watson
John Watson - Photo © Jonathan
Berry
#71 Favorites, Part
1
Fire on Board II: 1997-2004; Alexei Shirov; 192 pages;
Everyman Chess, 2005
Secrets of Opening Surprises 2; Jeroen Bosch, editor;
141pages; New in Chess 2005
Secrets of Opening Surprises 3; Jeroen Bosch, editor;
144pages; New in Chess 2005
Tactics in the Chess Opening #3; Friso Nijboer and
Geert van der Stricht, 237 pages; New in Chess 2005
Curacao 1962, The Battle of Minds that Shook the Chess
World; Jan Timman; 224 pages; New in Chess 2005
How to Play the Queen's Gambit mr. Kasparov Series No 1;
DVD, 3+ hours; ChessBase 2004
Chess Informant 92; 400 pages; Chess Informant 2005
The Chigorin Defence (English translation) Valery
Bronznik; 336 pages; Kania 2005 Followers of this column (and
publishers) must think that that I have long since moved to some Antarctic
hideaway, without access to the Internet. They are right: I did precisely that,
but have returned to civilization in order to pick up some warm clothing and to
report upon a selection of chess books that have appeared over the last year or
so. In some cases they were published earlier and I let them slip by without
comment. Postal service on ice floes being what it is, I hadn't set eyes upon a
number of these until my return nor had time to adequately take them in.
How to deal with such an accumulation of material? My solution is to
review books that I have spent real time on, but also fill a few columns noting
features (in some cases arbitrarily-chosen) of products that caught my eye.
This is patently unfair, of course, but I will try to present books that I have
at least enough familiarity with to recommend, and will also try to make clear
when that is not the case. So many works have come into being, especially in
the last year (2005), that it isn't really necessary to dwell upon those of
inferior merit, although I will allow myself some general comments that may
serve as clues. To get one such out of the way, opening books are
underrepresented on these lists relative to their numbers. Having spent some
time investigating recent opening books with my students (those willing to take
Arctic shuttles or hitchhike on icebreakers), my opinion is that most are being
produced far too rapidly and in offhand fashion. It seems as though every time
that we needed to look at a specific line, openings books either skipped the
important questions and/or gravely misanalysed the variations. What may
initially seem like a handy way to overview an opening is too often a download
of games and annotations with some verbal window dressing. More than a handful
of authors are accepting their engines' verdicts without guiding them or
waiting long enough for them to settle down. The main problem seems to be that
some writers are simply cranking out too many books, CDs, DVDs, articles, etc.
A portion of this output will still be useful, even very useful, but it's hard
to guess which. So buyer/reader beware. For certain of your favourite openings,
it might be more constructive and educational to form your own 'books' by
manipulating databases and studying the results. That said, there are
plenty of exceptions and I will include several of them below. This column
lists some personal favourites, primarily books but with a CD and DVD included.
Most are from 2005, but not hot-off-the-presses. Over the next columns I will
add other recommended works, with the last columns having the highest number of
recently-released books. In spite of my inevitable reservations, I think that
all of these products are worth having if they fit your particular tastes or
needs as a player. Once in a while, I'll intersperse a few brief
complaints/criticisms about books that I don't like when it seems appropriate.
My choices are somewhat impressionistic and necessarily limited, such that I
ignore some good works including a few that have been created by friends and
colleagues. Some of these will be mentioned as we go along.
Let me begin
with Fire on Board II: 1997-2004. It was in my very first column years
ago that I praised Alexei Shirov's Fire on Board to the highest degree.
