BCM Chess Book Reviews : September 2000

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French Winawer by Neil McDonald, Everyman, 144 pages, £14.99.

The author’s stated aim was to collect a number of interesting recent Winawer games and assess their impact on the state of theory. This is done via the analysis of 48 complete game scores. Most of them are dated 1999, though there are some from 2000 as well as the earlier 1990s. Of particular importance is the fact that the book is sufficiently up to date to include references to Linares 2000, where there were a few theoretically important Winawer games, particularly in the ‘declined’ variation (1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 a3 Ba5), recently championed by Khalifman. McDonald is to be congratulated on doing another thorough job and producing a very worthy book which will help readers to steer their way through the thickets of theory.







 

Modern Defence by Jon Speelman and Neil McDonald, Everyman, 160 pages, £14.99.

The Modern Defence is quite hard to write an opening book about, both because it is so flexible and also because it is difficult to hold the interest of the typically lazy people who play the Modern Defence. One book which succeeded in covering the ground was David Norwood’s Winning With The Modern, which read so felicitously (some unkind critics might use the adjective ‘skimpy’ to describe it) that even a theory-phobic ‘Mod’ would have little excuse for not reading through to the end. That 1994 book had some good ideas in it (one of which Speelman admits using for an Olympiad game), but the current volume puts a little more meat on the bones. There are 59 games analysed (though only one from 1999 and none from 2000), with four chapters where White does not play an early c4: they cover Gurgenidze systems with and without f4, variations where Black eschews ...Nf6 but plays the thematic ...a6, ...b5 advance. McDonald tackles these chapters and includes much textual detail (as well as close analysis) to help the reader understand the principles involved; but he is an infrequent player of the Modern Defence and does not sound overly convinced of its effectiveness in the chapter summaries. Speelman then takes over to cover lines where White plays an early c4, such as the Averbach variation which arises after 1 d4 g6 2 c4 Bg7 3 e4 d6 4 Nc3 Nc6, etc. He really gets into his stride with the Averbach lines with the flexible 4...Nd7, which seem to offer more prospects to ambitious Black players. In summary, no Modern Defence player will want to be without this book, and it can be recommended purely for the quality of the game annotations, with Speelman reprising some of the classics from the Modern Defence’s 1960s heyday.



 

Mikhail Botvinnik: Games Vol.1, 1924-1948, ed. Soloviov, Semkov and Krylova, CS Chess Stars, 510 pages, £18.99.

This is a complete collection of Botvinnik’s extant games from his earliest days up to and including his world championship victory in 1948. It is laid out and annotated in Informator style, with every game annotated to a greater or lesser degree (mainly greater), with the annotator identified. In a large number of cases this is Botvinnik himself. Also, modern game references help to indicate how theory has moved on. The games (573 in all) are in chronological order and interspersed with cross-tables and other data regarding Botvinnik’s career (in English). A gremlin has crept in on the content’s page which is a left-over from the Lasker book. A splendid production, well up to the standard set by the publisher’s previous Lasker and Chigorin collections.







 

Understanding Pawn Play in Chess by Drazen Marovic, Gambit, 208 pages, £14.99.

This book is for the self-improver, with seven detailed chapters on pawn configurations: isolated, hanging, passed, doubled, backward pawns as well as pawn chains and islands. The first chapter overlaps with Baburin’s excellent 1998 book Winning Pawn Structures, discussing the familiar isolated d-pawn positions that arise from several openings such as the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Caro Kann and Sicilian c3. This and each subsequent chapter consist of annotated games exemplifying the concept under consideration. The games are well-chosen, with many old familiar games amongst the more modern ones. Croatian Grandmaster Marovic is one of the old school, with an enviable track record as a trainer and writer. His style is clear but conservative, tending towards the dry, with few asides or anecdotes. Not one for the general reader, perhaps; but it should prove a reliable textbook for the ambitious student and might ultimately be regarded as a standard work on an important aspect of chess strategy.




 

Startling Correspondence Chess Miniatures by Tim Harding, Chess Mail, 128 pages, £11.99.

