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BCM Chess Book Reviews : December 2002

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I Play Against Pieces by Svetozar Gligoric, Batsford, 288 pages, £15.99.

This chess autobiography of Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric contains 130 of his best games from 1939 to 2001, annotated by him. It was first published in Russian in 1981, updated for a Serb-Croat edition in 1989 and now enlarged for this first edition in English. Gligoric, of course, is more than a chess player; the term “chess hero” seems more appropriate to him, his name belonging alongside those of Korchnoi, Bronstein and others who never became world champions but have nevertheless made a huge mark in the chess world. Like them, he deserves an outstanding, definitive publication to mark a tremendous contribution to chess over more than half a century.
   This particular book fits the bill pretty well, though it is not perhaps of the stellar quality of recent Korchnoi and Bronstein autobiographies. The stilted and unpolished English is a problem. A good example of this is the title itself, which is explained in the foreword. It refers to “chess as an art and a clean struggle of ideas, thereby trying to ignore the less dignified influence of psychology and personal conflicts”. One feels something like “Playing The Board, Not The Man” might have encapsulated it rather better. But at least it gives a clue to Gligoric’s enduring popularity and humanity: his ability to get on with his fellow professionals, see the best in people and not hold grudges. He must be one of the few of the big-name players of his era who still has a good relationship with Fischer.
   Games are batched into chapters in accordance with the opening used; this is perhaps appropriate given Gligoric’s exceptional contribution to so many branches of opening theory. He gives a fairly brief thumbnail of his life and career, and there are eight pages of photos. More than anything, his remarkable treasure-house of games speak for themselves; putting minor cavils about the less than optimal production aside, everyone who loves chess is going to want to add this book to their collections.
 

Opening for White according to Kramnik Vol. 5 - 1 Nf3 by Alexander Khalifman, Chess Stars, 271 pages, £15.50.

This series of books based on Kramnik’s repertoire with White was originally to have consisted of four volumes but has now extended to five volumes as editor Alexander Khalifman found himself with so much material. Just to confuse us a bit more... this is volume 5, though volume 4 is not out yet. This volume is purely and simply on the Queen’s Gambit Declined. It has been divided into three parts: the first covers lines without 3...Nf6 (including the Tarrasch and Vienna); the second, lines without 4...Be7; and finally the full-blown QGD, which (according to Kramnik’s favoured move order) starts 1 Nf3 d5 2 d4 e6 3 c4 Nf6 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bg5. We remind the reader that this series is not about Kramnik’s games so much as his repertoire. Author Khalifman casts his net very wide and produces many thoughtful insights into the opening.

 
 

The Chess Biography of Marcel Duchamp, Vol 1 (1887-1925), by Vlastimil Fiala, Moravian Chess, 323 pages. £27.99.

Fiala is known as a fine chess researcher and the editor of the huge outpouring of chess periodical reprints of recent years. This biography marks a new departure for him, however, recording the chess exploits of the famous French artist Marcel Duchamp. As is well-known he was a fine player who represented his country in four Olympiads. In 323 pages there seems to be more material here than might have been expected; in fact, Fiala has used the opportunity to insert many games not involving Duchamp but played in competitions in which Duchamp took part. Another book mainly of interest to specialist chess historians.

Chess Brilliancy by Iakov Damsky, Everyman, 223 pages, £16.99.

Damsky explores the nature of brilliancy in chess through “250 historic games of the masters”. Whilst there is a limited selection of games from before the Second World War, the heartland of the book is a discussion of the best game awarded by the Yugoslav Informator over the years, which are in general more deeply annotated than the rest. Damsky writes well with a good eye for the ways of the chess world. I particularly liked this vignette: when Tal sacrificed his queen against Hecht in the 1962 Olympiad, Tal related that “at this point the effusive Miguel Najdorf, who was watching the game came up and... kissed me.”
   All in all, whilst no general conclusion is reached, the discussion is very entertaining. Highly recommended for those new to the history of the game, but any reader with a reasonable library will have seen most of the games before. Review by Ray Edwards.

The Chess Amateur, Vol. 1 (1906-07), Moravian Chess, 382 pages, £24.99.

