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Magazine Chess Book Reviews : March 2010

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Diary of a Chess Queen by Alexandra Kosteniuk, Mongoose Press, 244 pages, £18.99.

Women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is occasionally referred to as “the Anna Kournikova of chess” but the main difference lies in the solid sporting achievements of the 25-year-old Russian grandmaster. From winning world junior titles she has gone on to success in her adult career, winning both European and World Championships in recent years. Though she is not the highest rated woman player in the world by some way, she seems to thrive on pure competition, with an uncompromising, fighting brand of chess. This book charts her life from childhood, with many photos and annotated games. It is a sort of travelogue with excerpts from her contemporary diaries. As well as chess, she has also become involved in modelling and film acting. In fact, she is so busy that she can almost wear you out with her constant activity and enterprise. She is perfectly aware of the trait whereby she simply has to fill every waking moment with activity, though motherhood has made her “more accepting” of free moments. It is a very interesting and well-written book, replete with personal detail and quite revealing in some respects. The author’s thoughtful annotations certainly provide insight into her chess style, which is highly attractive and worthy of study. Recommended. JS.

Chess Secrets: Heroes of Classical Chess by Craig Pritchett, Everyman, 224 pages, £15.99.

The five heroes singled out in this volume by the experienced Scottish IM are Rubinstein, Smyslov, Fischer, Anand and Carlsen. There are 35 games in total by these great players, annotated with a view to entertain as well as to instruct. Pritchett’s writing style is crisp and to the point, and his summaries of the players’ careers and styles are also delivered in a felicitous manner. JS.








 

Play The Ponziani by Dave Taylor and Keith Hayward, Everyman, 301 pages, £16.99.

As someone who has indeed played the Ponziani, and more times than I care to remember, my own book about it would be titled as this one is, but preceded by the word ‘Don’t’. That is no criticism of the book, just the opening itself. 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 c3 is almost as ancient as chess itself but it doesn’t offer White much if Black knows what he is doing (and sometimes even if he doesn’t). Looking inside the book, it is refreshing to find that the American authors (both principally correspondence players, one also an FM) maintain their objectivity about the opening and tell it like it is. For example, in the chapter about the line 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 c3 d5 4 Bb5, we are given the not entirely surprising news that they consider it to be refuted by 4...dxe4 5 Nxe5 Qg5 and now one line goes 6 d4 Qxg2 7 Rf1 Bd6! 8 Nxc6 Bd7! 9 Qa4 a6! 10 d5 Rd8! and White is struggling. But of course there is far more to the Ponziani than this line and the good news is that the 4 Qa4 line is alive and well. This is an impressive and definitive work even if one is forced to conclude ‘nice book – shame about the opening’. JS.








 

Boost Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals by Artur Yusupov, Quality Chess, 265 pages, £18.95.

This book consists of some well-presented teaching materials for intermediate players, with each chapter having some introductory and didactic material, followed by examples and then exercises and solutions. The student’s answers are assessed as “excellent”, “good” or “pass mark”, with those failing to reach the pass mark being advised to go back and work through the chapter again. There are 24 chapters on standard features such as stalemate combinations, semi-open files, mate with bishop and knight, etc. JS.





   

The Giant Chess Puzzle Book by Zenón Franco, Gambit, 287 pages, £16.99.

Puzzle books must be one of the most popular genres of all chess books. They are great fun to read and arguably very beneficial for your chess. The Paraguayan grandmaster and trainer (Vallejo Pons was one of his pupils) has put together a collection of 1,001 puzzles, ranging from the easiest to the downright diabolic, to delight and infuriate. He has not resorted to ‘old chestnuts’ and many are very recent. Enjoyable. JS.








   

A Course in Chess Tactics by Dejan Bojkov and Vladimir Georgiev, Gambit, 191 pages, £14.99.

The two Bulgarian spend the first part of the book explaining and delineating the elements of tactics (pin, deflection, decoy, discovered attack, etc) and then move on to some more advanced tactical themes and then top the book off with 40 or pages of exercises to reinforce what has been learnt. The book is well-presented and is good value for money. JS.






   

Attacking Manual 2 by Jacob Aagaard, Quality Chess, 461 pages, £24.00.

This formidable tome is seen by the author as the second part of his magnum opus on attacking chess, and dealing with what to do when an attack is up and running. However, though formidable at first sight, it proves to be a pleasurable read once you get stuck into it. Aagaard has a forceful, provocative style as a writer, peppering his work with trenchant opinions, but he is eminently readable and challenging. Unfortunately we don’t have the space to go into greater detail here but this looks like a major work on the subject and one for serious students of the game, from 2000, to study. JS.

B33 Lasker/Sveshnikov Sicilian, Sahovski Informator, 319 pages, £20.99.

This Informator handbook covers highly fashionable lines starting with 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5. As with ECO and Informator, there is figurine notation only – no textual annotations. JS.

Theory and Practice of Chess Endings, Vols. 1 and 2 by Alexander Panchenko, Convekta Publishing, 158 and 176 pages, £12.95 each.

These two well-produced but attractively priced manuals present the basics of the endgame in simple text, with plenty of diagrams, examples and exercise positions. Recommended study material for players rated 1600 and upwards. JS.

Learn Chess Quick by Brian Byfield and Alan Orpin, Batsford, 143 pages, £9.99.

This is an attractively illustrated elementary instructional book for children. JS.

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