Magazine Chess Book Reviews : August 2007
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Alexey Dreev: My 100 Best Games
by Alexey Dreev, Chess Stars, 299 pages, £15.99.
Despite maintaining a very high rating over many years, Alexey Dreev has a lower profile than some of his super-grandmaster contemporaries. This book has given him the chance to put that right. The introduction gives a short but revealing portrait of chess life in the later years of the Soviet Union and the early years of post-Soviet Russia. After a happy upbringing, he enjoyed his teenage years as a young Soviet star. He outlines the many advantages of the Soviet chess system in terms of money and opportunities. As a ten-year-old, he tells he was able to earn more money in a month (by giving simuls) than the secretary of the local branch of the Communist Party. He also had access to some first-rate chess coaching.
But this propitious start was followed by a difficult passage to adulthood, when he fell foul of the authorities in some way that remains a mystery to him to this day. His applications to play abroad were rebuffed with responses such as “we have failed to prepare your documents”. His solution was to join the army. His special sports regiment which gave him time for chess, albeit interspersed with some typical military “bull”. “There were all kinds of marching formations, some running around and sessions of studying something. I believe even today that all of them were utterly senseless; of course nobody cared about any real combat preparation.” And to think of all the money our western governments expended trying to defend us against them...
After describing his early career, Dreev crams a description of his next two decades of professional chessplaying into little more than a page. This seems a little odd but then his games can speak for themselves. They are mostly preceded by a short, respectful comment about the event or the opponent, and the notes are copious and informative. As well as the introduction and games, there are some excellent colour photos and a statistical summary of Dreev’s playing career. The overall impression is of an exceedingly good book which will repay careful reading. JS.
Tactics in the Chess Opening 5: Indian Defences
by Sipke Ernst & Geert van der Stricht, New in Chess, 237 pages, £13.95.
The two authors cover the Indian Defences (Nimzo, King’s, Queen’s, Grünfeld and Old), plus the Catalan, Benoni and “Benoni Wall” (Schmid Benoni). It features tricky opening variations, without resorting to a rehash of hackneyed opening traps from the past. The sort of high quality material that one has come to expect from the publisher. JS.
A Spanish Repertoire for Black
by Mihail Marin, Quality Chess, 231 pages, £15.99.
The second and final volume of Marin’s 1 e4 e5 repertoire for Black covers all Lopez lines starting 3...a6 4 Ba4 (4 Bxc6 was also dealt with in the first volume), and is centred on two old, unfashionable Chigorin options: 9 h3 Na5 10 Bc2 c5 11 d4 Qc7 12 Nbd2, and now either Rubinstein’s 12...Nc6 or Petrosian’s favourite 12...Bd7. The format is the same as the earlier volume – a chapter tracing the development of Black’s idea, followed by an ECO-style tabular list of the variations, backed up by extensive footnote references.
The book promised a new look at some old lines, and it certainly delivers that. Both variations have been out of favour for a long time, especially 12...Nc6. Marin’s suggested rehabilitation will need some tests at top level before we can know for sure how viable the improvements are, but he makes an interesting case. Players on the white side of the Ruy Lopez will of course find it equally valuable. All of the other deviations for White, including 5 Qe2, 5 d4 and 6 Bxc6, are also covered. The book is highly recommended. Review by Steve Giddins.
Perfect Your Chess
by Andrei Volokitin and Vladimir Grabinsky, Gambit, 159 pages, £15.99..
This is a book of 369 test positions from the files of IM Grabinsky, trainer of the stellar young Ukrainian, Volokitin. Each chapter begins with some impressive examples from Volokitin’s play, and all the positions are from very recent games. The main focus is on tactical middlegames, and detailed and instructive solutions are given. The level is high, with puzzles targeted respectively at FM, IM and grandmaster level. But the ‘FM’ puzzles at least look generally manageable for lower-rated players, who will also learn much from the exact calculation demanded by the tougher positions. The authors obviously have an eye for beauty in chess, and have preserved many combinations that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Highly recommended for players rated 2000+ who want to improve their calculation. Review by James Vigus.
Play the Grünfeld
by Yelena Dembo, Everyman, 192 pages, £14.99.
