Secrets of Opening
Preparation by Mark
Dvoretsky & Artur Yusupov
2007
Edition Olms
http://www.olms.de
277 Pages
Euro 32,70
ISBN 978-3-283-00516-0
The world’s top trainers Mark Dvoretsky and Arthur Yusupov
explain you in this book,School of future Champions 2 the basic
principles of openings play and how to create openings novelties.
But the two trainers go further than handling openings developments,
they explain you in understandable words the so important
connection of the
opening with the endgame.
Dvoretsky and Yusupov write:When studying the opening it is not enough
to mechanically learn variations by heart-you must have a deep
understanding of the events taking place on the board,and for this you
need a grasp the ideas of the forthcoming middlegame,and even the
endgame.
But pleasantly enough the reader smoothly moves from the general
principles of opening play to more complicated items as the creative
solving of irrational problems in the opening.
For the interested reader the material in the book is provided with the
following chapters: part I: General Principles of opening play,Logic in
the opening, Surprises in the opening,The creative solving of
irrational problems in the opening and a practical execises.
Part two: The development of an opening repertoire, King’s Indian
attack, from white’s point of view, Preparation for a game,You where
right, Monsieur La Bourdonnais!
Part three: How do opening Novelties orginate,The move …g5 in the
French Defence,Opening research.Part four: Middlegame Problems,The
connection of the opening with the endgame,In the footsteps of one game.
Part Five: Games by Pupils of the school plus players and openings
index.
Alexey Kosikov handles the interesting move …g5 in the French defence
as for example Petrosian once did against Sakharov in the USSR
Championship of 1957, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Pc3 Lb4 4.e5 c5 5.Ld2 Pe7 6.a3
Lxc3 7.Lxc3 cxd4 8.Dxd4 Pf5 9.Dg4 h5 10.Df4 g5!
But there are more possibilities with the move ..g5:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Pc3 Lb4 4.e5 Pe7 5.a3 Lxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.a4 Pbc6 8.Pf3
Ld7 9.Ld3 Dc7 10.0-0 c4 11.Le2 f6 12.Te1 0-0-0 13.La3 Tdf8 14.a5 Tf7
15.a6 b6 16.Ld6 Dd8 17.Ph4 f5 18.f4 g5!
A typical pawn sacrifice for the sake of openings lines,a kind of Volga
Gambit in the French defence.
Pleasant to mention is that all games are covered with readable
moves,which makes it all very understandable.
Conclusion:A book that truly helps to deepen your understanding of
chess.
222 opening traps
after 1.e4 by Karsten
Müller and Rainer Knaak
2008
Edition Olms
http://www.olms.de
Pages 162
Euro 24,50
ISBN 978-3-283-01004-1
n chess there is nothing more exciting for a chess player to go
throw a game where one of the players has fallen to one or other mean
openings trap.
Graham Burgess once wrote in his famous book The quickest chess
victories of all time,Cadogan 1998 ‘Experts agree that a major factor
in successful chess playing is the ability to recognize patterns. This
not only helps the analytical process, but prompts ideas to be
considered that might not otherwise enter a player’s mind.On the other
side of the coin, many blunders, rather than being random
‘hallucinations’ or ‘blind spots’ can be explained by the relevant
pattern not being recognized.
Interesting enough John Nunn wrote in his work; 101 Brilliant Chess
Miniatures that there is no general accepted definition of a miniature
game.
So different authors have different limits, but GM Karsten Müller
one of the best endgame experts of all time and his companion the
openings expert and ChessBase specialist GM Rainer Knaak provide the
reader in this latest Olms book with a fascinating collection of 222
opening traps.
All divided in to the e4 openings lines and running from the
Nimzowitsch defence till the Spanish opening.
Every possible line is covered with a smashing game where for example
the correspondence game between Ruggeri Laderchi and Rosso, corr,
1999.
