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BCM Chess Book Reviews : August 2001

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Attacking with 1 e4 by John Emms, Everyman, 160 pages, £14.99.

This book is designed to give the club player a workable repertoire after 1 e4 which, though relatively painless to learn, will put Black on the back foot from the off. Grandmaster Emms hasn’t gone for the all-in-one approach (e.g. he doesn’t advocate using the King’s Indian Attack against all Black responses, although he does recommend it against the French – a particularly good choice, this). He has also chosen carefully so that White is not saddled with too many counter-gambit headaches. To summarise the major selections: against the Sicilian, it’s the Closed Sicilian, against 1...e5, the Bishop’s Opening, against 1...c6 it’s 2 c4 (followed by captures on d5 rather than the Panov-Botvinnik),and against the Pirc and Modern, the 150 Attack (i.e. Be3/Qd2/0-0-0, etc). There are a number of other less common defences where Emms offers some fairly orthodox approaches. Overall, despite the title, some of the selections are more pragmatic than attacking but they are well backed up with sensible advice and cogent analysis. There is a two-page openings index at the back.





 

Attacking with 1 d4 by Angus Dunnington, Everyman, 160 pages, £14.99.

The companion volume to Attacking with 1 e4, but this time the author, IM and experienced chess teacher Angus Dunnington, takes a different approach in considering repertoire possibilities after 1 d4. 30 complete games are analysed (and indexed at the back). Against 1...d5, Dunnington advocates the Queen’s Gambit, with 3 e4 against 2...dxc4, against 3...e6 the line where White plays an early cxd5, and against the Slav the unusual 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5. Against the King’s Indian (and by transposition the Benoni) Dunnington recommends the Four Pawns’ Attack, against the Grünfeld 5 Bf4 and against the Nimzo-Indian 4 f3. Against the Leningrad Dutch, Dunnington goes for an early h2-h4 attack, and against the ...e6 lines, a more conventional system starting 3 Nc3 and 4 f3. Everything else is swept up in a final chapter entitled “Other Black Defences”. This is a bit surprising in the case of the Benkö Gambit – one of the most dangerous systems which puts off White players from playing 1 d4 at all. But Dunnington has not neglected this important system. He recommends the line beginning 4 f3 as played by Grandmaster Aaron Summerscale. As with the companion volume, the analysis is sensible and with generous helpings of Dunnington’s Yorkshire common sense.



 

Quarterly for Chess History – Winter 4/2000, Moravian Chess, 444 pages, hardcover, £21.99.

The fourth edition of this historical digest (and they have yet to catch up with the backlog) is another hefty tome with a number of articles taken straight from their source. Editor Vlastimil Fiala is as ever aided and abetted by a number of assiduous researchers in the field of chess history, including Ken Whyld, K. Landsberger and John Hilbert. Some of the major chapters in this edition are: Capablanca’s chess activities in 1910; Howard Staunton by HJR Murray (taken from a 12-page article in BCM, November/December 1908, with game notes from Keene and Coles’ Howard Staunton: The English World Chess Champion); biographical material on the 19th century Polish master Adolf Zytogorski and the short-lived Anglo-Irishman William HK Pollock; some American matches including those of Lipschütz between 1886 and 1900. There are a few “previously unknown games” by masters including Lasker and Nimzowitsch, and some more playful material, such as a game supposedly played by the great British privateer Sir Francis Drake (our Spanish subscribers will refer to him as ‘El pirata’) against Lord Howard in 1588 on the night before defeating the Armada. The final 60+ pages of the book are devoted to biography and games of Philidor. If you are a devotee of chess history, there will be plenty to interest you here.




 

School of Chess Excellence 1: Endgame Analysis by Mark Dvoretsky, Olms, 260 pages, £18.00.

One of the most sought after series of chess books in the Chess Shop is the training series written by Dvoretsky and others some years ago. Originally published by Batsford, they are now out of print, but second-hand copies sell very rapidly. It is with pleasure therefore that we welcome a new edition of this book, now published by Olms in a new translation. Though the content is virtually unchanged, the format and layout is much improved from the original Batsford edition. Students who have the time to study this book will undoubtedly improve their chess knowledge and understanding.
     But the chess world has moved on since this book was first written and this perhaps alters the approach required today. For example, the first third of Chess Training is devoted to analysis of adjourned games. Fascinating, time-consuming, in-depth analysis; but games are rarely adjourned anymore and one wonders about the relevance of these complex analyses in a world of computers and fast time limits. Three more volumes are planned and I hope that Dvoretsky will update these volumes to reflect the changed conditions his readers now have to face at the board. Review by Ray Edwards.



