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BCM Chess Book Reviews : January 2004

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Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual by Mark Dvoretsky, Russell, 384 pages, 2nd ed £19.99, CD-ROM £21.99.

An impressive slab of a book by one of chess literature’s big names, this is a very accessible piece of writing about the phase of the game on which chess players tend to work least. This is a shame because we all know in our heart of hearts that good endgame play is absolutely vital to our chess development. Now that the world’s favourite chess teacher has written such a comprehensive and readable book about the subject (and it’s bang up to date with plenty of examples drawn from contemporary play), we haven’t really got any excuse for not doing our chess homework. Especially since the same work is available as a paper book (published by Russell Enterprises) and also as an electronic book (as a CD-ROM, from ChessBase) at the same price. Production values are good, with two colours used to enhance clarity. A winner. JS

Play The French by John Watson, Everyman, 272 pages, £16.99.

A brand-new third edition of a very popular opening repertoire book. It gives the reader a choice of two distinct lines against each French variation. Eight years have passed since the last edition, and Watson now advocates some newly minted lines in addition to revamping some of the one previously advocated. Mainly he sticks to conventional main lines, which he expounds with his customary clarity and thoroughness. Highly recommended. JS

Modern Chess and Chess Masterpieces by HE Bird, Moravian Chess, 196 pages hardcover, £19.99.

An entertaining book by the urbane and amiable English master, with around 200 annotated games, mainly his own. His own story of the birth of his eponymous opening (which he himself dubs the ‘King’s Bishop’s Pawn Two Opening’) is an interesting one. It followed a seven-year absence from the game and was adopted ‘because I had forgotten familiar openings’. Delightful. JS

Semi-Open Games by Attila Schneider, Caissa Kft, 322 pages, £14.99.

Broad-brush coverage of 1 e4 versus moves other than 1...e5, via a number of annotated games. It is rather too much ground to cover in the space provided and the commentary tends towards the idiosyncratic. JS

The Columbia Chess Chronicle Vol. 3 (July 1888 to December 1888), Moravian Chess, 242 pages hardcover, £24.99.
The Columbia Chess Chronicle Vol. 4 (January 1889 to June 1889), Moravian Chess, 220 pages hardcover, £24.99.

Vol. 3 has impressive woodcuts of figures such as Zukertort and Gossip, who also gets an interesting pen picture. Vol.2 sees Chigorin making an unsuccessful challenge to Steinitz’s world title, and the monster 38-round US Congress won jointly by Chigorin and Weiss. JS

Find The Checkmate by Gary Lane, Batsford, 176 pages, £14.99.

A no-frills chess puzzle book, with lots of tactical finishes collated by BCM’s Chess Questions Answered columnist. There are a few golden oldies in there but Lane has found plenty of new material. Award yourself points for every one you get right. Old-fashioned fun. JS

Looking for Trouble by Dan Heisman, Russell Enterprises, 145 pages, £11.95.

Sub-titled “Recognizing and Meeting Threats in Chess”, this book addresses the identification of threats and reaction to them. The first 40 pages or so consist of tactical tricks in the opening, many of them rather minor or well-known. The book then considers examples of threats in the middlegame and endgame. Although the target audience is stated to be players between Elo 1200 and 2200, this will probably be more useful to players at the lower end of that scale. JS

Rocking the Ramparts by Larry Christiansen, Batsford, 256 pages, £15.99.

Another entertaining book by former US champion Larry Christiansen, and in content is up to the standard set by his 2000 book, Storming The Barricades (though typesetting and production don’t do it justice). There are eight chapters on such subjects as the art of the attack and opposite-side castling in the Sicilian, with perhaps the most interesting being the one entitled ‘some Larry C attacking games’. Includes entertaining anecdotes mainly about Christiansen but also involving other colourful characters such as Eric Lobron. JS

American Chess Bulletin Vol. 51 (1954), Moravian Chess, 128 pages hardcover, £19.50.

There is coverage of the Hastings tournament won jointly by Hugh Alexander and David Bronstein, while USA lost a match to USSR by 12-20, despite excellent performances by Donald Byrne (who beat Averbakh 3-1) and Larry Evans (who beat Taimanov 2½-1½). JS

Concise Chess by John Emms, Everyman, 288 pages, £9.99.

A small-sized (13 cm x 11½ cm) volume designed to fit in the pocket, and teach chess from the beginning. It’s a crisply written work, and despite its size has plenty of good examples of pins, forks, etc and other good advice. A good stocking filler for a chess ‘newbie’. JS

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings 2004, ChessBase CD-ROM, £75.00.

1,800,000 entries in a database, with 3,200 opening surveys and 68,000 annotated games. A second CD-ROM has an opening tree of all games for quick overview and statistics. Works with the chess-playing software including Fritz 8, ChessBase 7 or 8. JS

The Colle System by Dmitri Oleinikov, ChessBase CD-ROM, £18.50.

Another well-organised ChessBase opening on a favourite club player’s system. The database contains more than 21,000 games, with 17 text files on how to play this safe and reliable opening. Oleinikov has annotated 400 games, and there are the usual tests and exercises. JS

The Grünfeld Defence by Knut Neven, ChessBase CD-ROM, £21.99.

The database contains 67,000 games divided up into three sections by Informator code, and another 200 are annotated by the author. The learning database contains 600+ games and texts and is particularly well organised. Plus the usual training positions and exercises. JS









 

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