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BCM Chess Book Reviews : December 2006Return to the BCM Review Index
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This first volume of a two-part work dealing with opening play is aimed
at all players above the rank of complete beginner. The book begins with
three chapters on the basics of opening play, including an excellent chapter
on the ‘Significance of Structure’. The book then deals with
a selection of specific openings, including the King’s Gambit, Ruy
Lopez, Sicilian, Caro-Kann, French and Pirc. The depth of coverage in
a single volume inevitably will not be sufficient for the stronger player,
but for the average club player there should be more than enough to enable
one to play the lines successfully. The strategic and positional explanations
are the great feature of the book, and there is no better recommendation
for the quality of a chess book than John Watson’s name on the cover.
Review by Steve Giddins. Note: Volume 2 of this work was reviewed
in the June 2007 issue of the magazine.
The latest in the ‘Chess Explained’ series (where the elements
of an opening are imparted via the annotation of 25 recent games) is divided
into three parts covering the Symmetrical English (1 c4 c5), the so-called
Reversed Sicilian (1 c4 e5) and the Nimzo-English (1 c4 Ìf6 2 Ìc3
e6). Of course, these three headings cover a myriad of sub-variations,
not to mention transpositions, and the entirety of the English Opening
is probably too much to cover in such a slim volume. Nevertheless it is
a very good overview of the possibilities arising from the opening. Just
naming four of the White players featured – Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov
and Anand – should be recommendation enough for both book and opening.
JS.
King and pawn endings are notoriously hard to master and often big blunders are made right at the end of a game, ruining an otherwise well-played effort. Probably the best way to learn about them is to play through as many examples as possible. Hungarian IM Pinter has collected 1,000 king and pawn endings and presented them six to a page, with fully worked solutions, annotated Informator style, at the back of the book. Examples are mostly from the last 20 years though there are also older ones, plus composed studies. This is excellent study material for honing your endgame play. JS.
This is a CD-based version of the book which was reviewed in the October
2004 issue of BCM. Installation is straightforward: the contents of the
CD-ROM (less than four megabytes of data) is copied to the hard disk and
then the ChessBase (or PGN) are opening using database or playing (i.e.
Fritz) software. There are about 370 annotated puzzles to study and solve,
plus 175 easy exercises and finally a database with 12 two-hour tests
to go through. Generally these puzzles are more demanding than the norm
but well worth the extra effort. JS.
This computer-viewable DVD-ROM features 22 separate lectures on tactical
themes by former FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. He speaks fluent (and
highly idiomatic) English and gives a clear and methodical exposition
of his tactical examples, all of which are taken from his own games and
several of which contain beautifully creative ideas. Very enjoyable and
instructive. Total viewing time: more than four hours. JS.
The former FIDE champion opens this second DVD offering with a twinkling
smile on his face, and he starts by giving us some light-hearted information
about the King’s Indian Defence; for example, that it is known as
‘my fair old lady’ by Russian players. Perhaps half-joking,
he attributes the King’s Indian’s occasional reputation as an
‘incorrect’ opening down to a conspiracy among White d4 players
who are afraid of meeting it – and getting mated. Kasim claims this
is the one d4 opening where there is a very real danger of White suffering
such a fate. Later, in a discussion of the history of the opening, he
relates Petrosian’s joke about the opening: “King’s Indian
players will feed my family for many years to come.” There are ten
separate lectures, amounting to about 3½ hours’ running time.
Kasim’s style is relaxed and humorous, and he goes into the ideas
behind the opening as well as specific variations. This DVD would be worth
watching just for Kasim’s clear-thinking lucidity, even for people
not interested in the King’s Indian. Note to the publisher: can we
have more DVDs from Kasim, please. JS.
The Montenegrin chess coach and IM Slobodan Mirkovic presents another
interesting selection of chapters on various aspects of chess. Down-to-earth
advice is dispensed on subjects ranging from the elementary (mating with
two bishops, or bishop and knight), to minor piece endgames in general,
combination sacrifices of bishop/knight/rook and pawn, and exchange sacrifices,
etc. The English is poor but the chess advice is generally very good.
JS.
The latest issue of ChessBase Magazine features a marked change of presentation.
Rather than providing a database of 1,000+ games plus video clips of tournaments,
the latest disk concentrates on video-based annotations by leading grandmasters
such as Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Loek Van Wely, Karsten Müller and others.
There is no large unannotated database; it has been replaced by about
250 annotated games based on opening themes, including the Grünfeld,
Nimzo-Indian, Slav and Sicilian Dragon, plus some coverage of the Biel
and Dortmund tournaments. JS.
This well-organised disk features a database of 78,337 Queen’s Indian
games, many with annotations, 33 textual lessons on strategy, 54 training
questions, plus an opening tree, all built around the central core of
instructional material on the opening. This is well-presented and makes
good use of the excellent facilities now available in ChessBase. A reader
based on ChessBase 9 is supplied. JS.