It is still one of my favourite books. Guess what? The second volume is quite
as good as the first. At the time of this writing, Shirov has just
received his worst drubbing ever in a professional tournament (although this
was a Rapids Event, hardly as serious as a Linares or Corus/Wijk aan Zee). This
could be for a variety of reasons, but is in any case stunning for a player who
has been over 2700 for so many years. It's likely that some will be counting
him out in future events. I'd gladly give odds against that. Possibly excepting
Kasparov, I believe that Shirov is the greatest tactical genius of our time, at
least if one speaks in the traditional sense of consistently playing ingenious
moves and finding fantastic combinations in game after game. Even the ideas
that he doesn't play, or the ones he sees for his opponents, are imaginative in
a way that stands out above the crowd. That isn't to say that all the ideas are
objectively sound, nor that every one of them is followed up with the pitiless
accuracy of a Kasparov or Anand. Sometimes Shirov lets his opponent off the
hook, or risks too much and has to create from an inferior position, thus
opening himself up to the charge of 'swindler'. Let's face it: we don't see a
lot of swindling from profound thinkers such as Adams, or Kramnik, nor from
great attackers like Anand. Nevertheless, Shirov's ability to attack and
defend in complex positions inevitably reminds one of the great Tal. However
overused that comparison may be (they are both Latvians, which makes it more
compelling), I think that it's an appropriate one. In Fire on Board
II , we see a more objective and self-critical Shirov, made perhaps too
judgmental by today's powerful analytical engines. He analyses 53 games, some
using his original notes that have appeared elsewhere. He also annotates a good
many games from scratch solely for the book, and others are re-annotated based
upon published analysis. Such reuse is true of all serious biographies of
top-flight active players today, in part because they annotate so many of their
best games for publication. Not surprisingly, Fritz appears throughout in
Shirov's reanalysis and reassessment. At the same time he rebels against the
computer engine's role and its reputation for omniscience. I wince at even the
thought of reproducing the following position from Topalov-Shirov, Linares 1998
for the 2000th time but it's necessary to complement his statement about chess
creativity:
Okay, only residents of my neighboring ice floe don't know
that Shirov played the amazing 47...Bh3!!. He says: 'The idea of
giving up the bishop in order to gain the necessary tempo seems very logical
and easy to find when it has already been played, but no computer program
proved competent enough to suggest it. I would like to think that no human in
chess history would be able to find it under the same conditions, but who
knows...? Maybe the Swedish grand-master, Ulf Andersson, would be able to rise
to the challenge....' and goes on to explain that Andersson had played a
similar move against Shirov 7 years before (well, similar in a limited sense of
having a related idea) , which may have planted a seed, although he doesn't
claim to know. He says: 'In chess, as in any other field, you need to reach
beyond your knowledge (the greater the knowledge, the further you can go!). And
that's when creativity begins.' By the way, Topalov-Shirov is a good example of
the latter's first-rate endgame play, a feature typical of great calculators'
games. In Fire on Board (1) Shirov devoted a 23-page chapter to his most
interesting endgames. Continuing with the theme of computer analysis,
let's look at Shirov-Reinderman, Wijk aan Zee 1999. This is certainly
not the most brilliant game in the book but illustrates typical features of
Shirov's style as well as the way that computers can strip the romantic aspect
from exciting contests. In the middle I have included some comments of
Shirov's, which as you will see are mostly ironic ones. The game reached this
position:
20.e5 This dynamic attacking move was given an "!"
by annotators at the time, rightfully swept up in the game's course. But Shirov
questions it and feels obliged to go into a rather lengthy computer-assisted
analysis that ultimately shows that 20.f5! f6 21.Ra1! was best, leading to an
apparently winning endgame. Moves like 21.Ra1 are not in Shirov's or most
people's style. 20...d5? Again, we find that although most of Black'
natural moves can be refuted by nice tactics, he had the strange move 20...Qd7!
(obvious to the computer, I guess) since 21.Ne4 (the move that prompted
20...d5) 21...dxe5 22.Nf6+ only draws, and 21.Bxh7+ Kxh7 22.Ne4 f6 23.exf6 Kg8!
ultimately draws following a forced line that ends in perpetual check on move
34! Thus Shirov assigns '?!' to 20.e5. Give me back the days of overenthusiasm!
21.Nf3! Qd7 Correct this time. 22.Bxh7+! An obvious move, right?
But to the more careful observer it's not at all evident that the attack will
succeed. In view of the following complications, many other masters might bank
upon their positional advantage instead. 22...Kxh7 23.Qh4+ Kg8 24.Ng5 Re8!
Not 24...Rd8? 25.Qh7+ Kf8 26.Qh8+ Ke7 27.Qxg7 Rf8 28.f5. 25.Rf3!
