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BCM Chess Book Reviews : February 2006Return to the BCM Review Index
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JENNIFER SHAHADE, a community chess teacher and one norm short of an
IM title, has produced the first real work of feminist literature the
chess world has seen. So let’s define the key term: ‘Feminism
is the radical notion that women are people.’ As in other male-dominated
subcultures, this reasonable proposition remains radical in the chess
world. It is unnecessary to agree with everything Shahade says to applaud
her for writing this important, engaging, stimulating and thought-provoking
book, which is in itself a pioneering feminist act: despite advances elsewhere,
chess ranks with snooker and golf as a prime example of women’s lack
of access to, and rights within, sport and leisure. As women still enjoy
the lion’s share of housework and childcare, leisure remains, generally,
a masculine privilege. Women, IM Harriet Hunt commented to Shahade, have
time to learn chess theory or feminist theory, but rarely both.
Confidently and incisively written by a graduate
in comparative literature, Chess Bitch is a generic smorgasbord
of memoir, travelogue, feminist debate, journalism and interviews. The
chess history, especially the chapter on Women’s World Championship
contender Sonja Graf (1908-65), is fascinating. Chess is the milieu, and
autobiographical psychology of chess competition comprises much of the
subject matter, but the only major concession to the traditional chess
market is 56 game scores (unannotated, but exciting for enthusiasts).
Presentation of a ‘friendlier’ image of chess to a wider public
is overdue and probably impossible if prose, however readable, is interrupted
by demanding diagrams and dense notation.
Shahade, in choosing her title, follows the precedent
of Harvard graduate Elizabeth Wurtzel’s book Bitch: In Praise
of Difficult Women (1998) which makes the point that assertive women
are routinely called bitches. A popular defence of the ‘b-word’
is ‘reclamation’ of language by victims of its abuse; Zambian
player Linda Nangwale says: ‘Some people call me a bitch for playing
with boys.’ Similarly, some sections of the black community have
‘reclaimed’ the ‘n-word’. Context is important: John
Lennon’s feminist song Woman Is the Nigger of the World was
defended for its anti-racist and anti-sexist context, but some criticize
the use of a sexist insult as a marketing tool. Maybe we could, like Maya
Angelou, lighten up: ‘I love to see a young girl go out and grab
life by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and
kick ass.’
I met Jennifer when she was researching her book,
which impressionistically profiles chess playing women. The work was a
voyage of discovery, so I suspect the author could not initially have
been sure exactly where she was going. Shahade’s eclectic, anti-dogmatic
approach may, I imagine, be inspired by Doris Lessing’s The Golden
Notebook, one of her favourite works. The anecdotal free-rangingness
of Chess Bitch is part of its charm and typical of the resistance
of postmodern ‘identity’ feminism to conservative structural
straitjackets. Also characteristic of Third Wave feminism is Jennifer’s
assertion of her and others’ (e.g. Stefanova, Kosteniuk, Krush and
Pähtz) right to be sexy and fun-loving – formerly frowned upon
for intellectuals or professional sportswomen. Celebrating exuberant,
innocent female frivolity coexisting with brains and strength, Shahade
follows Wurtzel’s advice and ‘puts out her pretty power’.
Jennifer criticises the spread of beauty fascism
into the chess world, in the form of judging women players on physical
appearance - the worst example being the ‘World Chess Beauty Contest’.
Significantly, this ‘beauty backlash’ coincides with increasing
numbers of women achieving or approaching ‘male’ IM and grandmaster
titles. Shahade debates whether players such as Alexandra Kosteniuk (and
others less talented) whose youthful good looks are commercially exploited
are ‘disempowered dupes’. There is also an irresistibly irreverent
observation about the lack of comparable ‘rating’ criteria for
top male players (I can just imagine some giggling girlfriend – or
was it her own inner child? – daring Jennifer to make her mischievous
comment on the inequitable absence of speculation as to the measurement
of Kasparov’s ‘masculinity’). But Shahade doesn’t
seriously advocate ‘downward equalizing’: to propose to solve
the problem of the belittlement and objectification of half humanity by
belittling and objectifying the whole of humanity would be childish.
