Latest book reviews of 1 July 2007
BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG.
Wilhelminalaan 33John Elburg
7261 BP RUURLO
The Netherlands.
Chess Books
Gambiteer I by Nigel Davies
2007
Everyman Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com
176 pages
Price $24,95
ISBN 978-1-85744-516-9
Against 1.e4 e5 Nigel Davies goes in this latest Everyman gambit book for the good old Danish Gambit that runs with the moves 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 which was once even a pet line of the great Alekhine.
But also Marshall,Blackburne and Mieses enjoyed playing this gambit.For a long time no grandmaster played this gambit in a serious chess game,altough some Russian masters as Radevich and Gusev have been doing some experiments with the Danish gambit.
Interesting enough Davies sees nothing in the line 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 but there for suggests the bright 6.Be3!?
Davies: Heading for uncharted territory. I don’t believe white gets anything via the standard 6.Nf3 due to the strength of Capablanca’s defence,6…Bg4 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Be2 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 Qc4.White hasn’t achieved anything with either 10.Qb3 or 10.Bxc6,which suggests an alternative approach is required. I don’t think white forces an advantage with 6.Be3 but it has the virtue of novelty. Black will at least be on his own resources. Karsten Müller and Martin Voigt give in there book Danish Dynamite only 6.Be3 deserve attention but we found only a few games, so further tests are required.
A sensible way to decline the pawn is 3…d3 and after the rare 3…Ne7 we reach the Svenonius defence where Davies follows the interesting suggestion from Karsten Müller and Martin Voigt 4.cxd4 d5 5.Nc3!? dxe4 6.Bc4 Nf5 7.Nge2 with compensation for the pawn.
Against the Pirc Davies goes for:1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.a3! and the f4 move is also used against the modern defence, where the game Velimirovic – Davies,Vrnjacka Banja 1991 is highly recommended for the instructive notes from Davies.
This game started with the interesting moves1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.f4 Nc6 Because of this game I later switched to 4…e6,through this has too has its problems. In Kotronias – Hebert,Montreal 2002,white played quite impressively with 5.Nf3 Ne7 6.Be3 b6 7.Qd2 Bb7 8.0-0-0 Nd7 9.Qe1 a6 10.Bd3 c5 11.Rf1 0-0 12.g4 Nf6 13.Qh4 cxd4 14.Nxd4 Nd7 15.f5 and white won in a few moves time.I think that 4..a6 is rather to neglectful for black’s development, for example 5.Nf3 b5 6.Bd3 Bb7 7.0-0 Nd7 8.Ne2!? c5 9.c3 Qb6 10.Kh1 Ngf6 11.Ng3 0-0 12.e5 Nd5 13.Bd2 dxe5 14.fxe5 c4 15.Be2 Rac8 16.a4 f5 17.exf6 exf6 18.axb5 axb5 19.b3 gave white the intiative.5.Bb5! A strong move ;black finds it very difficult to get counter play after this.Prior to this game my opponents had tended to play 5.Be3 after which 5…Nf6 6.Nf3 0-0 7.Be2 e6 8.0-0 Ne7 followed by 9…b6 and 10…Bb7,gave me the set-up I wanted.
Davies likes to play around with his b pawn and against the Scandinavian defence he even suggests 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.b4!? An ancient gambit in a new setting and Davies improvement is now 5…Qxb4 6.a4!? a new concept which has had some tests in correspondence games.
Understandable that he prefers against the French and Sicilian defence with the good old Wing gambit,but when sensible players like the great Scherbakov dear to play the Wing Gambit it makes one sit up and take notice!
Even in the Nimzowitsch defence Davies manages to create complications as on 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 e6 he suggests a brand new gambit with the moves 4.Be3!? dxe4 5.f3 which after the moves 5..exf3 6.Nxf3 even transposes into a rather looking dubious Blackmar Diemer Gambit!
Chapter nine of this book holds lines as the pseudo-Philidor and other defences as 1..a6 and b6.
Suicidal is the Owen defence with 3...f5 please see the correspondence game {game 59 of this book} between Jansen,J and Salil and played 17 years ago! 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Bd3 Already in 1619 Greco reconized that white's best play was expansiojn in the centre! f5?? 4.exf5 Bxg2 5.Qh5+ g6 6.fxg6 Bg7 7.Qf5 Nf6 8.Bh6 Bxh6 9.gxh7 Bc1 10.Qg6+ Kf8 11.Qxg2 Bxb2 12.Ne2 e6 13.Rg1 Ke7 14.Qxa8 Nc6 15.Qxd8+ Kxd8 16.Rg7 Ne7 17.Nd2 Bxa1 18.Nf3 Ke8 19.Ne5 Nf5 20.Bxf5 exf5 21.Nxd7 Nxh7 22.Rxh7 Rxh7 23.Nf6+ Kf7 24.Nxh7 Bb2 25.Ng5+ Kf6 26.h4 Ba3 27.Kd2 Bd6 28.c4 Kg6 29.f4 Kh5 30.Ke3 Kxh4 31.Nf7 Bf8 1-0
Included throw this book are 44 model games bibliography,a two page introduction and an excellent index of complete games.
