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Magazine Chess Book Reviews : October 2007

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Vladimir Kramnik: My Path to the Top
by Vladimir Kramnik, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £27.50.

   This DVD-ROM features more than six hours of Vladimir Kramnik talking to camera about his career so far, describing his childhood and taking the viewer through the major events in his chess career, starting with the 1992 Olympiad when he exploded onto the world stage as a 16-year-old, to his three world championship matches. This is probably as close as it is possible to get to an intimate one-to-one with one of the chess greats. Kramnik is calm, rational, sensible and with an endearing way of half-closing his eyes when he is about to deliver a witticism or a self-deprecatory comment. He is highly articulate and delivers 20-minute monologues seemingly without notes or preparation. In some of the talks he goes through games or part-games, giving insight into his thought processes and psychological approach. There is not as much chess analysis as you would expect to find in a book and yet you somehow feel you learn more about the work and modus operandi of a world champion as he speaks directly to you. Kramnik doesn’t appear to have the swagger or burning ambition of Kasparov but after a while it dawns on you that he has an equally high level of confidence in his own abilities, particularly when it comes to endgame play, but expressed in slightly less ebullient terms.
    He tells us how he coped before his must-win last match game against Peter Leko: the day before, while the rest of his team worked on opening preparation, he sat down and reminded himself of all the advantages of not being world champion: less mass media attention, ballyhoo, etc. That put him into a philosophical, win-win frame of mind for the final game which he duly won to tie the match and retain his title. But, as he smilingly reminds us, that approach may not suit everyone.
    He makes frequent references to the value of his teams at world championships. He tells us how he went about choosing the team for his successful title challenge in 2000. One of the most important factors in his selection was the amiability of the person involved, engendering a relaxed approach but also a strong esprit de corps. This also harks back to the successful Russian team of the 1992 Olympiad where Kramnik tells us he first learnt to play cards, and that the reserve players’ primary duty consisted of a visit to the local liquor store to buy several bottles of gin every day in preparation for the team’s evening entertainment. He tells us that Garry Kasparov disapproved somewhat but that he could not really complain since the team were scoring massively in every round and easily won the gold medals.
    Like many another champion before him, Kramnik concentrates on his successes. There is nothing here on his lost match against Shirov in 1998 which, looking back, seems an incongruous result given Kramnik’s subsequent matchplay successes. He does tell us that in the late 1990s, with the help of his coach Sergey Dolmatov, he changed his style to the positional approach we know (and some of us love) today so perhaps he regards some of his 1990s reverses as failed experiments that do not warrant reviewing in this way.
    In summary, we learn more about the man than the chessplayer, but it is enjoyable stuff. Kramnik seems to be what the Americans call ‘a regular guy’. The general media will find it hard to make stick that adjective which they love to apply to chess champions: “obsessive”. Kramnik just isn’t: he combines the affability of Spassky with something close to the positional chess mastery of Karpov. In manner, he is more like a famous golfer, say, Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer. With the equally laid-back Vishy Anand, the two of them could do wonders for the image of the game (what about ‘pro-am consultation chess’ as a TV idea? Vlad plus celebrity chessplayer versus Vishy plus another celebrity?). JS.

Practical Endgame Play – Beyond The Basics
by Glenn Flear, Everyman, 544 pages, £19.99.
Postage and packing £3.50 UK, £5.00 Europe, £7.50 RoW.

Most endgame books deal primarily with positions where each player has only one piece – Q+R+Ps v Q+R+Ps, Q+B+Ps v Q+B+Ps, etc. But in practice many more of the endings which arise see more pieces than this on the board. In this huge volume, English grandmaster Glenn Flear deals at length with endings where one or both sides have two pieces. Thus we have detailed coverage of endings with rook versus two minor pieces, rook plus minor piece versus rook plus minor piece, queen and rook versus queen and rook, etc. In fact the book covers what Flear calls endgames and “NQEs” (pronounced “nuckies”), i.e. Not Quite Endgames – those indeterminate positions which are simplified (usually queenless), but which you will not find in Basic Chess Endings or other such textbooks.
     Flear is a highly experienced player and author, and his chess has always been characterised by its conscientious professionalism. Nowhere is that more apparent than in this massive tome of 544 pages, with its hundreds and hundreds of carefully-analysed examples. Without doubt, a modern classic, not to be missed. Let’s be honest, now – even those of you who don’t like endings are not averse to a bit of nuckie, are you? SG.









 

True Lies in Chess
by Lluis Comas Fabregó, Quality Chess, 160 pages, £14.99.

    Chapter one, ‘Do not Trust the Classics’, opens with a quotation from the Buddha’s Kalama Sutra and one from Thomas Huxley: ‘Scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith, the one unpardonable sin’. The Spanish grandmaster then scrutinises examples of ‘classic’ play and annotations from all three phases of the game, arguing with authors such as Nimzowitsch, Geller, Botvinnik and (more recently) John Watson. For instance, if we believe Geller, Botvinnik’s decision to paralyse his own queenside in a Fianchetto King’s Indian (Botvinnik-Geller, Budapest 1952: 15 a3!?) led directly to his downfall. In My Great Predecessors, Vol. 2 (oddly enough not in Comas’s bibliography, though he is quite appreciative of Kasparov in general) the motivation for this move is at least recognised. But Comas goes further, explaining in detail how this is often the strongest method to secure the queenside in preparation for a kingside attack. Such analyses really do live up to Huxley’s maxim. It’s easy enough to puncture classic commentaries by feeding tactical positions to Fritz. What Comas does is much more valuable, namely questioning the assumptions that guide our play: that a knight on d6 is always a strong blockader of a passed pawn on d5, etc. If, as Jonathan Rowson thinks, serious improvement at chess can only take place if we free ourselves from habitual patterns of positional assessment, there can be no better guide to this ‘defamiliarisation’ process than Comas. And True Lies is also a delight to read. In an age when many opening novelties are silicon-generated, the chapter recounting the author’s discoveries in a provocative line of the King’s Indian (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 6 Be2 Na6!?) is truly welcome. Finally, there is a treasure-trove of highlights from some relatively neglected grandmasters of the Soviet era. Review by James Vigus.