Recalling a training session in which male grandmasters
lectured ‘top’ women players on how and even whether to play
based on the males’ expertise on menstruation, Shahade was dismayed
by the submission of some of the world’s strongest women players
to this degrading discourse. Compare the representation of the physically
dysfunctional female chess player with the comparable of a severely hungover
male grandmaster (Michael Adams): ‘If I’m a bit ill…I just
put a bit more effort in.’ British comedian Ben Elton once joked
that if men menstruated they’d boast about it. Prescription: heroic
stoicism for males, passive fatalism for females.
Do women’s rights to full citizenship in
terms of access, opportunity and decent treatment in sport and leisure
really matter? Shahade addressed this question in her book and in conversation,
and I’m indebted to Jennifer’s political vocabulary for my own
answer: it matters because in the ‘continuum of human rights abuse’
there is no such thing as a ‘small’ injustice: tolerance of
‘minor’ injustices creates a moral climate in which major ones
also flourish. Jennifer puts it this way: ‘women...in the first world
fight for quality of life, while women of developing nations fight for
survival...it is still acceptable to argue in favour of activism on ...admittedly
less urgent battlefields.’ Gender discrimination in sport is a significant
denial of civil rights.
Jennifer is a fine attacking player, who writes illuminatingly of her
chess development in terms of learning to temper her aggression with patience.
Contrary to the ‘passive’ stereotype of ‘women’s chess’,
says Shahade, the phrase ‘playing like a girl’ has recently
connoted the sort of reckless play with which some women players responded
angrily to the earlier gibe. Shahade is sincerely interested in women’s
freedom to become who they really are; millennia of constraint minimally
challenged by two centuries of modern feminist thought mean works such
as Jennifer’s are part of the struggle to discover just what that
might be.
My most positive response to Jennifer’s book came
when reading about the spirited, strong young women chess players - so
many more, and at higher levels - than seemed imaginable 30 years ago.
The vivid personal stories of players like Hoang Thanh Trang (who thrashed
GM Nunn when she was 12) and the brave battles of players like Linda Nangwale
to overcome Third World poverty and sexism, made me feel joyously optimistic.
The young generation expressed gratitude to the Polgar sisters for proving
what is possible. But what place has the chess world for women who don’t
want to work quite so hard? Shahade throws an amusing sidelight
on a dead-end debate: are women too silly for chess, or is chess too silly
for women? However, for those who respect both chess and women, the damaging
anomaly of double standards persists. One of Chess Bitch’s
online reviewers commented: ‘one of the most interesting parts of
the book discusses whether or not there should be separate tournaments
and titles for female chess players... while respectful of both sides
Shahade comes down on the side of women’s titles...’
Though superficially similar issues, women’s
tournaments merit a separate discussion from ‘women’s titles’
and ‘women’s prizes’. Shahade defends women-only events
as empowering and sisterly, reframing the question thus: ‘why might
women enjoy playing amongst other women?’ Germaine Greer would sympathise,
albeit from a different angle: ‘if the alternative [to segregation]
is humiliation, there is no alternative’. There is a vital difference
between the friendly inter-female rivalry Shahade praises and its corruption
and caricature by artificially setting women to compete for crumbs from
the patriarchal table. Shahade appears to be a gradualist, supposing progress
to be possible within the current system, while integrationists like myself
argue that limited progress has occurred despite its harmful nature.
In ‘women’s titles’ (WFM, WIM,
WGM, Woman Champion) the word ‘woman’ means ‘inferior’.
However, in Chapter Six and in correspondence, Shahade obliquely referred
to my failure to harmonize practice with preaching – not having formally
revoked my own ‘WIM’ title. So, thanks to Jennifer Shahade’s
influential book, 15 years late but better late than never, my diploma
and badge have been returned to sender. Thank you, Jennifer! Three Cheers!
Buy her book! It’s really good. Review by Cathy Forbes
The sub-title is ‘... And other chess interviews’, so that
more or less tells what you need to know about the contents. It is necessary
to add that all but three of the interviews have previously been published
in New in Chess magazine. Ten Geuzendam somehow manages to get
the confidence of his subjects despite asking them sharp and challenging
questions. Despite the prickly egos of some eminent chessplayers, the
Dutchman seems to manage the clever trick of staying on good terms with
most of them. The interviews are well translated for the most part, with
the occasional amusing lapse (e.g. the reference to a ‘Darlic’
– presumably a Dalek with bad breath).