Conclusion: Buy it for the exciting gambit lines!
Starting out: The Colle by Richard Palliser
2007
Everyman Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com
251 pages
Price $24,95
ISBN 978-1-85744-527-5
International master Richard Palliser author of the book play 1.d4 handles in this latest Starting out book the good old Colle system, once favoured by George Koltanowski who brought the cramped moves 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 to the attention of the chess world.
He even played it against the strongest players of the world and that was included a draw with Alekhine.
Richard Pallister provides the reader with everything that you need to know about this openings as the Zukertort Attack where white prefers to fianchetto his queen`s bishop to b3,and than Bb2 and Nbd2.
In this move order white does not wait for the e4 break but uses the bishop to control the e5 square to control the e5 square with the king´s knight.
Besides the 31 illustrated games included the world championship game between Topalov and Kramnik,Elista where white came up with a completely new concept in a much tested position, 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.a3!,
all pleasantly covered in part two of this book under the section Anti-Colle.
This book is a starting out guide with a wealth of notes tips and warnings and not a theoretical tome on the Colle,
but there is in my opinion enough theory in this book to build up a throughout understanding of the Colle because it is more system than memorizing latest Informator moves.
The first world champion in correspondence chess C.J.S Purdy once wrote in his book Action Chess `The Colle for Economy.
Wise is the student who cuts down to a minimum the time he devotes to openings. His aim is not to get a win out of the opening, a futile goal but rather to come out of the opening with a level game against players who know the books better than he does.
But he also wrote: “A player who specialises in the Colle System needs to spend only about a tenth of the time studying the openings that he would otherwise have to.”
Included in this book from Palliser is a impressive bibliography and a twelve page introduction for a first understanding of all basic principles of this opening.
Conclusion: a very readable work on the Colle!
Starting out: Sicilian Sveshnikov by John Cox
2007
Everyman Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com
270 pages
Price $24,95
ISBN 978-1-85744-431-5
Garry Kasparov called in his latest book Revolution in the 70s the Sveshnikov the most amazing metamorphosis of the 1970s and indeed many ideas as the Chelyabinsk variation with the sacrifice of three pawns for a piece still stand today.
This latest Starting out book from the International master John Cox is a refreshing read with a lot of notes tips warning and the most important of all it included 44 model games where 27 of them come from the year 2005 and 2006,and that makes this book even more up to date than the heavy loaded tome from Quality Chess!
But first back to the Chelyabinsk variation which is covered in more detail by John Cox where he writes: It’s more popular in amateur chess than its reputation would lead one to expect, second, it’s absolutely terrifying to play against!
Included in the instructive analyses is the wonderful move from GM Peter Leko 15…Rg8
{1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bxb5 axb5 12.Nxb5 Ra4 13.b4 Rxb4 14.Nbc7+ Kd7 15.0-0 Rg8}
John Cox writes:This is a great move. Leko sees to the hart of the position and are these words not creative!
Interesting are also the words from the openings expert Rogozenko which can be found in the latest Megabase data base CD:
A strong flexible continuation, which is not a novelty though. ...Rg8 can be considered an universal move in 11.Bxb5 line.As we'll see, Black would better keep the queen on d8 for a while (unlike in Luther-Reinderman).
Some classic lines as 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bd3 Be6 12.c3 Bg7 13.Qh5 0-0 14.exf5 Bxd5 15.f6 e4 16.fxg7 Re8 17.Be2 Re5 18.Qh6 has switched in this book from Cox between the lines of this move to more important moves as 14.0-0.
A great difference with 25 years ago when this move order was one of the main lines of the famous book Sicilian Lasker- Pelikan.
But still very interesting is the move 14.Nc7??!,which is a fifty – percenter if ever I saw one John Cox. After 14.Qxc7 15.exf5 only needs to avoid 15…Bd5?? 16.f6 e4 17.Qg5 and 1-0.
Included is an introduction of 6,5 pages, chapter one hold lines where white avoids 6.Nbd5 and these are very important at the local chess scene and a chapter one the Anti – Sveshnikov where Cox handles the popular move order with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Bc4,after 4..Be7 5.d3 d6 white can go for 6.Ng5 0-0 7.f4 but black has than the possibility of 7…d5!?
Conclusion: With this book you can really learn how to play and understand the Sveshnikov!
How to defend in Chess by Colin Crouch
2007
Gambit Publications Ltd
http://www.gambitbooks.com
E-mail info@gambitbooks.com
223 pages
Price € 24,95
ISBN 978-1-904600-83-1
How to defend in chess is a strong analytical work from Colin Crouch who mainly concentrates on the defensive skills from two of the greatest chess players of all time Lasker and Petrosian.