 

The Immortal Game: A History of Chess
by David Shenk, Souvenir Press, 327 pages hardcover, £20.00.

This book, subtitled How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Science and Human Brain, is by an American author whom the blurb tells us is a bestselling author and a contributor to National Geographic, Harper’s and The New Yorker. He is not a competition chessplayer, but someone who got interested in the game at a relatively modest level later in life. The title refers to Anderssen-Kieseritzky, London 1851, and the moves of this famous game are used as milestones or bookmarks punctuating the story of chess through the ages. One always gets ready to cringe at such books when penned by chess outsiders but Shenk seems to have done his research well enough and quotes mainly reliable sources in his voluminous appendices. Of course there are some of the tall tales retailed by chess charlatans and braggarts, plus the oft-told stories which we would like to be true but probably aren’t, but even the most assiduous chess historian finds it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. The hardest thing about the book is trying to judge who the intended reader is. It might appeal to non-chessplaying people outside the game, but chessplayers will want an insider telling the story, or a genuine historian such as Murray who has done original research rather than just sifting a myriad of sources, however well selected. JS.

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Chess Explained: The Modern Benoni
by Zenon Franco, Gambit, 111 pages, £12.99.

The Modern Benoni has been in the doldrums at grandmaster level for a number of years but remains one of Black’s most dynamic defences to 1 d4. Franco provides a comprehensive introduction to the opening, and this is a very useful volume for anyone interested in the opening. The main cautionary note concerns how good the opening objectively is. I could not help noticing that Black wins only seven of the 25 illustrative games. This probably tells a tale at grandmaster level, although this should not be an issue as less exalted levels. SG.







 

Chess Explained: Queen’s Gambit Declined
by James Rizzitano, Gambit, 127 pages, £12.99.

The latest offering from the American IM covers all major lines of the QGD, based around 25 deeply-analysed recent games. There is less detailed textual explanation than in the Starting Out series, but on the other hand, the more thorough theoretical coverage will appeal to stronger players. As with Rizzitano’s previous works on the QGA and Taimanov Sicilian, this looks like a comprehensive and readable summary of the current state of QGD theory. SG.









 

1...d6 Universal
by Nigel Davies, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £18.99.

Came in too late to be reviewed properly this month – but here is part of the publisher blurb on this Pirc Defence disk... On this DVD, Nigel Davies presents everything you need to know to convert the Pirc Defence into a universal system of counterattack, offering winning chances against every White opening under the sun.

Fighting the Anti-Sicilians
by Richard Palliser, Everyman, 256 pages, £14.99.

Richard Palliser offers a detailed repertoire book covering all those “annoying” anti-Sicilian variations by which White players attempt to dodge the voluminous theory of the main lines. The book covers all second-move lines, including 2 c3, 2 f4, 2 Nc3, 2 d4, etc. Being a repertoire book, only one move is offered against each White alternative; against 2 c3, for example, Palliser recommends 2...d5 rather than the more often preferred 2...Nf6. This looks like an extremely painstaking effort which will prove very valuable to any Sicilian practitioner. SG.

Informator 99
Sahovski Informator, 339 pages, £21.00.

The latest issue covers events held between 1 January 2007 and 30 April 2007, including Wijk aan Zee, Moscow, Morelia/Linares, Poikovsky, Zafra, Monaco, Dresden, Gausdal, Malmo, and the Kramnik-Leko rapidplay match. It includes the usual trademark sections: the voting for the ten best games and the ten most important theoretical novelties from the previous issue, theoretical survey in ECO format, the most interesting recent combinations, endings and studies, tournament standings and crosstables, and the best of Yasser Seirawan’s creative output. JS.

Chess Results 1936-1940
by Gino Di Felice, McFarland, 380 pages, £25.00.

This is the fifth in the author’s series of works recording crosstables and match results of significant chess events. Entries record location and, when available, the group that sponsored the event. Both first and last names of players are included whenever possible and are standardized for easy reference. Compiled from contemporary sources such as newspapers, periodicals, tournament records and match books, this work contains 990 tournament crosstables and 125 match scores. It is indexed by events and players. JS.

ChessBase Magazine 119
ChessBase DVD-ROM, £17.50.

Disk-based coverage of top tournaments; in this issue, Dortmund, Elista and Foros. There is video material, with Kramnik talking about Dortmund and Mexico, Van Wely and his tricky victory in Baku and Carlsen analysing his victory over Aronian. Boris Gelfand demonstrates an interesting drawn game from Elista, Van Wely looks at the best attacking game from Foros and Sergey Karyakin analyses his brilliancy at Foros. JS.

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings Volume C, 5th Ed.
Informator CD-ROM, £24.99.

The fifth edition of the ECO, Volume C, covers 1 e4 e6, and 1 e4 e5 openings. It comes in four different database formats (CIE, PGN, CBH, CA).

Chess Informant 5-99 Endings Section
Informator CD-ROM, £24.99.

This disk contains 2,494 endgame positions culled from the complete back-numbers of Informator up to 2007. All the game continuations are quoted in full, with annotations honed to near perfection with a little help from computer analysis. This product comes with fully searchable endgame classification keys, which can also be used for training purposes in training mode. In four different formats (CIE, PGN, CBH, CA)

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