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BCM Chess Book Reviews : January 2008Return to the BCM Review Index
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The reviewer knew he was going to like this book when reading the following in the foreword: “the genuine World Champion, acknowledged by everyone, is the one who takes the title from the previous king in a one-on-one duel. Why is that? Because it just can’t be any other way in this game.” Exactly: no more needs to be said on the subject. The book is the behind-the scenes tale of Kramnik’s three world title matches as told by one of his chief seconds and supporters, Evgeny Bareev and PR man Ilya Levitov. Bareev tells the story in response to questions from Levitov in a sort of Socratic dialogue. Bareev, of course, has a reputation for dry humour and it is beautifully exemplified here, with extracts from the diary which Bareev kept during the course of Kramnik’s 2000 match victory over Kasparov. The first 170 pages of the book are on the London 2000 match and they are absolutely riveting. The candour with which Bareev (and others such as Lautier) tell the story, interspersed with annotations of all the games, is very engaging.
From the reviewer’s personal memory, the Kramnik camp in 2000 seemed very friendly and approachable in stark contrast to the Kasparov camp, but it is clear from the text that they were undergoing the tortures of the damned in private; not because of any animosity between the members of the team but because of the sheer weight of their workload as they sought to patch up the Berlin Wall as the world’s greatest ever player tried to smash it down. The end of the match was more a relief than a triumph – but with Kasparov defeated, they can now look back on that achievement as one of the greatest in chess history. There have been books before on all the sensational nonsense that goes on behind the scenes at various matches but it is rare for anybody to have taken the lid off the day-to-day work that seconds do and still rarer for them to have made it so interesting. It’s a bit like reading the military memoirs of Wellington’s staff as they describe how they helped their commander defeat Napoleon at Waterloo. But with more jokes.
The book could have ended happily at that point for this reviewer and be hailed as a masterpiece, but it continues with the 2004 Leko match. This was far from a triumph for Kramnik, as his health and form had subsided since the heady days of 2000. But the book is still very revealing as it tells how Kramnik’s seconds struggled to help the anxious shadow of the 2000 man to retain his crown.
The final 95 pages or so of the match are on the notorious match with Topalov in Elista in 2006. This time Bareev was looking at it from the outside as he was no longer one of Kramnik’s seconds. Though still entertaining and worth reading, it is less definitive and riveting than what goes before. It is not long before Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov gets it in the neck: “Externally Danailov resembles a character from a Balkan film – the noisy Mafioso in garish clothes with a loud voice and bad manners,,, in life this scandalous man has become practically the most famous chess manager... and you can be certain that nothing and no-one will stop him from striving for the big money and power.” Topalov by contrast is judged to be “a shadow following his mentor” who has changed from being a pleasant and sociable teenager into somebody who is more hardened and cynical. However, though he’s prepared to be fairly harsh on Danailov (without giving much by way of examples), Bareev is initially fairer towards Topalov himself, batting aside any accusations of cheating that have been levelled against him. Later, however, Topalov is roundly damned for what is seen as his craven behaviour during the ‘toiletgate’ saga: “trusting Danailov with control over his whole life... Topalov destroyed himself as a personality,” says Levitov, to which Bareev adds in italics “there was never any personality”.
Overall this is an extremely good, if somewhat uneven, book. The dialogue format adds to the humour but is rather overdone. It is sometimes not easy to work out which of the two co-authors is talking. Perhaps it could have been better edited and is a bit longer than it needed to be. But it emphasises, as few books have done before, just how much hard work goes into opening preparation during world championship matches, and makes one realise that modern matchplay chess is actually team chess in which everyone participates but only one person moves the pieces on the board. After reading this, the book I want to read next is Yuri Dokhoian on Garry Kasparov. Review by John Saunders.
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This is the second of a projected five-volume series by the famous Russian trainer and his former star pupil. The series is entitled ‘School of Future Champions’, since the chapters are based on lectures given to young players; though players of all ages and all levels from club-player to master have long benefited from these lucid insights into professional training methods. The present book is the second edition of a work first published by Batsford in 1994: some analytical corrections have been added, but if you have an old copy, there is no need to update. It now looks a very old-fashioned work, Indeed, the book is old-fashioned in that it barely acknowledges the existence of computers, which have caused a revolution in opening preparation since the early 90s.
Paradoxically, though, that even increases the book’s worth. Exclusive reliance on a computer engine leads to a one-sided tactical style, combined with superficial evaluations. Secrets of Opening Preparation is an ideal antidote, as it highlights the connection of the opening with thematic middlegames and endgames, using pedagogical questions to encourage the reader to emulate grandmasters’ thought-processes. Dvoretsky confesses that he has a poor memory for opening variations. He therefore specialises in ‘opening schemes’, such as the King’s Indian Attack, to which one instructive chapter is devoted. Yusupov and the other contributors to this book, notably Sergey Dolmatov, roughly share this approach: so the result is not a theoretical manual, but a brilliant account of how strong players solve problems – both at the board and in the study – in a variety of openings. Review by James Vigus.
For less exalted students of the game, there is this sixth volume of opening traps. Actually, although it claims to be for “casual and club players”, much of this is quite sophisticated material. In effect it is a collection of high-level games with offbeat (but for the most part not too outlandish) opening variations where the opening is a significant factor in the outcome. One annoyance is the use of New In Chess’s own opening classification system to group the games. It really is time they gave up the unequal struggle and used the Informator/ChessBase code which most of the world’s competition players use and understand. JS.
This book is based on notes of 12 lectures which Emanuel Lasker gave in London in 1895. It is, as the editor says, a masterpiece of compression and exposition. Sometimes the old-time books, with their clarity of wording, score over modern works with their excess of detail and game references. To the original work the editor has added seven Lasker annotations from the 1895 Hastings tournament. The book has of course been converted throughout to algebraic notation. JS
On this disk the former FIDE champion looks at 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 – a system which he admits he has had problems as a White 1 e4 player. ‘Kasim’ goes into 11 games in detail, lasting three hours altogether. Amongst the games are his own win against Arkell from Vlissingen 2003 and Adams’s win against Anand from Linares 2002. As always, Kasimdzhanov is well prepared and fully in command of his subject matter, explaining everything in clear terms and perfect English. JS.
This book is set out in the familiar Everyman fashion, with 50 annotated games being used to exemplify the opening. The Sämisch King’s Indian has become a major system in its own right, so this volume is a welcome one, especially since only one substantial book (The Controversial Sämisch King’s Indian by Chris Ward, 2005) has been devoted to it in the last ten years. It seems a workmanlike job by the two authors, one of whom is a grandmaster who will be well-known to British players, and the other an FM from Arkhangelsk. JS.
This, and the Shirov DVD reviewed below, arrived just as we went to press so we have not had long to assess them. The Grünfeld disk runs for an impressive 5½ hours. It is of course the key defence that the author used in his impressive match victory over Kramnik at Cazorla in 1998. On this disk Shirov analyses his five Black games from that match. Later he goes on to analyse his game against Topalov at Linares the same year which featured the legendary 47...Íh3!! move and inspired BCM to run the ‘most amazing move ever’ competition. JS.
The Lopez disk runs for an even more impressive six hours and provides extensive coverage of lines of the Closed Ruy Lopez. There are five games with the 5...b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 line (which Shirov plays for Black), plus three games with the Marshall (where he champions the white side). Further to these, there are games featuring the Berlin Defence, plus important lines of the Closed Ruy Lopez such as the Breyer, the Flohr-Zaitsev and the Chigorin. JS.
