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Magazine Chess Book Reviews : November 2009Return to the Magazine Review Index
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Sergey Shipov is a Russian grandmaster who has given up playing the game and devoted himself to writing and online commentary. Those who are lucky enough to understand Russian and follow his web work speak of him with an awe bordering on reverence. This book on the Hedgehog (typified by black pawns on e6, d6, b6, a6, bishop on b7 and queen on c7) is a substantial work, translated by James Marfia, which gives the rest of us the chance to enjoy his pearls of wisdom. The book is not just a theoretical tome but also gives a thorough history of the hedgehog formation, with plenty of textual explanations. There isn’t the space here to say more but this is a very good book which might interest even those readers who are not directly interested in the opening itself, as Shipov is a remarkable chess guru. Highly recommended. JS.
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Genna Sosonko of Leningrad and Amsterdam brings out a third, expanded edition of pen portraits of the greats of Soviet chess with the usual revelations of their relations with the bureaucracy and with each other; also about meeting Olga Capablanca in New York. BC.
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Eyebrows may be raised at a posthumous contribution from the doyen of British chess of the last century, so I hasten to explain that this is a corrected reproduction of a Magazine Quarterly from the ‘good old days’. This edition has been prepared by David Regis and appears at a time when another youngster, from Norway, is cutting a swathe through the higher ranks of his ‘elders but not really betters’, just as Tal did in the face of Keres, Smyslov, the young Fischer and so on. BC.
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“Chess players might be divided into strategists and power players” is the opening salvo of this book which gives examples from the play of the Titans, from Morphy, via Alekhine, Bronstein, Geller, to Topalov. Many of the examples might be considered anthology pieces, but a number of the Topalov games and a 1935 position won by Euwe in his match with his predecessor might be new to our readers. BC.
This is our endgame studies editor’s third and, he tells us, last chess vanity-book. It is a collection of studies, problems, variants, puzzles and joke compositions. Some of the puzzles are nothing at all to do with chess – there are even a few bridge puzzles in it. Extraordinarily entertaining stuff – short but perfectly formed. JS. (Available from C&B but no shop button found)
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This door-stopper of a tome is an overview of all chess openings by the Dutch grandmaster author who provides a textual explanation of each system in turn, giving a thumbnail of the available variations. So, though it is a thick book, there is no variation spaghetti as you might find in, say, the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. It might make a good introductory text for elementary or club players who want to sample the range of openings. Readable and comprehensive. JS.
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This is a white repertoire book against the Sicilian, starting 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3, tackling all of Black’s regular (and not so regular) continuations. The core of the repertoire (in a wide range of standard lines) is the set-up with f3, Be3, Qd2 and 0–0–0, with the Spanish grandmaster author recommend a number of other orthodox variations to follow against other continuations. Of course, basing the repertoire round main lines means that there is a great deal of theoretical ground to cover but this the author does in a systematic and comprehensible way. In fact, it would also constitute a good general grounding in the main variations of the Sicilian for anyone who was thinking of taking it up as Black. JS.
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Top English woman player Jovanka Houska has done an excellent good job in this pleasing addition to Everyman’s excellent series of basic opening primers. It is a substantial work with plenty of new ideas to try in club and tournament chess. JS.
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This is quite a difficult book to describe in the space available here, but it basically examines how chess players of different abilities make decisions, using a series of positions developed in the 1930s by a Dutch researcher into chess thinking, Dr Adriaan de Groot. In the text the players “think out loud”, as the author puts it. It is a very interesting project and the author has produced a fascinating examination of chessplayers describing their thought processes. JS.
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This is the fifth in the ‘School of Future Champions’ series and, like previous volumes, is a fresh translation and presentation of advanced chess essays written by the distinguished authors back in the 1980s and early 1990s. Amongst their pupils were such names as Peter Svidler... well, you don’t really need any more names, after that one, do you? This is for the advanced or ambitious student only – but, for such players it is of course well worthy of close study. JS.
Bxh7+ (The Greek Gift) by David Rudel, Thinkers’ Press, 184 pages, £12.99 • To buy this item - click here
Informator 105, Sahovski Informator, 332 pages, £20.95 • To buy this item - click here
Endgame Workshop by Bruce Pandolfini, Russell Enterprises, 251 pages, £14.99 • To buy this item - click here
ChessBase Magazine 132, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £18.95 • To buy this item - click here
Fritz 12, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £40.00 • To buy this item - click here
The King’s Indian by Viktor Bologan, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £26.95 • To buy this item - click here
1...e6 against 1 d4 and 1 e4: A Solid Repertoire by Nigel Davies, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £26.95 • To buy this item - click here
Power Play 11: Defence by Daniel King, ChessBase DVD-ROM, £26.95 • To buy this item - click here
