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BCM Chess Book Reviews : September 2004Return to the BCM Review Index
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In this large-format book, the Austrian resident grandmaster highlights
the difference between dynamic and static elements of a chess game or
position. This highly important subject cannot be described as neglected
in chess literature. It is just that many chess books have addressed but
ultimately failed to produce a lucid account. Here, Beim soon gets to
the heart of the matter. His first diagram is a simple but eloquent demonstration
of the difference between the dynamic and static factors of a position.
Truly, in chess, a diagram is worth a thousand words – but only if
it is well-chosen. Having grabbed the reader’s attention with one
easily digestible but nutritious morsel, Beim keeps the examples coming
thick and fast, interweaved with the occasional flash of mordant wit.
Basically what the reader gets here is the equivalent of one of those
TV lectures by the likes of AJP Taylor or Carl Sagan, where the serious
students get plenty of good material to mull over and the dilettantes
can bask in the wit and brilliance of the orator’s delivery. It is
thoroughly good stuff. The reviewer was tempted to be effusive and propose
the inscription of Beim’s name in the chess author’s hall of
fame alongside Dvoretsky and co. It may just be that he is the beneficiary
of Gambit’s excellent support and a very skilled translator in John
Sugden. So many other competent chess authors are let down by their publishers,
but not Beim. Whatever the case may be, the end product is an excellent
work on the subject and can be warmly recommended. JS
One for the chess history connoisseur: this magisterial work features
approximately 800 games played by the great English player who was one
of the world’s best players in the 1890s. Most of the game have annotations
and there are about 200 photographs, plus ample indices. One appendix
describes missing evidence, uncertain games, and further research possibilities.
Another appendix lists corrections to game scores published elsewhere
and a third gives Burn’s complete tournament and match record. Check
that your bookshelf is strongly supported before putting this colossal
tome on it. JS
Fine was one of the world’s strongest chess players from the mid-1930s
to the late 1940s when he virtually gave up professional chess to devote
himself to a successful and profitable career in psychoanalysis. Woodger
has concentrated on finding all Fine’s games and presenting them
in chronological order and in context, with notes to many of the most
important games collated from various sources. As always with McFarland
the book is beautifully produced. This is a valuable historical volume
as the games are well worth preserving, particularly Fine’s fierce
domestic battles with his great rival Reshevsky and his achievements in
Europe.
Nonetheless I was left with a slight feeling of
disappointment and would like to have read much more about a man who was
complex, highly intelligent and with a natural talent for the game. Fine
undoubtedly had the ability to challenge for the world title. It is a
matter of regret that the difficulties of trying to earn a living in the
USA playing chess during this period led Fine to turn away from chess.
If circumstances had been different Fine (and for that matter his great
rival Reshevsky) would have given Botvinnik a much closer challenge for
the world title. Review by Ray Edwards
Jacob Aagaard attempts to show the difference of approach of the chess
master to the chess amateur via an interesting experiment. At the beginning
there are ten positions to assess, with instructions to find the best
move in a set time. Then the positions (which are not clear-cut puzzles)
are given to various players to solve. They cover a full range of levels:
from grandmasters Peter Heine Nielsen and Artur Yusupov, via Fritz 8,
to humble amateurs. As well as recording their answers, each player records
his or her thoughts on each position. As Aagaard says in the summing-up,
he didn’t intend the book to be a scientific experiment so much as
a bit of fun which would be enjoyable to read. As such, he has succeeded.