This large-format book consists of game annotations by BCM’s regular
contributor. Giddins has selected games which have not already been excessively
anthologized, and they provide good source material for the author’s
commentary, designed to illustrate the principles of the game. It also
consciously sets out to entertain; Giddins pays homage to the Chernev
book The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played in the introduction.
There are chapters on attacking the king, defence, piece power, pawn structure
and the endgame.
In the fourth volume of this entertaining and instructive series, the emphasis is on off-beat but eminently plausible lines (such as 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Na5!? or 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 c3 d5 4 e5!?). Glenn Flear contributes a useful chapter on Owen’s Defence (1 e4 b6 2 d4 Bb7) and another on a line in the Scotch (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Bb4+!?).
.
This is the fourth collection of the author’s Chess Notes articles
(which now appear regularly online), in which he recycles historical material
and supplements it from his own researches and those of Chess Notes readers.
Though careful to record the provenance of his textual material, the author
does not always acknowledge the source of the photographs. Those used
tend to be familiar (many seem to be from old magazines, including BCM).
As always with Winter books, the indexing is excellent. Superb reference
material.
This is very much a labour of love, chronicling the life of a US player
who some say might even have rivalled Morphy in playing strength had he
not died as a Union prisoner during the American Civil War. Production
values are very high, as is the quality of the research put into assembling
this book.
The American IM’s enthusiasm for the Bird’s is infectious,
making this a lively and enjoyable book. The authoritative section on
the From Gambit (1 f4 e5), in which White is doing well, lays some old
ghosts to rest while respecting the mayhem Black can stir up. All White’s
possible responses to 1...d5 are covered: the Classical formation with
e3, d3, Be2 (Taylor’s favourite); the fianchetto with b3;
the Reversed Leningrad with g3; the Antoshin plan of d3, c3, Qc2,
e4; and the Stonewall. There is also a chapter on the popular Black defence
1 f4 d5 2 Nf3 Bg4 3 e3 Nd7, though after 4 h3 Bxf3
5 Qxf3 I disagree that Black must choose between 5...Ngf6
6 g4!? (Scylla) and the wild gambit 5...e5 6 Qxd5 (Charybdis): the
rock-solid equaliser is 5...c6 intending 6...e5. For my taste, Taylor
devotes too much space to middlegame analysis at the expense of the opening
itself, sometimes neglecting points of move-order. For example he believes
Black should avoid the ambitious early ...d4 against the Leningrad set-up,
giving 1 f4 d5 2 Nf3 c5 3 g3 Nc6 4 Bg2 g6 5 0-0 Bg7
6 d3 d4 (‘committal’) 7 c3 Nh6 8 e4 dxe3 9 Bxe3
Qd6 10 Na3 when Black’s c-pawn is sickly, Danielsen-Edvardsson,
Reykjavik 2003. But if Black substitutes ...0–0 for ...Nc6,
the situation transforms: 1 f4 d5 2 Nf3 g6 3 g3 Bg7 4 Bg2
Nh6 5 d3 d4 6 c3 c5 7 0–0 0–0 8 e4 dxe3 9 Bxe3
Qc7 (enabled by delaying ...Nc6) 10 Na3 Nd7
11 Re1 e6 12 d4 Ng4 with equality, in a 2005 game. Maybe
White should even try 5 e3 to prevent ...d4 – but this is one of
many options not considered in the book. Still, this is an engaging work
with plenty of new analysis. Review by James Vigus.
Imre König (1901-92) was an IM strength, globe-trotting player who
lived in England just after the war before finally settling in the USA.
The author has searched out many old games, 294 in all, in assembling
this excellent collection of König’s games, articles and photos.
The opening theory periodical covers Dortmund, Biel, San Luis, and its
contributors include Anand, Adams and others. In addition to the usual
features there is a review of the best of Veselin Topalov’s creative
output.
The regular opening manual has all the usual features (NIC Forum, Sosonko’s
Corner, etc), with book reviews by Glenn Flear and Sergey Tiviakov (on
The Sveshnikov Reloaded). There are 32 opening surveys.
This disk collects together all available Capablanca games (1,217 in
all, 300 with annotations), a biography, an appreciation by Hübner,
plus endgame and tactics databases. There are some photos, plus a few
seconds of Capablanca’s appearance in the movie Chess Fever.
This disk-based compendium features 2,709 examples to help readers have
a greater appreciation of the art of combinational chess and a fundamental
understanding of how it can be achieved. All necessary software included.