The first volume of another Moravian Chess reprint which generally surpasses previous ones in terms of the quality of reproduction. This was one of BCM’s rival periodicals in the early part of the 20th century, published by Harry Harmer, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, and was very entertaining (we can say that now!). Its subtitle was “a popular chess magazine” and it is very strong on the minutiae of the British club and tournament scene, with lots of chatty detail and readers’ letters. There are a few chess limericks, but rather tame by today’s standards (is this a feature we should reintroduce?). Anyone researching their chess club’s history or similar topics will find this invaluable.

 

The Chess Amateur, Vol. 2 (1907-08), Moravian Chess, 384 pages, £24.99.

More of the same, from this splendid British periodical written by amateurs for amateurs that lasted until 1930. The range of subjects covered is extraordinarily wide and many of the lively discussions concern subjects which are familiar to us today (including suggestions for rearranging the pieces at the start à la Fischerrandom chess). One of the most frequent contributors was CS Howell, who at the time acted as an agent for Emanuel Lasker. Consequently there is quite a lot about Lasker’s activities which will interest historians.

 

Quarterly for Chess History 6/2000 Ed. Fiala, Moravian Chess, 547 pages, £21.99.

The latest source book devoted to chess history, edited by Vlastimil Fiala. This issue contains articles about Pillsbury’s tour of Europe in 1902/3, including his sojourn in Hungary, Emanuel Lasker in San Francisco, biographies of Selmann, Stechel and Hromadka, tournament reports on Philadelphia 1943, Amsterdam 1925, Lodz 1906, Nice 1925, a complete, lesser-known biography of Morphy (by Regina Morphy-Voitier, 1926) and much, much more in its 547 pages.
 
 

Morphy’s Games of Chess, Ed. Löwenthal, Moravian Chess, 485 pages, £27.99.

This a reprint of the 1913 G. Bell edition of Löwenthal’s book, which was in itself a reprint of the original book. It was written shortly after Morphy’s return to the USA in 1859 following his triumphal tour of Europe; and it should be added that the book was written with Morphy’s co-operation. So it is a valuable record of what a contemporary rival thought of Morphy’s games. The notes of the 150+ games are fairly sketchy, however, though there is an interesting pen-picture of Morphy as a person. Quality of reproduction is rather poor, particularly the diagrams.

Chess Columns: A List by Ken Whyld, Moravian Chess, 587 pages, £34.99.

Quote from the introduction: “An alphabetical list of serial publications that contain chess columns. After the title [it gives] the town, country, language, life span of the periodical, frequency of publication, frequency of the chess column. Then follow the dates of the column, and the names and dates of its editors.” Not a publication for the general reader, of course, but it will be of inestimable value to chess researchers and historians.

 

American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 44 (1947), Moravian Chess, 144 pages, £19.50.

American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 45 (1948), Moravian Chess, 144 pages, £19.50.   

The US chess periodical was a splendid publication, here documenting the post-war chess scene, including the world championship match-tournament won by Botvinnik. It is unfortunate that the many photographs reproduce so poorly.

The Chess Player’s Chronicle, Vol. 2 (1878), Moravian Chess, 288 pages, £24.99.

The Chess Player’s Chronicle, Vol. 3 (1879), Moravian Chess, 288 pages, £24.99.

Two more volumes, edited by Rev. CE Ranken, covering mainly British chess, with plenty of news, annotated games and the occasional article of note. There are also letters, including one from Zukertort. There is also some coverage of chess in USA and Australia.
 

Dutch Defence CD-ROM by Boris Schipkov, ChessBase CD-ROM, £18.50.

Boris Schipkov deals with the variations in which Black plays e6, mainly the Stonewall (with d5) and the Iljin-Zhenevsky Variation (with d6 and eventually e5). The database contains more than 14,000 games, 300 of which are annotated. There are 17 database texts featuring introductions to the variations, and 57 sample games have been annotated by the author. The training database includes 20 games with 70 training tasks to check your freshly-acquired knowledge.

ChessBase Magazine 90, ChessBase, £17.50.

The first thing one turns to has to be the multimedia report. All credit to ChessBase: these video offerings are much improved on what they were in their early days. Filming took place at the Mainz Chess Classic, where the star attraction is Vishy Anand. It is no wonder that ChessBase look to the Indian superstar for so many of their video sound-bites: he is all easy charm, good humour and (of course) chess wisdom. It’s time he had his own TV chat show. The database of 1,849 games (500 annotated) including the Dortmund Candidates, Bosna Super GM in Sarajevo, and the FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow.

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