 

Two Knights Defence and Traxler Counter-Gambit by József Pálkövi, Caissa, 253 pages, £13.99.

After some consideration of move 4 deviations for White, the author sets about the two major lines against the Two Knights’ Defence, namely 4 d4 and 4 Ng5. Despite the title, the Traxler Counter-Gambit (often known as the Wilkes-Barre variation: 4 Ng5 Bc5!? etc) only occupies about one sixth of the book. But it is a well-organised and diligently collated digest of the latest theory in all the lines of the Two Knights Defence, which remains popular at club level and in correspondence chess, with the author including a good many of his own suggestions and analysis, in reasonably comprehensible English.








 

Sicilian Dragon by Goran Kosanovic, Drazic Publications, 128 pages, £10.50.

The front cover sub-title (6 g3, Levenfish Attack and ‘Unusualy Contiuations’ [sic]) gives an indication of both the scope of the book and the standard of English therein. Like Caesar’s Gaul, Yugoslav Grandmaster Kosanovic’s book is divided into three parts. Part One is, naturally enough, on 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 6 g3, which he calls the “fijanketo variant”, and contains 36 annotated games (up to 1999); Part Two covers 6 f4 variations, with 25 annotated games; and Part Three is a miscellany covering the following sixth move options: Bg5, Bb5+, h3, h4, Nd5?! (the annotation is Kosanovic’s) and f3, with 15 game annotations. Note that anyone interested in the f3 line will find only the briefest recommendation of what to do after 6...Qb6, but nothing about more sensible lines for Black.








 

The Chess Player’s Chronicle (Third Series) 1859, Moravian Chess, 384 pages hardcover, £24.99.

Staunton’s mighty organ, after a gap of three years, was edited in its third incarnation by Kolisch and Zytogorski. In a survey of chess journalism, it is revealed that there were no less than 11 periodicals in London with a weekly chess column. Most of them get a reasonably favourable mention, apart from the chess columns of The Review and London Journal which are roundly criticised. There is much excellent chess, though the vacuum left by the departing Morphy was noted by the editors, though they were not disposed to be kind in some of their comments about the great American.








 

American Chess Monthly, Vol.1 March 1892 – Sept/Oct 1893, Moravian Chess, 322 pages hardcover, £24.99.

It’s probably too late to sue for copyright infringement, but it is noticeable that this lively American magazine, published by George H Walcott, jnr, of Boston, had a great deal of material lifted from British Chess Magazine, especially Mason’s notes to the 1892 Steinitz-Chigorin match. Then, they have the nerve to say that the BCM for September 1892 was an “unusually entertaining number”. Cheek! The editor was occasionally a little lax in production, on one occasion having to apologise for seven months’ non-production on account of the death of his father.








 

American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 37, 1940, Moravian Chess, 124 pages hardcover, £19.50.

The USA celebrated the founding of the United States Chess Federation (USCF). The editors expressed their hope that it would play the same part in transatlantic chess life as the British Chess Federation (BCF) in the UK. Though war raged in Europe, there was still some chess news from there. Santasiere annotated the games of the Keres-Euwe match, which the Estonian won 7½-6½, and also the big US Championship tournament which Reshevsky won a half point ahead of Fine. As usual, a superb collection of the world’s chess news.

 

American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 38, 1941, Moravian Chess, 120 pages hardcover, £19.50.

The first issue of the year reported the death of Emanuel Lasker in New York City, and there are a number of pages given over to personal reminiscences of the great world champion. There was virtually no report of any chess outside the North American continent, with the highlight being Reshevsky’s successful defence of his US title in a 16-game match against Horowitz. An exception was the Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina, won by Stahlberg ahead of Najdorf and Eliskases.

 

Transactions of the British Chess Association 1868 and 1869, Moravian Chess, 108 pages hardcover, £14.99.

Edited by Löwenthal and Medley, this slim volume doesn’t have the most exciting of titles (the fashion seems to be for elongated titles this month), but nevertheless contains good chess; namely, some tournament chess played by Blackburne, Bird, MacDonnell, Owen, Skipworth and others, and consultation and odds games involving Steinitz.




 

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