The material in this book is based on twenty in depth analysed games but when I count the supplementary games I come to a very nice collection of 47 complete games.
Colin Crouch gives in his book ten complete games by each of Lasker and Petrosian where these main games include examples of play from almost every world champion of that time.
One of the best known games from Lasker is against Napier Cambridge Springs 1904 and I believe when I compare the notes to this game with other annotations that only Colin Crouch can tell you what really happened in this game.
Colin Crouch needs around 13 pages of this book to explain you the subtleties of Laskers great defending play. Interesting to mention are the notes from Crouch on move 17 where Crouch writes; A critical moment. This in fact was Lasker’s last chance to make a safe exit from the white-knuckle ride, by playing {1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 d6 7.h3 Nf6 8.g4 0-0 9.g5 Ne8 10.h4 Nc7 11.f4 e5 12.Nde2 d5 13.exd5 Nd4 14.Nxd4 Nxd5 15.Nf5 Nxc3 16.Qxd8 Rxd8 } 17.Nxg7!? but the line offers no ore than a draw, except in one very easily missed line. Lasker,with nerves as steel, decides that he can legitimately play for more.
Seen the large amount of references to books as Dvoretsky book School of Chess Excellence 4 and the World’s Greatest Chess Games from Burgess,Nunn and Emms I don’t understand that Crouch did not included in this second edition a bibliography.
This edition first published by Gambit Publications Ltd in 2007,is a reissue of the work originally published by Everyman Publishers, in association with Gambit Publications Ltd in 2000.The second part of this book futures the master of manoeuvring Tigran Pertrosian and I believe there is no player who can stand up against the great defending skills of this great chess genius.
A fine example of defence play in this book is the game Spassky – Petrosian,Moscow 1966,and is good for nearly ten pages of highly instructive text.
Included in this book is a very readable chapter on the principles of defence which includes included contributions from Colin Crouch on the Steinitz legacy, Prophylaxis and the Geography of the chess board.
Crouch writes about the book from Nimzowitsch: My system is undisputedly one of the greatest and most influential chess books ever written,and is a theoretical advance on,and radical re-interpretation of, the works of Steinitz.
All masters were ,by the time that Nimzowitch wrote,fully aware of Steinitz’s “principle of the accumulation of small advantages”,and this gave definite guidance for players both strong and weak about the game should be planned.
Conclusion: A highly instructive work that can easy stand up against the books from Dvoretsky!
Chess DVD's
ChessBase
magazine issue #118 on DVD!
Sasikiran:just
misses victory in
Sofia
2007
June
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Price Euro 19,95 per issue
Annual subscription costs Euro 99,70
One of the most interesting tournaments on this ChessBase Magazine DVD,covered under the database Dresden.
This file is good for 2224 entries where around 70 of them cover excellent annotations and that is included the excellent made tournament report.
Highly recommend are the two annotated games from Tiviakov who is by the way good for two superb. Chess Media files on this heavy loaded chess DVD.
Dresden is one of the most interesting tournaments because there is no qualifying so this means that this European Championship is one big open tournament attractive for every interested chess player, and that is included the large amount of chess amateurs that visit this tournament every year.
Other important tournaments are Sofia,Bundesliga and recent tournaments as Russian Championship,USA Championship,Sigeman & Co,Miskolc,Yerevan,Bosnia,Sarajevo are all covered in an extra database.
But first a small overview of the openings surveys: Hannes Langrock digs in the King’s Indian Attack A05 where Hannes Langrock writes:
The King's Indian Attack after 1.e4 is particularly popular among amateur players and has some advantages of a pragmatic nature. The setup with Nf3, d3, g3, Bg2, 0-0, Nbd2 can be employed against most of Black's replies to 1.e4 and there is less theoretical work to be done than learning complete systems against the French, the Caro-Kann, the Pirc, the Sicilan, etc. Also, in the structure which keeps coming up in the King's Indian Attack, it is more important to understand and apply correctly motifs and plans than to have an exact knowledge of variations.
Now, there are different ways in which Black can react to the King's Indian Attack. They frequently result in sharp positions in which the centre is closed and in which White attacks on the kingside and Black on the queenside. A typical example of this is the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.Nbd2 Nf6 6.Bg2 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.Re1 b5 9.e5 Nd7 10.Nf1 a5 11.h4 etc. Many players feel unhappy with such a mutual charge when playing Black since they do not like to see their king coming under fire.