Jonathan Tisdall, who was present at the game, gave this move a ''!!" and
said: 'Most people would have concentrated on 25.Qh7+ Kf8 26.Qh8+ Ke7 27.Qxg7
but 27...Kd8 does not leave white with a clear continuation of the attack.
Shirov prefers to keep the black king at home.' 25...Ne7 Forced.
25...Rxb3 26.Rh3! Kf8 27.Nh7+ Kg8 28.Nf6+. 26.Qh7+ 26.Rh3?? Ng6 and
Black defends nicely. 26...Kf8 27.Qh8+ Ng8 Tisdall: 'It is not obvious
what white has achieved by allowing Black to bring his knight into the defence.
White follows through with a new series of line-opening sacrifices.'
28.f5!
Now let's hear from Shirov: 'Fritz claims that 28 Bf2!,
strangling the king, would be more effective, but unfortunately I learned to
attack with old books.' 28...exf5 29.e6! Shirov:
'29.Nh7+?! Ke7 30.Bg5+ Ke6 31.Qxg7 d4! would create some unnecessary mess, if
only from a human point of view. White is winning after 31.g4! according to the
silicon monster.' 29...fxe6 Shirov: 'At least there
is some solidarity in the line 29...Rxe6 30.Nh7+ Ke7 31.Bg5+ f6 32.Qxg8, which
I saw during the game'. 30.Rg3! g6 31.Nh7+ Kf7 32.Bh6 .
Shirov: 'I saw this move when playing 22.Bxh7+. And you, my German
friend?' [jw: a reference to Fritz, the German analytical engine; even today my
own engines can't say yes to that one] 32...Ke7 No
better is 32...Nxh6 33.Qf6+. Ribli offers the pretty line 32...Bf8 33.Bxf8 Rxf8
34.Rxg6! Qa7+ 35.Kh1 Kxg6 36.Nxf8+ Kg5 37.Qxg8++- Kf6 38.Nh7+ Ke5 39.Qg3+ f4
40.Re2+ Kd6 41.Qxf4+ Kc6 42.Rc2+. 33.Bg5+ Kf7 34.Bf6
Shirov: 'Too concerned about aesthetics and a little short of time, I didn't
notice 34.Nf6, after which Fritz gives an unusual evaluation of +25.52 in
White's favour'. 34...Rf8 '34...Bf8 35.Ng5 mate is
how I would prefer to end the game, of course.' 35.Rc7!
Shirov: 'Not +25.52 any more, but still clearly winning for White. Not a
bad end to an attack starting with 20.e5, is it?' 35...Nxf6
36.Qxf6+ Ke8 37.Qxg6+ Kd8 38.Rxd7+ Bxd7 39.Nxf8 Bxf8 40.Qf6+ Be7 41.Rg8+ Kc7
42.Qc3+ Kb7 43.Rxb8+ Kxb8 44.h4! 1-0 Tisdall called this "A textbook
attacking game, with a wealth of instructive, thematic ideas."
Wandering around in the same time period, I found the brief example from
Shirov-Ljubojevic, Amber-blindfold, Monte Carlo 1999. Shirov himself
calls this 'a relatively easy game' that he included because it was 'nice to
remember'.
White has sacrificed a pawn and has a more than enough
compensation because of the d5 square. The question is how to best exploit that
advantage. 16.f5! Shirov calls this 'a positional
approach', citing the short time control as a factor in making the decision.
Indeed, it turns out that 16.Nb6? Qe6 17.Nxa8 Rxa8 gives Black compensation.
