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BCM Chess Book Reviews : March 2003Return to the BCM Review Index
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This collection of articles about chess spans nearly ten years from 1992,
and is linked together with a narrative of Hurst’s career as a free-lance
writer. As an outsider looking in, Hurst wrote very effectively about
chess. Her meetings with luminaries such as Kasparov, Botvinnikand Szabo
are revealing, as are the sympathetic portraits of lesser lights. But
the more she wrote, the more she became an insider – and the more
she became embroiled in the politics and hypocrisy of the chess world.
The title is intended to be a metaphor for the dilemma
facing chess players: to continue playing chess meant they had also to
kow-tow to the likes of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Much of the
book (though by no means all) is devoted to Hurst’s campaign for
a boycott of the 1998 Elista Olympiad in protest at the murder of Kalmykian
journalist Larisa Yudina in highly suspicious circumstances earlier that
year. But chess authorities and professional players didn’t take
kindly to being lectured on what they should and should not be doing by
a self-appointed nanny, and resented her ill-directed satire.
Later she was jilted by her chess-playing partner.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, her chess passion cooled, or as she puts it:
“I’m cured of the infection.” Sadly, Caissic fever gives
way to a secondary infection, afflicting her writing. The introduction
is only two pages long, but Hurst struggles to keep her bitterness in
check. There are sinister generalizations about chess players and our
mental instability, as well as our political incompetence (as though we
are more deficient in that respect than the rest of humanity). The last
few pages are also rather lacking in objectivity. But, for all its imperfections,
it remains a deliciously gossipy read.
| OUT OF PRINT |
This second book by the publishers is similar in style to the same author’s
The Method in Chess (reviewed in BCM,
Jan 2002). Dorfman has an impressive resumé as player and coach
(with Kasparov and Bacrot amongst his clients) and there are a number
of photos showing him at the board analysing with legendary players such
as Najdorf and Tal. The book is pitched at advanced students of the game.
Dorfman is prone to quasi-scientific terminology and makes great play
of ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ components of positions.
A challenging book, but cheap at the price and packed with meaty material
for study.
Placing these two systems together is logical, at least from White’s
perspective; as the author points out, anyone who opts for a g3 King’s
Indian system with White has to be ready for the g3 Grünfeld. It’s
a solid slab of reference material, and will appeal to players who already
know something about these systems. The production values are well in
line with the standard set by Gambit.
This is another follow-up to the same authors Winning Endgame Technique (1995) and Winning Endgame Strategy (2000). It covers similar ground, with lots of recent and relevant material, mainly concentrating on rook endgames. The third chapter, ‘Grandmasters Mistakes in The Endgame’, includes the game Short-Beliavsky, Linares 1992, where White blundered into a mate in one. But at least Short’s move was a legal one; one of the authors’ suggested alternatives was a king move to a square where it would have been in check from a knight. There is other evidence of inadequate editing and proofreading (e.g. exercise diagrams where the reader is not told who is to move). This does not detract from the overall impression, and there is still plenty of worthwhile reading here for the endgame student.
This periodical was edited by Daniel Harrwitz,a disputatious
character but a fine chess player. At the time of its publication he was
in the middle of a protracted wrangle with Staunton over a prospective
match. As you might expect, Staunton gets a rough ride here.
A much slimmer volume for the following year,with the Staunton-Harrwitz
war of words dragging on. One of the sticking points was the time limit
– where have we heard that before?.
The latest volume of this populist chess monthly starts with another round in its squabble with BCM over the competitions which Chess Amateur had unilaterally set up for county correspondence chess without reference to official county associations.
The latest volume of Hoffer’s publication has extensive coverage of three big tournaments – Hastings 1895, and St Petersburg and Nuremburg (both 1896).
More coverage of world and US chess. Enrico Paoli did well to inflict
a defeat on the all-conquering Kotov in a big tournament in Venice. This
eminent Italian player is happily still with us and recently celebrated
his 95th birthday.The volume features two of his games.
The Rev. CE Ranken’s periodical continues into a fourth volume. Chess was an altogether more convivial affair in those days when it came to sitting down to dinner. The City of London gathered more than 50 members and guests for their annual meeting, at which there were toasts, songs and recitations, as well as the presentation of a bust of Löwenthal.
The third edition of a 1986 translation of Alekhine’s notorious six-part Pariser Zeitung article published in March 1941 on the theme of 'Aryan and Jewish chess'. This latest edition gives a new translation and shows where it diverges from previous ones. It is an important source-book for chess historians on a subject which provokes furious debate to this day.
The introduction to the contents of the disk gets off to a poor start, with the main repertoire components lettered A, B, C, D, C and E, and the moves of the French Defence referred to as ‘1 e4 e6 3 d4 d5 ’ (and the Caro-Kann and Pirc are similarly misnumbered). The introduction fails to mention anything about the chosen lines against 1...Nf6 or 1...d5. Thankfully some repertoire recommendations for dealing with these lines are in fact included. There is some well-organised material on how to play the Sicilian Grand Prix Attack, but some of the other recommendations (e.g. against the French) are less than convincing and more a broad-brush presentation of different options from which the reader can choose.
This CD-ROM has all the 5,374 annotated games which appeared in the five editions of Informator covering June 1999 to January 2001, plus reader software and built-in Crafty engine. All the usual Informator features are included, such as the ten best games of the previous edition, combinations, endgames,etc, in a browser-like window. The data is also supplied as a PGN file which can be added to existing databases. Tremendously good value.
The latest edition of Informator’s electronic Informator
publications has 5,239 annotated games from volumes 81-85 (February 2001
to September 2002) plus all the usual Informator features in an
electronic window. As with the previous issue, you can play through, analyse
with the (remarkably strong) Crafty chess-playing engine.
The second of Bad Bishop’s chess opening videos is, like the first one, by IM Andrew Martin. Running time is two hours, and the stated intention is to illustrate ideas and themes to give lower-level players confidence in playing the opening for the first time. Supplied with the video is a leaflet giving the bare scores of the 21 games referred to in the video. Presentation is very slick, commencing with a short introduction as IM Andrew Martin talks to camera, and then a 2D ‘ChessBase’ chess board is used to display the moves played and highlight squares and lines as Martin does the voice-over. Excellent value. Also now available as a DVD
Subtitled “An Interactive Beginners Course”, this is the latest all-singing, all-dancing computer-based chess course for your computer using dazzling 3D animation, voice narration and strident musical accompaniment to take you through 18 lessons and associated exercises introducing the fundamentals of the game. More than four hours of material. It comes with the ubiquitous (but very strong) Crafty chess-playing engine.
