BCM Chess Book Reviews : June 2009
Chess Strategy for Club Players by Herman Grooten, New in Chess, 412 pages, £22.50. 
Subtitled The Road to Positional Advantages, this is a substantial tome which covers many topics. It starts, where else, by looking at Steinitz’s elements before moving onto ‘the eye of the grandmaster’ and dissecting at length an early Fischer position from Mar del Plata 1960. The relevance of research by psychologists comes in early too – Thought and Choice in Chess by Professor Adrian de Groot and the later cooperative work Perception and Memory in Chess by de Groot and Fernand Gobet.
We learn from a caption below a photo of Andras Adorjan that the eye movements of the Hungarian GM are being ‘registrated’ (sic). This is a rare lapse in a book that reads well and shows evidence of careful consideration of many points that occur to players in their attempts to improve and understand our noble game better.
As Jan Timman comments in his foreword: “this is an ambitious and well-thought-out book”. Review by Bernard Cafferty.
Dangerous Weapons: Anti-Sicilians by John Emms, Richard Palliser and Peter Wells, Everyman, 285 pages, £14.99. 
The book features 12 chapters, four each by the three authors on some familiar – and not so familiar – Sicilian-dodging variations. This includes 2 c3, Closed Sicilian, 3 Bb5, lines where White plays 4 Qxd4 rather than 4 Nxd4 (not to be recommended where Black has played 2...Nc6, incidentally) and other less common but highly interesting sidelines. This is more a repertoire than a reference book, so coverage is not comprehensive – but it is very stimulating and readable. Players of 1800 and above will enjoy this book. JS.
Dangerous Weapons: The Pirc and Modern by Richard Palliser, Colin McNab and James Vigus, Everyman, 224 pages, £14.99. 
As with the previous title, this book features 12 chapters, four each by the three authors, on these popular and closely-related defences to either 1 e4 or 1 d4. All three authors have a considerable track record when it comes to playing and writing about the Pirc/Modern so Black players will want to study it. In the blurb they say they have concentrated on “fresh or little-explored variations” instead of going down well-trodden paths, and this is borne out by the content. Highly recommended for players of 1800 and above. JS.
Scandinavian Defense: The Dynamic 3...Qd6 (2nd ed.) by Michael Melts, Russell Enterprises, 301 pages, £20.99. 
This is a second edition of an excellent 2001 book on what is becoming a trendy move in the Centre Counter (or Scandinavian Defence as it is now more frequently referred to). It is a substantial revision and will clearly be a must-buy for players of this defence. JS.
How to Beat Young Players by Nigel Davies, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £19.99. 
Could this DVD contain the secret of eternal chess youth? Who could not be tempted by such a title? Well, if they are well stricken in years anyway, as the reviewer is. Having entered the chess world with the help of Bott and Morrison’s glorious Chess for Children back in the early 1960s, time has passed and now I need something more like Chess for Codgers. So, does this disk fit the bill?
In his jokey intro, the author depicts the baseball-capped, crisp-munching kids who have the nasty habit of beating us as we enter our sixth and seventh decades. If this weren’t bad enough, chess organisers – and it’s the first sign of old age when you realise the arbiters are starting to look slimmer and younger than you do – are also against us as they have abolished adjournments and speeded up play so that you’ve even less time for those comfort breaks that you need more often.
But help is at hand. The more mature chessplayer (as the grandmaster author delicately calls us) needs to “make the most of guile and cunning”. He coaxes us to steer our repertoire towards positions which require understanding rather than memory, e.g. systems such as Nf3, g3, with b3 to follow, which he refers to as ‘low-maintenance openings.”
He gives some specific advice on lifestyle with a view to minimising chessboard tension. “Avoid Coca Cola or Mars bars”, he says, on the grounds that they are liable to increase, rather than dissipate, stress during play. “An apple and water” is his plain but healthy suggestion for sustenance during play. He stresses the importance of physical fitness. He is not advocating gym work or jogging (thanks heavens) so much as walking, swimming and eating sensibly.
After the initial pep-talk, Davies moves on to some chessboard philosophy. He asks the question why so many people go on playing ‘macho’ chess openings into middle age. As a teacher, Davies tries to steer older pupils away from tension-generating lines towards something less complex and more energy-efficient. His first example is the Sicilian Dragon: he considers the complex main lines to be unsuitable for older players and recommends older players convert to the Accelerated Dragon, which, despite its name, is slower and less demanding on middle-aged memories and constitutions than its non-accelerated relative.
If you want to know more, you are going to have to buy the disk (always assuming you can cope with stressful technology in the form of computer and DVD). The reviewer can heartily recommend this disk (which runs for three hours). The author has evidently put a lot of thought into the question of middle-aged chess and he has come up with some practical, good-humoured advice that should help you to grow old gracefully – and successfully – as a chessplayer. JS.
Kill KID 1 by Semko Semkov, Chess Stars, 140 pages, £16.99. 
No, don’t worry, the author is not advocating an extreme solution to the problems of ‘age versus youth’ dealt with in the previous item reviewed. No children were killed in the creation of this book: it is about how to play the Four Pawns Attack in order to ‘kill’ the King’s Indian Defence. Frankly, as a loyal KID player of many years standing, I find this almost as reprehensible as infanticide and I’m certainly not going to reveal any of Semkov’s dastardly secrets in a review. You’ll have to buy the book. I will grudgingly admit that it does look like a good one but please promise not to play any of these lines against me. JS.
Just in:
Power Play 10: Calculation by Daniel King, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £26.95 [buy this item];
The Scheveningen Sicilian by Lubomir Ftacnik, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £24.95 [buy this item].
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