16...Bd8 17.Rhg1 Nxe3 18.Qxe3 f6 19.h4! The last force
needed for the attack. 19...Qf7 20.h5! Kh8 Or 20....Qxh4 21.Rg3! with a
dangerous attack. But this proves just as dangerous. 21.Rg6! Rg8
Obviously not 21...hxg6? 22.hxg6. 22.Rdg1 h6? A natural move in
order to stop h6, but Shirov points out that he had to try 22...b5! 23.h6 hxg6
24.Rxg6! gxh6 25.Rxh6+ Kg7 26.Qh3 Kf8 27.Rh7! and White wins the queen but
still has to find a way to win. Now White plays a relatively simple but still
pretty combination: 23.Nxf6! Bxf6 24.Rxh6+ gxh6 25.Qxh6+ Qh7 26.Qxf6+ Rg7
27.h6. Not a bad combination of when you consider that it's a blindfold
game, and at rapid time controls at that! 27... Rag8 28.Rg6 b5 29.hxg7+ Rxg7
30.Rh6 1-0 In general the quality of blindfold chess has risen
dramatically over the last decade or so, such that top-level blindfold games,
even Rapid ones, are published regularly as 'normal' examples of play. This is
a fine example. Shirov spends only 9 pages describing his life since
the first book, but they are dense ones, both physically and in terms of
events. He addresses with bitterness (justified in my opinion) the failure to
hold the World Championship that he qualified for by defeating Kramnik. He lays
forward his case briefly, then describes the simultaneous blows from a divorce
and the financial disaster connected with the match that didn't take place.
Remarkably, as the ignored winner of the Kramnik match he never even received
the promised compensation for the match having been cancelled, much less for
winning it, while Kramnik the loser was rewarded financially on the spot and
later by means of his match with Kasparov. Ultimately Shirov overcomes his
problems, revives his career, and mixes fatherhood with chess. He continues on
with this autobiographical narrative up through early 2005, concluding on a
note of optimism. At the end he promises a future Fire on Board 3 . I
already look forward to that with great anticipation, since these first two
books are absolute masterpieces of the games collection/autobiography genre.
This is easily the first book that I would get if I had to choose amongst those
of 2005.
Jeroen Bosch's Secrets of Opening Surprises 2 and 3 are quite
different that the first volume that I praised highly when it first came out in
2003. In the case of the original Secrets of Opening Surprises ('SOS'),
Bosch's own New In Chess Magazine columns were collected into a 204 page
book. In these last two volumes he is both author and editor. Volume 2 has five
articles by Bosch and 12 by other strong players, including grandmasters
Beliavsky, Notkin, Krasenkow, Rogozenko, Movsesian. Glek and Rowson. Volume 3
contains five more articles by Bosch and the contributions of, for example,
Romanishin, Rogers, Mikhail Gurevich (two articles), Chernikov, Flear, and more
(Rogozenko and Beliavsky appear again). One thing remains constant, however:
the openings discussed in the articles are all eccentric, ranging from the
nearly -nonsensical to those which are more established but still part
of the underground chess movement. For all except the professional player and
the "irregular openings" fanatic, some if not the majority of these opening
ideas will indeed be surprises. Bosch's first chapter in both volumes
is an update on the theory presented in earlier editions, 8 pages in Volume 2
and 9 pages in Volume 3. This update can be as interesting as anything else as
it covers such diverse ground. In #2 we return to openings with a3 such as
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.a3 and 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7
5.a3!?. Magnus Carlsen's miniature victory versus Dolmatov with 1.Nf3 f5
2.d3 was an inspiration not only Bosch but also Stefan Kindermann in his
2005 Leningrad System translation and rewrite (see next review column).
The Volume 3 update includes four pages of developments in the Albin
Countergambit, new information about 1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5
4.Ne5!?, the fairly well-known but eccentric idea 1.e4 c5 2.c3
Qa5!?, and the strange 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.g3 Nxe4!? This
is all in the first chapter. I hope that you're beginning to get the idea.
Turning to the actual articles, Volume 2 includes (by way of example)
Notkin's discussion of 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 h5!?, Bosch on 3...h6 in
the French (3.Nd2 h6 and 3.Nc3 h6), Movsesian on 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.h3!? and Rowson on the remarkable Gruenfeld with
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Na4!?, a replacement
for Nalbandian's original 5.Na4!?. Volume 3 has Gurevich discussing 1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 e6 3.d3 Nc6 4.g3 Bd6!?, Bosch on 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Na3 e5!?, Mark
Bluvshtein covering 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3, Rogers 1.e4 c6 2.e4 d5
3.f3 e5!?, and so forth. The thing that surprises me most about
these articles is that however obscure an idea may be, it seems that there are
always bundles of games to quote and a surprising number of IM and GM
practitioners. It seems that everyone would like to escape from the exhausting
task of keeping current with main-line theory. Now for the important
point: These ideas are fun! Anyone can sit back, absorb this material, daydream
about playing some nutty idea, and then actually do so against that master who
always beats you in the opening! As the articles demonstrate, the sheer
surprise of the key moves has defeated many opponents; why not yours? Bottom
line: you may have to be crazy to play these variations, but you'd definitely
be crazy not to buy at least one of these titles.