The great Efstratios Grivas is good for the Petroff A49 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.Bd3 d5 5.Nxe5 Nd7 6.Nxd7 Bxd7 7.0-0 Bd6 8.Qh5 Nf6 9.Re1+ Kf8 and the King’s Indian A49 where Grivas writes Nowadays the vicious "King's Indian Defence" seems to be getting its revenge as it is again used regularly in top level tournaments. The KID has been my favorite opening as Black since my childhood, so it is not strange that I feel that I know most of the pluses and minuses of it deeply enough.KID players tend to seek for active and lively positions even if they have to accept some positional deficits such as the absence of a strong centre and a bit of a cramped position among others. Like magic, there seems always to be some acceptable dynamic counter play which keeps the KID alive and kicking!Well, who loves an opponent who is alive and kicking? Probably nobody! So White players have tried a lot of different variations in order to annihilate the usual counterplay for Black. Sometimes this is a successful attempt, but sometimes it just fails.In my turn, as a White player I have tried various systems against the KID in the last 25 years. I even tried some Anti-King's Indian System, which will be the topic of our survey.To be more specific, after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 I have tried the unusual system with 6.a4!? (with a fine score: +9/=5/-2).Andrei Kovalov goes for the Sicilian B27 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.e5 Nc6 6.Qa4 Nd5 7.Qe4,Jozsef Horvath looks at the Nimzowitsch Variation B29 of the Sicilian 2..Nf6 3.Nc3.Emanuel Berg concentrates on the French with 3…h6 C10 {1.e4 e6 2,d4 d5 3.Nc3 h6},Viktor Moskalenko on the French Winawer C18 with the moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qa57.Bd2 Qa4.Instructive are the words from Moskalenko in this position: In the 40s (20th century) a new concept of playing the Winawer variation appeared: the sharp queen move by Black - 6...Qa5!?: De Agustin,M - Alonso Leira,J 0-1. Soon the idea was developed by some vanguard masters... 1946: Simagin,V - Bronstein,D ½-½, and later on (1956) Black found out that the queen was not only useful to launch a brave attack but also to establish a powerful blockade - 7...Qa4!? (the key move of this survey): Zsedenyi,B - Portisch,L 0-1The idea of ...Qa5 and then ...Qa4 survived, and with the years came back as an exotic chess variation. Black fights for the initiative and starts a direct counterattack, using the great capacity of the black queen.Dorian Rogozenko is a great fan of The Slav D17 and here he goes for the main line with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne5 and covers with part one the Cambridge Springs D52 for black 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Bb4 9.Rc1 h6 10.Bh4 c5,Mihail Marin the Blumenfeld Gambit E10,Lubomir Ftacnik the Queen’s Indian E17 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 and than the pawn sacrifice 7.d5!?,Igor Stohl handles the Semi Slav D47 with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bd6, Lars Schandorff digs in the good old Queen’s Gambit Ragozin Variation D38; 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 g5 8.Bg3 Ne4 9.Nd2 Nxc3 10.bxc3 Bxc3 11.Rc1,Michak Krasenkow the Grünfeld Defence D80 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4, and at last Evgneny Postny who presents the reader the good old Marshall variation with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Re4 g5; Postny: Over the years, the Marshall attack has been through many ups and downs. In the last decade it became a frequent guest in top tournaments, where Black scored many good results. The theory of many lines went deep into the endgame. The question whether the pawn sacrifice is correct or not became a rhetorical one. The Marshall attack became an independent opening, where White is normally trying to achieve a slight edge. There is no longer a question of "a refutation of the Marshall". It has to be noted that this variation is constantly being played by top chess players and some of them even with both colours!The position in the last diagram has become the main tabia of the Marshall attack in recent years. After Black found reliable resources against the previous main line 15.Be3, the move 15.Re4 came to the forefront. Black's reply 15...g5 is actually forced, to prevent the manoeuvre Re4-h4. Obviously, the move 15...g5 seriously weakens the residence of the black monarch. However, as Black has sacrificed a pawn, he is obliged to play actively and concrete chess in order to take advantage of his temporary lead in development. It should be noted that White does not have the time to make "standard developing moves", because Black is threatening 16...f5 followed by 17...f4 with a strong, automatic attack. Therefore, White has to find a way to meet Black's threat. All acceptable moves are by the white queen.Before proceeding to the main lines, I should mention the moves that White ought not to make. Obviously, the pawn is taboo, as 16.Bxg5? just loses a piece after 16...Qf5 and after 16.Nd2? Black easily gets a strong attack by the already mentioned 16...f5! followed by 17...f4.Other contributions on this DVD are TeleChess with nearly 3000 games,Karsten Müller:EndgamesThis time his material is taken from the Bundeliga and the European Chamionship in Dresden, Peter Wells Strategy,Oliver Reeh: Tactics,where the author has recorded favorite combination in Chess Media format,Daniel King Move by Move and Knaak:Opening trap.But there is more as updates,New DVD’s a book let from 26 pages and ofcourse Chess Media files!
Conclusion: A must for every chess lover!