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Magazine Chess Book Reviews : April 2010Return to the Magazine Review Index
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The aim of this book is to show White how to put Black into a positional squeeze when the second player tries one of various popular gambit lines against 1 d4. The specific gambits are the Benkö, Budapest, Albin and Blumenfeld, with the emphasis on the first of those four. By ‘positional’, the eminent Bulgarian grandmaster is thinking of something which is viable, stable and durable – and often it means not accepting the sacrifice. About two thirds of the book is about the Benkö, which seems sensible as it is the most important and most frequently encountered of the four systems dealt with. Against it, his first recommended line is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 Nf3 g6 5 cxb5 a6 6 b6. He gives plenty of textual advice and some historical background, fleshing his narrative out with his own experiences of this highly complex line. He delineates the various middlegame plans and addresses which squares specific pieces should be placed on. Everything is explained plainly but with precision and the quiet voice of super-grandmasterly authority.
Georgiev’s second recommendation against the Benkö is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 Nf3, and once again he goes into the niceties of the plans, ideal positions and piece locations. He also has a quick look at 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5.
Around 20 pages are spent dealing with the Budapest, and only 13 on the Albin. Without going into specifics, Georgiev discusses the positional limitations of these systems rather than offering outright refutations and he provides safe and solid moves to counter them and steer the first player towards a positional edge. He gives 20 pages on the Blumenfeld and recommends the line 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 c5 4 d5 b5 5 Bg5.
The book seems unpretentious and unshowy when first picked up, but as one reads the contents, the impression grows of a work that stands out from the crowd, both in terms of its readability and the authoritativeness of the writing. I’m not a 1 d4 player myself but if I were, I’d definitely want to read this book. Highly recommended. JS.
Richard Réti’s famous classic of the early 1920s appears in a new format, double-column and in algebraic notation. One misses Harry Golombek’s lyrical foreword to the Bell’s edition which is here replaced by a one-page introduction by Bruce Alberson, and a three and a half page foreword by Andy Soltis. The view expressed by the latter that the later Masters of the Chess Board doesn’t reach the same level of genius is rather controversial. BC.
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This is a modern treatment of the opening rendered popular by Réti’s victory with it over Capablanca at New York 1924. As usual with the works of this author, one is impressed by the thought that has gone into this book, along with his instructive asides – the very opposite of a database dump which one sees in many opening books of the database age. BC.
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No relation, it seems of Nona, the women’s world champion, the author is an IM at correspondence play and a chess trainer. Recognising the critical moment is indeed a knack which needs to be learned, else life is full of regrets at missed opportunities. There are 269 examples to be solved, with detailed solutions extending sometimes for more than half a page. Enough source material for months of work! BC.
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After previous volumes on 1 e4 and 1 d4, the authors turn their attention to 1 c4, 1 Nf3 and minor systems. The book gives the basic ideas behind all the openings considered, with some textual explanatory material plus some study material (often just bare game scores). The book is intended as a basic primer on the fundamentals of openings for beginners and players who are thinking of changing their opening repertoire. JS.
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The sub-title is Creating a chess culture by coaching, training, organisation and communication. It is aimed at anyone who wants to learn how to teach chess, with lots of advice on how to structure lessons, utilise chess resources, run a club or competition, etc. The two authors set up a Dutch organisation which translates as ‘the Foundation for the Promotion of Chess in Apeldoorn’ and evidently know what they are talking about. It comes across as a very sensible, practical book with plenty of commonsense advice for anyone who wants to get into this side of the game, but it is also well presented and readable, with plenty of photographs to break up the text (which is virtually ‘chess free’ – the book is about the pedagogic side of coaching and training, rather than going into the chess detail). Artur Yusupov pays the authors the compliment of writing the foreword and he was clearly impressed by what he found when he visited and took part in some of their training in Apeldoorn. Recommended. JS.
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This book looks at games where players castle on opposite sides of the board and attack each other’s kings. The young English IM (making his authorial debut, I think) presents more than 60 games on this theme, grouped under ten chapters headers, including The Battering Ram (his term for the h-pawn) and The Boa Constrictor (where the attacks build up more slowly). The games are very entertaining and well selected. JS.
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The latest digest of opening ideas includes material on the Advance variation of the Caro-Kann, the Exchange variation of Alekhine’s Defence and the Scotch Game, with a small input in the latter from the world number one, Magnus Carlsen. Glenn Flear reviews the new books, while Genna Sosonko writes on the topic of ‘be prepared’. JS.
Spanish Exchange Variation by Andrew Martin; Sicilian Kan Variation by Valeri Lilov; Queen’s Gambit Accepted by Valeri Lilov (all three are ChessBase DVD-ROMs, priced £24.95 each)
