|
|
|
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 : February 2005Return to the BCM Review Index
| Search for other BCM reviews by keyword
| More about BCM...
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Those who have bought one of the first three volumes will already be
familiar with the format and style. Kasparov is much less familiar with
Fischer than he was with his previous subjects, and some of his conclusions
are questionable. For example, he reads into Fischer’s withdrawal
from the 1967 Sousse interzonal a fear of taking on Spassky at that time.
Most people at the time would have ascribed it to Fischer’s general
irrationality. Kasparov is also a little dismissive of Larsen as a great
force in the chess world. Perhaps the best section of the book is the
chapter on Reshevsky, which highlights his qualities in exemplary style.
JS
Scottish IM Eddie Dearing kicks off with two pages of light-hearted acknowledgements
in which he seemingly lists everyone he has ever met in his twenty-odd
years on the planet. Rather a frivolous beginning, but do not be put off:
behind the playful exterior, there is a serious student of the game and,
if this book is anything to go by, a very able writer too. Dearing opts
for ‘tree’ (rather than ‘game-by-game’) presentation,
which tends to be harder work for the writer but ultimately more useful
for the reader – especially when dealing with such a theoretical
minefield as the Sicilian Dragon. The author tells us of his almost obsessional
enthusiasm for Dragon opening theory in this introduction and this is
well reflected in the pages that follow. It is a splendid piece of work
and a most auspicious writing debut. JS
Definitely a book for the serious student of the game, but it still manages to come across as very readable and practical: so there is no reason why a dilettante should not dip into it and gain knowledge. Hansen is good at expressing himself in simple, logical terms and he is careful with terminology and definition. Chapters cover such topics as imbalances, weaknesses, bishops and knights, etc. There are also some exercises to test your progress. JS
There are no chess games in this new book on Fischer: it is about Fischer
the man. It combines some biography and interviews with people who know/knew
Fischer, or have had some interactions with him. Interviewees include
Karpov, Seirawan and Short. From a skim-read it looks like there is some
interesting new material here. JS
This is the second, fully revised edition of a work which first appeared
in 1997. This is the third book on this opening which has been published
in as many months, thus reflecting a major surge in its popularity, which
has grown since 1995 when it was first used in a world championship match
by Vishy Anand. There are 72 games analysed, many of them from correspondence
chess (a rich source for opening experimentation). JS
The book’s sub-title is ‘how to set up and execute decisive
attacks’ and it appears in Everyman’s series of ‘how to’
books for the improving player. However, it should have been called ‘Plaskett’s
Best Attacking Games’ and it will appeal to players of all standards.
Jim Plaskett has one British title to his name, and not too much else
by way of big tournament successes, but he has always punched above his
weight in one-off games against star names. He can beat anyone on his
day, and we see wins against the likes of Anand and Short in this book,
presented in his whimsical, gossipy style. You may or may not learn something
from the book, but you can be sure of being richly entertained. JS
This book starts with a thumbnail biography of Alekhine, with some lightly-annotated
games, and then concentrates on presenting 150 puzzles from his play.
It is a slight work, with some obvious factual inaccuracies and infelicities
of translation, but should be treated as a popular title written more
for entertainment than serious education. JS
The second title from new publishers Quality Chess is a collection of
different grandmasters’ ideas for countering the Sicilian Defence.
Contributors include Luther, Golubev, Aagaard, Wells and Peter Heine Nielsen.
This is effectively a repertoire book for White so don’t expect to
find anything other than 2 Nf3 followed in most cases by 3 d4. It is well
written and indexed, and very up to date. JS - NOTE: 2ND EDITION
OF THIS BOOK PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2006 - PRICE £16.99 - CLICK ON
THE BUTTON IF YOU WISH TO BUY THE SECOND EDITION.
The cover looks almost identical to Ray Keene’s instant book of
the match reviewed in the December
2004 issue. This book also has some background on previous world championship
matches in order to flesh out the meagre material generated by the 14-game
match. There are some new anecdotes about the champions while grandmasters
Lutz and Yusupov provide the annotations. A good record of a match that
deserved rather less. JS
The author, a Latvian chess writer, tells the story of Vladimirs Petrovs
(1908-43) and his remarkable chess career which ended tragically in a
Siberian prison camp. His best performances were an equal first with Flohr
and Reshevsky at Kemeri 1937 and at the 1939 Buenos Aires Olympiad. 265
games, with notes by contemporary commentators, including Petrovs himself.
There is a lot of (rather uncomfortable) anti-Soviet bitterness in the
text. JS
A collection of 64 games which have won the Paul J. Albert brilliancy
prize at the US Championship, from 1984 to 2003. The authors discuss which
of the prize-winning games is more brilliant than the others. JS
An English translation of a book published in Hungarian in 1959. The
book gives 180 examples of top players making unaccountable blunders.
An amusing little book, which you could read through on a train journey.
JS
For the second edition of this two-volume game collection, editor Alexander
Khalifman has added Informator-style annotations to virtually every
game, plus 61 new exhibition games. There are 351 games in the first volume,
and 356 in the second volume. JS
The author, a US-based former Ukrainian IM, sets you 100 positions to
evaluate with points awarded for correct evaluations of the position and
best moves. At the end you find out your ranking in accordance with some
slightly intimidating tables. There is also some more general advice,
including further reading and useful websites. JS
The venerable US periodical had changed to rather skimpy bimonthly publication,
with the first four months covered together in one issue: hence, five
issues in the year. In the first issue there are the games, with notes,
of the Botvinnik-Tal rematch, and IM Vasily Panov provides a report on
the Soviet Championship. On the US scene, the big event was the ill-starred
Fischer-Reshevsky match. JS
This book contains 465 tournament crosstables and 590 match scores from
the period in question. It is the successor to other works on the subject
including Gaige’s Chess Tournament Crosstables Volume 1 (1851-1900),
which is now out of print. It is a very handy volume for chess historians.
We did notice a couple of misleading names for tournaments: the London
1862 tournament (won by Anderssen) is referred to as the ‘1st British
Chess Federation congress’ and the London 1885 tournament (won by
Gunsberg) is referred to as the ‘1st British Chess Federation ch[ampionship]’.
In fact they were both British Chess Association tournaments; the British
Chess Federation was only founded in 1904. JS
Just In: Informator 91, Sahovski Informator, 388 pages, £21.00. Nimzo-Indian Defence: The Easy Way by Jacob Aagaard, ChessBase DVD, £18.50; The ABC of the King’s Indian by Andrew Martin, ChessBase DVD, £18.50; Right Decisions by Jacob Aagaard and Esben Lund, ChessBase CD-ROM, £18.50; Dutch Defence Leningrad System A86-89 by Boris Schipkov, ChessBase CD-ROM, £15.99.