This is a collection of 100 correspondence chess games of 25 moves or less, and is the first book to be published by Chess Mail, the well-known correspondence chess magazine. Appropriately enough it is by Chess Mail’s editor Tim Harding, and like most of his many chess books, eminently readable and thoughtfully put together. Some of the great names of CC are featured here, among them Berliner, Zagorovsky and Andersson, as well as the surprising name of Peter Leko, who played for Hungary in a 1999 ICCF email tournament. Harding classifies the games into chapters, with particular reference to the myriad disasters that can befall the CC player (e.g. clerical error). A pleasurable read.






 

New in Chess Yearbook 55, ed. Sosonko and Van der Sterren, New In Chess, 236 pages, £15.00.

This edition has 38 opening surveys. It is very much ‘post-Linares’ with contributions from Yuri Dokhoian, Anand and Kramnik on some of the games from the tournament. Two Dutch analysts claim to have refuted the Wilkes-Barre variation of the Two Knights’ Defence.










 

Informator 78, Sahovski Informator, 376 pages, £21.00.

535 games from February-May 2000, annotated by the world’s top players, plus sections on combinations and endgames, and a retrospective article on Korchnoi. Kasparov was awarded the prize for the top game of the previous edition with his win against Van Wely from the Corus tournament; some consolation, perhaps, for not being awarded the ‘game of the round’ prizes that he felt he should have received at that competition.



 

Morra Gambit by Jozsef Palkovi, Caissa KFT, 337 pages, £13.99.

This is one for the die-hard Morra Gambiteer. You get a lot of analysis for your money, all excellently indexed and set out, with goodly amounts of textual advice and guidance. It is worth noting that the book does not set out to cover the following ways of declining the Morra Gambit: 1 e4 c5 2 d4 cxd4 3 c3 Nf6 or 3...d5, both of which belong more to the Sicilian c3 complex. But it does cover 3...d3 as well as off-beat gambit lines such as 3 Nf3.








 

The Sveshnikov Sicilian by Dorian Rogozenko, Chessbase CD-ROM, £18.50.

The author (a 27-year-old grandmaster now resident in Bucharest) underlines the growth in popularity of the Sveshnikov Sicilian, with more than half the games on the database (12,800+ in number) being played in the last six years. The format is the now-familiar Chessbase standard: an introductory text leads to a further 26 texts with analysis and discussion of different lines. There is a difficulty with the texts in that they are not linked together; and it can be difficult to find the variation you are looking for in the database list as the titles consist only of the last few moves of the variation. There is also a training database of 22 games, with questions to entertain and educate the reader. A good place to start for anyone thinking about playing the Sveshnikov.




 

The Chess Player’s Chronicle, Volume 9, 1848, Moravian Chess, 376 pages, £23.99.

The usual lively and informative account of chess in the mid-Victorian age. London may well have been a mecca for chess, but Yorkshire and Liverpool rivalled it when it came to eating and drinking.










 

The Chess Player’s Chronicle, Volume 10, 1849, Moravian Chess, 380 pages, £23.99.

Packed with game scores and problems as usual, this seems to have been a relatively slow year for hard news. The editor resorts to odd articles, such as a phrenological study of Mr Harrwitz, the celebrated blindfold player. There is also some jingoistic bombast about how wonderful England is and the “unvanquished prowess of her champion”.









 

Brooklyn Chess Chronicle, Volume 5, October 1886 - September 1887, Moravian Chess, 190 pages, £19.99.

Packed with game scores and problems as usual, this seems to have been a relatively slow year for hard news. The editor resorts to odd articles, such as a phrenological study of Mr Harrwitz, the celebrated blindfold player. There is also some jingoistic bombast about how wonderful England is and the “unvanquished prowess of her champion”.









 

American Chess Bulletin, Volume 33 (1936), Moravian Chess, 172 pages, £19.50.

Rather as Pillsbury had done in 1895, an American crossed the Atlantic to win the Hastings tournament. This time it was the up and coming Reuben Fine. The two big tournaments of the year – Moscow and Nottingham – are given excellent coverage, with Reshevsky contributing notes to some of his Nottingham games.



   

All Reviews by John Saunders
 

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