Grünfeld players have been spoilt for choice with books about their chosen defence in the past few years, starting with Jonathan Rowson’s 1999 work Understanding the Grünfeld and now this intermediate player’s overview from the Israeli/Greek IM. The author covers the ground well, with frequent references to other books, such as Sakaev’s authoritative 2006 work on the 7 Bc4 Grünfeld, and manages to distil the basics of a highly complex and theoretical opening in fewer than 200 pages. JS.
My Best Games in the Caro Kann
by Alexei Shirov, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £24.50.
Alexei Shirov’s ten lectures (lasting nearly five hours in total) are based on his own games, all of which started with the line 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nc3 (in two of them he was Black, and in the other eight, White). He concentrates heavily on the opening phase of each game and this is detailed theoretical material for strong players. More than once Shirov is afflicted with sudden doubt about his prepared analysis as he speaks, and the viewer is left watching as he gazes intently at his computer screen and stays silent for quite a few seconds at a time. But anyone wanting to know more about this complex line of the Caro Kann will want to own this compelling video. JS.
Play 1...Nc6!
by Christoph Wisnewski, Everyman, 268 pages, £14.99.
A repertoire book for Black, based on answering White’s main opening moves with Nc6. Previous books on this opening have tended to rely on lines where Black aims for ...e5, but this one is based on ...d5 lines. Thus the main recommendations are 1 e4 Nc6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 e6 (really just a 3 Nc3 Nc6 French) and 1 d4 d5 2 c4 Nc6 (Chigorin Defence). The book looks substantial, though it finds itself in quite a crowded market place (other books on the Nc6 French and the Chigorin have been published in recent months). SG. [also reviewed by James Vigus in the September issue]
The Secret Weapons of the Champions
by Adrian Mikhalchishin, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £18.50.
This set of 15 video lectures by former Soviet grandmaster Adrian Mikhalchishin looks at some middle-game motifs which were made famous by Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian and Makogonov. The latter name may be not as well known as the other three, but Vladimir Makogonov (1904-1993) was a highly influential theorist of the Soviet school, who named a principle after him: where no immediate plan of action suggests itself, a player should concentrate on relocating the worst placed piece. In Botvinnik’s case he looks at the execution of flank versus centre plans, in Tal’s the Latvian genius’s use of rook and pawn against two pieces and in Petrosian’s case, white square strategy. JS.
The Survival Guide to Competitive Chess
by John Emms, Everyman, 160 pages, £14.99.
This book goes over similar ground (e.g. decision making, clock control) to that covered by John Nunn’s Secrets of Practical Chess, but of course no two grandmasters’ outlook on the game is ever going to be quite the same. Both the ‘Johns’ have remarkable insight and the ability to communicate it. As always, John Emms is eminently readable and he provides entertaining, practical advice for those of us with sub-optimal talent. JS.
The Meran Semi-Slav
by Reinaldo Vera, Gambit, 112 pages, £12.99.
The latest in the Chess Explained series, giving an introduction to the Meran Semi-Slav, based around 25 annotated games. This is a good explanation of the variations, written by an acknowledged expert. Note that only lines beginning 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 e6 5 e3 are dealt with; the sharp Botvinnik and Moscow lines with 5 Bg5 are not covered. SG.
ChessBase Magazine 118
ChessBase DVD-ROM, £17.50.
This issue contains a lot of coverage of the European Individual Championships in Dresden (featuring video material from Sergey Tiviakov), the Bundesliga (with video annotation by Alexei Shirov) and the MTel Masters in Sofia (with normal annotations by Nisipeanu and Sasikiran). Plus the usual 3,000+ game database with some annotations. JS.
Prelude to Armageddon: Kasparov and Karpov in London
Impala DVD-Video box set (two disks), £24.99.
This two-DVD set has films of two events from the mid-1980s: the 1983 World Candidates semi-final matches in London (Kasparov vs Korchnoi and Smyslov vs Ribli) and the April 1984 Phillips and Drew/GLC Kings tournament held in London and won by Karpov, made by J&R Television of Newcastle (though the packaging does not mention this). It is a valuable and interesting contemporary record of two major London-based events, with snippets of the play and brief interviews with people such as Robert Byrne and a 15-year-old David Norwood. JS.
Chess Exam and Training Guide 2: Tactics
by Igor Khmelnitsky, Iamcoach Press, 207 pages, £14.99.
120 multiple-choice tests, designed to assess and develop your tactical ability. The positions chosen, and the solutions given, are well-designed for the purpose, although the bizarre percentage evaluation tables certainly baffled this reviewer. SG.
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