I should
also mention Tactics in the Chess Opening , a fairly recently-started
series by New in Chess that resembles SOS in look and proportion. The latest
that I have is #3, by Friso Nijboer and Geert van der Stricht; 237 pages; New
in Chess 2005. The title is not misleading but the material isn't what you
might expect. There are plenty of standard traps, but not many superficial
ones. And mostly, the volumes consist of tactical ideas that arise in a given
opening after reasonable moves for both sides, such that the combination may
not appear until move 15-20 or so. Most of the time these tactics are tied to
opening theory, e.g., a dynamic move that improves upon a previously
established one or the punishment for an error. But sometimes the tactics are
simply from a nice game in a particular opening system having little or nothing
to do with theory. All in all this is a very instructive series; I wouldn't
call it a personal favourite in the sense of SOS or other works on this
page, but it is a high-quality product that is particularly appropriate for
getting an overall grasp on the dangers and opportunities available in a given
opening. To be clear, however, the material is divided by variation and
thematic context of various tactics is usually not presented. I do think that
it is too advanced for most young students and less experienced players. Just
about everyone else can benefit from the Tactics in the Chess Opening
series, especially the average club and tournament player.
Jan Timman's
Curacao 1962, The Battle of Minds that Shook the Chess World is a
rarity: a serious tournament book annotated by a leading player. And what a
battle: Keres, Petrosian, Fischer, Tal, Korchnoi, Geller, Fischer, Benko, and
Filip facing off in what turned out to be one of the most consequential events
in chess history. All the games of the 28-round Candidates tournament are
included, and Timman picks out many of them (perhaps about half?) to annotate.
He does so for the most part in a wordy and friendly style that suits the needs
of casual skimmers (me, for the time being) as well as dedicated readers.
Not surprisingly, Timman discusses at some length the tournament
collaboration of Geller, Petrosian, and Keres, which consisted of taking
prearranged draws with each other. Fischer famously called this "cheating". He
also included Korchnoi in the group, and said that the "Russians" were
conspiring to gain an advantage against him by conserving energy while he had
to play tiring (real) games. Of course, an agreement to draw games and conserve
energy wasn't necessarily a conspiracy to stop Fischer, who had just shown his
ability to rack up win after win in Stockholm. Anyway, a Preface by Alex Roose
and a chapter by Timman supply both background and surrounding material to
explain the nuances of the situation. His take seems to be that eight days of
relative rest are indeed a helpful factor, but that the accusations against
Korchnoi (including throwing a game) are at best unproven. Actually, over the
last 30 years, the clear majority of American Swiss System tournaments with the
participation of strong players would have had different results if top players
hadn't taken prearranged draws in some games. All the more so for
Invitationals. Whether ethical or not, it's natural for friends to do so and I
suspect that the practice is common worldwide. Incidentally, the only player of
the three to comment upon the charge later, Keres, suggested that this was a
policy that would only benefit players in the bottom half of the crosstable!
That's objectively true; nevertheless, the evidence is very strong that he
indeed took part. As for the idea that this scheme would cause Fischer to use
up more energy then the others , no one seems to mention the fact that the
younger man had his best result in the fourth and last quarter of the
tournament, leading the pack with a +2 score out of 6 games! His poor finish
(3.5 points behind the winner) was surely not the result of exhaustion.
The book contains 38 photographs, most of which I haven't seen before, and
includes a very well-written capsule portrait of each participant. Timman
points out that Fischer and Tal were considered the favourites to win Curacao.
