BCM Chess Book Reviews : December 2001
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The Ultimate Closed Sicilian by Gary Lane, Batsford, 176 pages, £14.99.
The Closed Sicilian has long been popular with players who wish to avoid
the theoretical and tactical complications of the Najdorf, Dragon and
other Sicilian variations. But the opening is not so simple as it was;
move order is becoming important and there are numerous intricacies to
be learnt, particularly by black players. Nor can tactical complications
be avoided – they merely come later. British players notably Short
and Adams have adopted this opening with success at the highest levels
and their battles with Kasparov and Kramnik are one of the features of
the book. Kasparov, as might be expected, leads the theoretical battles
from the black side. Gary Lane has written an admirably clear and concise
guide to the opening and consequent middlegames; though, like so many
opening books, it rather flatters its subject matter. Nonetheless recommended
as an introduction to this complex opening. Review by Ray Edwards.
Mastering the Middlegame by Angus Dunnington, Everyman, 144 pages, £14.99.
By and large chess players are less likely to own books about how to
play the middlegame than about the way to play the opening or even the
endgame. This is despite the fact that we can generalise and say that
most ‘real chess’ happens in the middlegame. This is because
it is so multi-faceted and non-specific that it is hard to know what to
study; and, for writers, what to write about. For this book IM Angus Dunnington
has decided to divide the subject up into chapters, thus: attacking the
king; defending (sub-titled with the advice “keep calm!”); opening
lines; using the pieces; using the pawns; and then a further miscellaneous
chapter. Once again Everyman have borrowed a gimmick from computer training
manuals, whereby the text is scattered with hints and tips, flagged with
images of light-bulbs, clipboards and skull and crossbones warnings. It’s
a good read and (though the book doesn’t advertise the fact) a useful
follow-up to Andrew Kinsman’s Improve Your Middlegame Play.
Mastering the Endgame by Glenn Flear, Everyman, 144 pages, £14.99.
The lay-out here is much as with Dunnington’s new book (reviewed
above). Glenn Flear has produced it as a follow-up to his Improve Your
Endgame Play book. Flear writes well, drawing upon his extensive experience
as a teacher, and exhorts the reader to redouble his efforts on this part
of the game which is neglected by many players, not to mention people
who decide on tournament time limits. The attractive lay-out makes reading
and studying less of a chore, and the overall impression is excellent.
One slip-up was noticed on page 17, when it referred to the Fischer v
Taimanov fourth match game from 1971 as being played in Buenos Aires;
it was of course Vancouver where Fischer achieved the first of his two
6-0 wipeouts. This book will be highly suitable for intermediate level
players who have first worked their way through a book such as the one
referred to above.
Practical Chess Psychology by Amatzia Avni, Batsford, 160 pages, £14.99.
 All of a sudden the non-chess aspects of playing
chess have become fashionable and a spate of books covering various aspects
of the subject have been published. This has been no bad thing as chess
literature has on the whole neglected this aspect of the game. The latest
addition is a welcome addition to the genre as the author works as a professional
psychologist and can bring some professional insights to the subject.
Quite the best feature of the book is the series of quotes the author
uses to illustrate his text.
However I have a slight feeling of disappointment.
The comments are sound, but hardly original. After all, non-silicon chess
players are human and faithfully reflect the human condition with its
various strengths and weaknesses. Of course if you want to succeed at
chess you need determination (chapter two), to set realistic goals (chapter
one), not be distracted by spectators (chapter ten) and so on. But this
is true of most things in life.
What one is looking for is an insight into chess
specifically. This is after all very important. For example, the Kramnik-Kasparov
world title match was settled as much by psychological issues (what was
Garry thinking about with the white pieces?) as any technical chess factors.
Chess masters are mostly reluctant to talk openly about these things,
which is why Korchnoi’s Best Games is so popular as he lifts the
curtain on what actually went on in the course of his games. There is
more to be learnt from Victor than Amatzia. Review by Ray Edwards.
Opening Encyclopaedia 2002 (CD-ROM), ChessBase, £75.00
(upgrade from previous version £37.50 - return old CD) 
Chessbase’s latest version of their opening encyclopaedia is up-to-date
to August 2001 and contains 3,200 opening surveys in CBH (new Chessbase)
format. There is at least one for each of the 500 Informator codes.
As well as the surveys, there are 1.1 million games given in the database,
and the accompanying tree of variations. In many ways the encyclopaedia
is a more refined version of the Mega Database 2001 CD-ROM, with advantages
for those who prefer more annotations than the norm. Annotations in the
surveys are mainly languageless, with Nunn, Dautov, Ribli, Stohl and Yusupov
among the many annotators.
Queen’s Gambit with 5 Bf4 (CD-ROM) by Rustem Dautov, Chessbase,
£18.50.
German grandmaster Dautov analyses this solid and popular system, in
the now-familiar CD-ROM way. There are more than 3,600 games (255 with
commentary) on the database with 13 inter-linking text pages, 20 training
games, and a tree of variations based on the full games database. Dautov
points out that the Bf4 QGD has an impressive 63% score for all the games
in the database, with Mikhail Gurevich scoring a phenomenal 84% (+22,
=10, -0). His future black opponents have been warned. The training questions
have sensibly been set up as a revision test for what the reader has learnt
in the text. So don’t do what the reviewer did, and pitch into them
before studying the ideas. Once you’ve done your homework you’ll
find them very useful.
Just In: three titles from Everyman... Improvers: It’s
Your Move by Chris Ward, £12.99... Simple Chess by John
Emms, £14.99... Mastering The Opening by Byron Jacobs, £14.99.
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