JS
This is a very workmanlike book on the Sicilian Najdorf line starting
6 Be3, written by two American grandmasters. The layout is good and the
indexing adequate, and in these respects the book is superior to at least
one other Batford book reviewed this month. The material is up to date
and the writing crisp and to the point. Recommended reading. JS
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s that wacky grandmaster from
Hungary, banging on about Black being OK again. The 1988 first edition
of Black is OK! was more than just a catchy title and demonstrated
Adorjan’s quirky personality to some effect. The author is hugely
anecdotal, wildly surreal and strays off the point all the time, but just
occasionally returns to planet earth to annotate a game, often with great
insight. The reviewer is almost at a loss as to how to describe this strangely
fascinating (or fascinatingly strange) book. Try to imagine a chess book
co-authored by Botvinnik and the cast of Monty Python. The trouble is,
Adorjan’s attempts at humour become rather wearing, and in the end
just make you start to worry for his sanity. Particularly unfunny are
his very heavy-handed and uncomfortable attempts to settle old scores.
All chess diagrams in the book are shown with Black playing up the board.
That is perfectly reasonable given the subject, but I question the sense
of putting every instance of the word ‘Black’ in upper case.
Perhaps the book should have been called It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad
Chess World. JS (see
also Black is OK Forever! - reviewed March 2005)
Another chunky squared-shaped volume designed to fit a (pretty sturdy)
pocket. McDonald concentrates on the fundamentals of middlegame play,
including attacking and defending the king, good and bad pieces and strong
and weak pawn formations. Plenty of sensible advice and practical examples
– a good pocket guide for tournament and club players. JS
What is the Tarrasch Formula? According to the authors, the German chess
philosopher expressed it thus: “if one piece is badly placed, your
whole game is bad”. From this starting point, the book goes on to
consider the placement of knights, bishops (opposite-coloured and otherwise),
then heavy pieces and the concept of zugzwang, via the analysis of whole
games, including a good proportion of former Soviet grandmaster Palatnik’s
own games. The last quarter of the book takes a completely different tack,
with a consideration of Philidor’s Defence and similar opening move
orders, including the Palatnik Gambit (1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 f4
e5 5 Nf3 exd4 6 Qxd4 c6 7 Bc4 d5!?). JS
This is a double biography of Adolf Albin (1848-1920) and Georg Marco
(1863-1923), who were both born within the area known today as Romania.
As such, they played a significant part in the growth of chess in the
country. The author, a Romanian-born chess teacher now based in Singapore,
proves to be a meticulous researcher and historian, and has done a splendid
job in digging out all sorts of stories and facts about his two subjects.
The book includes 124 games by Marco and 123 by Albin, with extensive
textual annotations. The book lacks photographs (except those on the front
cover) but is otherwise a well-compiled and comprehensive work. JS
The book has no introduction, no contents list and no index, as we have
come to expect from Batsford and their minimalist, austere approach to
book presentation. Soltis launches straight into a re-evaluation of the
value of chess pieces (bishop = 3 units, etc), with a consideration of
previous quasi-scientific attempts to determine piece values. He then
moves on to discuss how these values change as the game progresses. There
are other chapters on queens versus pieces, bishops versus knights and
pawns, rook versus pieces. There is plenty of good (and mainly up-to-date)
reading material packed into the close-typed pages. JS
In contrast to the Soltis work, this book is much better laid out and
consequently easier on the eye. Batsford’s earlier volume in the
new ‘Revisited’ series (see the review in BCM,
September 2003, p481) was not a success, so it is good to be able
to report that the present book is a huge improvement. The author pitches
the book at players contemplating taking up the Benko Gambit with either
colour, so it is mainly introductory in tone. There are some test positions
for solution, and plenty of sound general advice about what to play and
what to make of typical situations. Thoroughly readable and to be recommended.
JS
A self-published tribute to a strong English county-level player who
won the British Boys’ Championship twice in the 1920s. He was obviously
one of the author’s heroes. After a few pages of biographical information
about the subject, there are 400 of his games, some with basic or computer-generated
notes but mainly without, and some pages of poorly-reproduced photos.
Sadly, we have to comment that the author did not seek BCM’s permission
to use many of these photos and other material which has evidently been
scanned from our pages. This was probably down to naivety or inexperience
as an author. To any other potential vanity publishing authors: please
ask permission if you wish to use our material in your books. JS