Tal fell ill early on and dropped out, whereas Fischer fell short of
expectations, but not excuses. Ultimately Petrosian won the tournament and
qualified for his championship match versus Botvinnik. After winning that match
and becoming World Champion, Petrosian went on to defeat Spassky to hold the
title for two consecutive terms. For those who place Petrosian on a lower level
than other champions, the events from the time of Capablanca forward indicate
how difficult his accomplishment was. Furthermore, as this book shows,
qualifying was itself a great feat. I've wandered from the subject and
this has been an inadequate description of Timman's effort. But I feel that,
like Bronstein's Zurich 1953 , his Curacao 1962 will be enjoyed
by lovers of the game for years to come, and never grow old.
The title
and cover of How to Play the Queen's Gambit mr Kasparov Series No. 1 (a
multimedia product/video presentation) caught my attention right away. The
title itself seems extremely odd, and on the same cover we see the name again:
"mr. kasparov", with an arrow pointing to a strange picture of Kasparov, the
top of his head cut off by the package! The title is repeated as a light
background graphic, with the words themselves wrapping around the side of the
package! Then there is another mysterious arrow pointing off the side of the
package along with the standard shadow coming out of the corner of the
ChessBase symbol. Finally, the tiny words "Training with Garry Kasparov" appear
below the main title. ChessBase seems to have repeated this unfortunate design
with Kasparov's Najdorf video: it has a different photo of Kasparov but keeps
the head-cut-short motif. Well, I have to have a little fun with
these things once in a while. Seriously, my attitude going in was that we were
likely to see a more-or-less conventional presentation of the Queen's Gambit
with Kasparov lending his name and presence on the video. Not that he wouldn't
do so genuinely enough, but I suspected that the reason for using an
ultra-high-profile narrator and not another equally competent master was to
ensure commercial success. Whether or not that is the case, Kasparov isn't at
all content with a formal appearance. He throws himself into an involved and
enthusiastic presentation that is suffused with respect for the opening's turns
and twists as well as nostalgia for its history. He makes the material fun and
fascinating without sacrificing too much detail. The coverage is to the point
and an excellent fit for moderately experienced players who are interested in
learning about the main lines of the Classical Queen's Gambit. In
this case, the variation under study encompasses only the main lines of
Queen's Gambit Declined 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 . That's a vast subject, but be
aware of its limited breadth. The Slav or Semi-Slav with 2...c6 or 2...e6 3.Nc3
c6 are not included, although the latter is given an overview section which
describes without analysis what moves constitute a Moscow and Botvinnik
Variation, for example. Along the same lines, other QGDs like 2...Nc6 and
2...Bf5 are not included. Even within the Classical move order, there is no way
that a single DVD can include serious coverage of the many systems involved
(e.g., the Cambridge Springs, Ragozin, and Vienna), but Kasparov does include
lengthy discussion of Bf4 variations, which are often given short shrift by
books. In the Exchange Variation, both major setups are thoroughly examined -
the Carlsbad with Nf3 and the modern variations with f3. In the latter case he
shows his own games versus Andersson and Short. All sorts of anti-Carlsbad
setups are given butKasparov doesn't seem to think that any of them yield an
advantage. Be aware that Kasparov doesn't provide a complete
repertoire with minute details, but you could play these lines against strong
competition and be well armed. You should know that to get the full
benefit of the lectures you'll need some version of ChessBase 9. Fortunately
the DVD comes with a ChessBase 9.0 Reader. I viewed the product directly from
the disc on my PC; only someone who is indifferent to hard disk space would
install the video files. But the accompanying database files don't use up a
great deal of room. Subtitles (an option that I'm not aware was available in
earlier products) are in German, Spanish, Italian, and English (the language
Kasparov uses). The format is straightforward, without sophisticated
audio or visual features. In front of a bare background, Kasparov is seen
explaining the material step-by-step while the relevant moves are shown in
separate windows on a board and in notation. The organization of material for
individual systems is outstanding. He usually begins with the play of the older
masters and then moves on to modern discoveries, while giving his own
assessments of various lines' playability. Kasparov enthuses over the
extraordinary history of each system, respectfully detailing each master's
distinctive contribution. It's an admirable performance that I feel reflects
his genuine feelings. Examples of the depth of coverage (time in parentheses):
Lasker's Defence (16:03); Capablanca's Variation (19:32); Exchange Variation
(18:45); Alatorsev Variation (3...Be7) (13:10); Tartakower system (14:51).
