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BCM Chess Book Reviews : January 2003Return to the BCM Review Index
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This is another successful Gambit production a lively and concise
introduction to the counterattacking Leningrad Dutch. Grandmaster Beim
equips Black with a full repertoire, covering 1 Nf3 f5 2 e4 and
all Whites second-move alternatives after 1 d4 f5, before getting
into the Leningrad proper. The theory is up-to-date, the explanations
are lucid and the illustrative games well-selected. In some cases the
balance of material is questionable: the trendy line with an early b4
is dealt with rather briefly, and in the main line (1 d4 f5 2 g3 Nf6
3 Bg2 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 00 00 6 c4 d6 7
Nc3) the move 7...Nc6 is omitted. However, as well as 7...Qe8,
Beim thoroughly covers 7...c6 (the move he usually plays himself
personal enthusiasm is an attractive ingredient in this kind of book)
which has been slightly neglected by previous works on the Leningrad.
Both these lines produce unbalanced positions in which Black has his fair
share of the play. The book concludes with a nice feature, 35 exercises
to test the readers understanding of key themes. Review by James
Vigus.
This is a very different kind of opening book from Beims. Its scope
is encyclopaedic, presenting a mass of variations with minimal text: a
bit like the Cambridge Springs Defence itself (1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3
Nf6 4 Bg5 Nbd7 5 Nf3 c6 6 e3 Qa5) the
work is completely solid and dependable but without thrills. Having enjoyed
popularity in the 1930s the Cambridge Springs gradually fell out of fashion
until the 1990s when it suddenly reappeared in grandmaster tournaments.
So in this book very modern references curiously appear alongside antediluvian
ones with little in between, which suggests that the theory of the line
is still very much evolving. For now, however, Panczyk and Ilczuk argue
persuasively that Black is in good shape after both 7 cxd5 Nxd5
8 Qd2 N7b6 (rather than the more popular 8...Bb4) and
7 Nd2 dxc4 conceding space but gaining the bishop-pair. White often
avoids the Cambridge Springs with an early cxd5, producing a different
pawn-structure: the authors therefore devote a brief chapter to equip
Black players against the Exchange Variation, suggesting that there too
Black has good equalising chances. Review by James Vigus.
This cheaply-produced hardback book contains 1,188 combinations to solve. It is the second of a two-volume series and the combinations in this volume are a bit harder to solve than those in the first (which is still available at the same price as volume two). The lay-out is straightforward: each page has six positions to solve with an indication of which player is to move and what the result should be. The provenance of the position (whether actual game or composed study) is given with the solution. There is quite a lot of familiar material to be found here, mainly vintage stuff from several decades ago, and nothing to speak of from the last ten years. But, like soup-kitchen fare, it is wholesome and inexpensive. One curiosity: volume one was published by Kirsan-Chess and had a foreword by the President of the International Chess Federation. But there is no trace of the FIDE president in volume two.
Before finding out that there was such a thing as a chess book, this
reviewer used to cut chess columns out of newspapers and collect them
in a folder. These were nearly always the work of Leonard Barden, with
his decades of weekly columns in The Guardian and the Financial
Times (UK), and daily positions to solve in Londons Evening
Standard. Thousands of other British chess players could probably
say that in the beginning, there was Leonard Barden.
Thankfully, he is still going strong. This book
doesnt own up to it, but this looks like a selection, 300 in all,
from Bardens columns over a period of 50 years or so, and very welcome
it is too. This is not just White to play and win material,
but includes all sorts of weird and wonderful chess-based puzzles and
tests, fleshed out with typical Barden anecdotes and pen-pictures of players.
Any non-chess players out there reading this: Batsford Chess Puzzles is
the ideal gift for keeping a noisy chess player quiet over the holiday
period, but not so good if you want them to help out with the chores.
The title of this book probably puts you in mind of two things: Modern
Chess Openings and Reuben Fines Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.