These sections are full of games but they are followed by in-depth
examinations of famous games in the Queen's Gambit, including Kasparov's own. .
Some typical games that he covers are 3 from the Karpov-Yusupov match, tests of
Lasker's Variation and the Saemisch Variation, comparing the Lasker fights with
a later Kramnik-Gelfand game and Smyslov-Kasparov. Naturally he discusses
classics like the Fischer-Spassky Tartakower Variation and several of the
'Capablanca Variation' QGDs from the Alekhine-Capablanca World Championship
match (33 of the 34 match games were QGDs!). Generally he prefers to spend more
time on individual games than breakdowns of variations. Kasparov's
offhand comments are revealing. For example, as he describes White's plans of
e4-e5 and f4-f5 in the Exchange Variation with f3, he adds something to the
effect of "Of course this is the real world and such things don't happen",
meaning that the opponents are too strong to let White achieve that. And he
dismisses many variations as being insufficient to play for advantage or
essentially drawn but it's obvious that he is thinking about a something akin
to a hypothetical game between himself and Kramnik or Karpov! In several of
these lines White has a small advantage (with perhaps a slight nod by theory),
something the average player needs to take into account when committing to play
one side or the other. I haven't room to talk enough about this
multimedia publication, but I should say that it ranks way up there with the
best products on CDs and DVDs. Anyone interested in this opening of the past
and present is urged get it. How to Play the Queen's Gambit is a great
production by both Kasparov and the ChessBase folk, although they really should
think about that cover design!
I don't think there has ever been a bad
Chess Informant . It's a bit arbitrary to single out Volume 92, but it's
the most recent that I have (#94 just appeared, I think), and the format and
quality of Informants don't change much from issue to issue. Indeed, #92 is no
exception, with 522 annotated games and the usual cast of great annotators,
e.g., Adams, Anand, Bologan, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Kasparov, Kramnik, Leko,
Polgar, Shirov, Short, and many others. As always, this volume begins with the
10 best games and 10 most important novelties from the preceding one. There is
also a theoretical survey in ECO format, and sections on combinations and
endings. Robert Huebner's career is featured in a 16-page section with an
excellent selection of games and positions. One can refer to previous reviews
and their website below to get the flavour of what's offered. The main games
are still the heart of Informants; they are brilliant and/or essential to
following the latest developments in hundreds of openings. It is indicative of
their quality that Chess Informants are used by every titled player that I've
met over the years, and by most other serious players. They come in a softcover
volume of about 400 pages or on a CD, which requires their own free Chess
Reader to read. The only caveat I can think of is that the Informants are
languageless and their often intricate game annotations are entirely symbolic.
This may be undesirable or even intimidating for the occasional player, while
such a presentation is too advanced for the inexperienced. The
company Chess Informant has also published new opening monographs annotated by
experts on varations of the Caro-Kann (B12, authored by Velikovic), Sicilian
(B22, authored by Sveshnikov), and Ruy Lopez (C78, authored by Belyavsky and
Mikhalchishin). I may be mistaken but I think that this monograph series was
suspended some years back and has just now been revived. I used to have
editions on the French and Ruy Lopez by Korchnoi and Bareev, whose notes were
very useful. That was before we had databases of such size and ease off
manipulation: since similar material may now be collected from a database
(i.e., the raw moves alone) the key here is the extent and quality of the
contributions of the authors. I don't know what they consist of so I'm not sure
what to recommend here except to take a flyer if it's a variation that's of
special interest to you, or try to get a look at another copy before
purchasing. There are many other products that deserve note, for
example, newer volumes of the famous ECO series and the Anthology of
Combinations. You may want to visit http://www.sahovski.co.yu to see what the
Informant crew has been doing recently.
Finally, a mere mention: The
German version of Valery Bronznik's The Chigorin Defence was reviewed at
great length in a previous column [Review 46]. I felt
that it was not only a great book but gave the Chigorin a new status of
full-fledged respectability. It has now been translated and in this new English
edition Bronznik has put a tremendous amount of effort into updating the
material. This is no small task in view of the defence's current popularity. I
strongly recommend this book and even urge you to take up the opening!
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