But it has nothing whatsoever to do with either of these well-known publications.
The publishers have added to the confusion by putting the first two words
in a much smaller typeface on the front cover, so that a very unwary browser
might even think he is looking at a copy of MCO. In fact, when you get
past what the publisher thinks is in the book, you find that what the
author has delivered is a club-player repertoire book for White players
who play 1 d4. This is a respectable work in which Lane recommends all-purpose,
low-maintenance systems with an early Nf3/Bf4
as opposed to a c2-c4 advance. In many lines this leads to the dry but
dependable London System, but where Bf4-based lines are less feasible
or effective, there are livelier options such as the Barry Attack.
This is a repertoire book for White players against the Sicilian. Grandmaster
Nigel Davies recommends open Sicilian lines with an early g3. This seems
like a good compromise between the overly-simplified, all-purpose 2 c3
(or similar anti-Sicilians) without going the whole hog and embracing
red-hot theoretical lines of the Najdorf or Dragon. Of course some Sicilian
variations dont really allow g3 possibilities (e.g. the Sveshnikov)
but in those cases Davies has selected suitable variations which are neither
too hot nor too cold.
Full title: Young Marshall: The Early Chess Career of Frank James
Marshall, with Collected Games 1893-1900. Frank James Marshall (1877-1942)
was for 27 years the chess champion of the USA. The facts of his later
career are well-known, but what rarely come to the light are the details
of his early career. Hilbert has uncovered many fresh and hitherto unknown
stories relating to Marshall and his early rivals. The largest part of
the book is devoted to Marshalls games: there are 173 of them, many
with annotations by Marshall himself, and supplemented with a fair amount
of eye-witness commentary.
A follow-up to IM Graeme Buckleys first book of exercises broadly
in the style of BCMs occasional Test Your Chess articles.
Every few moves the reader is invited to select one of two to five options
and is awarded points based on this selection. The 20 games are grouped
into various different chapter headings, to test the readers skill
in different situations. Its entertaining stuff and quite educational.
The latest Informator has 492 annotated games and 471 game fragments
from events held between June and September 2002. The contributors are
as ever of the highest quality, including Kasparov, Anand, Adams, Leko
and Ponomariov. The biographical article in this issue is on the great
Hungarian Lajos Portisch.
Youll need to have a copy of Fritz 6 or upward installed on your computer to use this endgame trainer. It is in effect a database of more than 100 training endgame positions which you access via Fritz proper and then try to win or draw against Fritz. Experienced author and chess trainer Martin Weteschnik has divided the material into six chapters with explanations and workshops; i.e. commented videos explaining the proceedings on the screen. The range of tasks is immense, reaching from elementary endgames to examples from the practice of the world champions. The scope of the material is very wide indeed, starting from beginner stuff to advanced fare which will test strong amateurs.
This claims to be the most complete collection of Botvinniks games ever compiled, with 1,069 games played by Botvinnik from 1924 to 1970, annotated by Alexander Khalifman and IM Sergey Soloviev. It comes with a biography and a tournament/match record, as well as 25 rare photos. There is also a special tutorial section, Play As Botvinnik, which includes 350 quiz positions in which you can follow Botvinniks lead and find his continuation in his games. The CD-ROM comes complete with the chess-playing engines Crafty and Dragon, and a special Chess Assistant Light reader program (plus a 32-page software installation/instruction manual). The down-side to this is that you cannot transfer the data to the database of your choice (e.g. ChessBase or Fritz), but have to use it via the Chess Assistant software. System Requirements: Windows 95 or higher.
OUT OF PRINT |
The third and final volume of the series containing Alekhines
complete games in chronological order. As before, all games have been
annotated, Informator-style, with many of the notes being attributed to
Alekhine himself. This volume contains 435 games, and the series 1,384
altogether, and there are crosstables of tournaments in which Alekhine
took part. A well-produced series of books.