This game with the Latvian Gambit did impress when the white
player once showed it to me so I am pleased that this twelve move
made it into this lovely printed Olms book.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Bc4 fxe4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.d4 Qxg2 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Bf7+ Kd8
8.Bxg6 Qxh1+ 9.Ke2 c6 10.Nc3 Kc7 11.Bf4 Qxa1 12.Nxd7+ 1-0
Keres was the first Grandmaster in chess who has filled pages about the
exciting move 4…Qg5 the so called poisoned g2 pawn variation in his
famous openings book, but the best try for black is
certainly 9…. Qxc1 10.Nf7+ Ke8 11.Nxh8+ hxg6 12.Qxg6+ Kd8 13.Nf7+
Ke7 14.Nc3 Qxc2+ 15.Ke1 d6 16.Nd5+ Kd7 17.Qxg8 e3 18.fxe3 Qxh2 19.Qg4+
Ke8 20.Qxc8+ Kxf7 21.Qf5+ Ke8 22.Nxc7+ Kd8 23.Nxa8 Be7 24.Qa5+ Ke8
25.Nc7+ Kd7 26.Nd5 Nc6 27.Qc7+ Ke6 28.Nf4+ Kf7 29.Rd1 Qxb2 30.Qd7 Qxa2
31.Qxb7 Nb4 32.Qxb4 Cirulis – Elburg corr.2007,but unfortunately for
black even with all the computer help in the world white keeps
the advantage.
Throw the book you shall find more correspondence games eve that the
games are played over a longer duration the typical mistakes stay, even
that the player can consult books and fast computers.
The reader is in good hands of the authors Müller & Knaak
because they explain with great pleasure the openings mistakes from
others.
For example the game Anand – Bilawer,Frankfurt simultaneous display
1994 with the moes 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 Nd7?!
6.Nxf7! Kxf7 7.Qh5 Ke6 is good for over two pages of text.
And did you know that the Tarrasch trap is related to the game
Tarrasch,Siegbert - Marco,Georg DSB-07.Kongress Dresden , 22.07.1892
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.d4 Bd7 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.0-0 Be7 7.Re1 0-0
8.Bxc6 Bxc6 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Qxd8 Raxd8 11.Nxe5 Bxe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Nd3
f5 14.f3 Bc5+ 15.Nxc5 Nxc5 16.Bg5 Rd5 17.Be7 Re8 18.c4 1-0
Funny enough white players keep falling in to the line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3
Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4? 4.Nxe5? Müller and Knaak write that this move
4.Nxe5 is found 137 times in he Mega 2005!
For the fun I checked it out in the Mega 2007 and you shall not believe
it but it stands now on a record of 166 times!So the move 4…Nd4?! is
certainly worth a try.
Included in this book is a excellent index of names from the
players,opening index and a two page bibliography.
Conclusion: A unbelievable collection
well presented short cut games!
222 opening traps
after 1.d4 by Karsten
Müller and Rainer Knaak
2008
Edition Olms
http://www.olms.de
Pages 147
Euro 24,50
ISBN 978-3-283-01005-8
222
Eröffnungsfallen nach 1.d4 by Karsten
Müller and Rainer Knaak
2008
Edition Olms
http://www.olms.de
Pages 147
Euro 16,80
ISBN 978-3-283-01005-8
The two authors grandmaster Rainer Knaak and the great endgame expert
Karsten Müller provides you with selection of 222 games
based on the move 1.d2-d4.
For a grandmaster to lose a game in less than ten moves must be
embarrassing but the Dutch GM Hans Ree will always be remembered with
his loss against Tigran Petrosian within ten moves!{1.c4 e5 2.Nc3
Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Bb4 6.Nd5 Nxd5 6.cxd5 e4? 7.dxc6 exf3 8.Qb3!
1-0.Funny enough this position has occurred a few times more but Hans
Ree did show sportsmanship to resign so quick,black loses a piece seen
the threat to b7.
Club players can learn a great deal from studying these shortcuts seen
the pitfalls and traps.
Going throw this book you will be able to learn new openings and how to
avoid mistakes.
For example Rainer Knaak explains you in the first game how to tackle
the Orang-Untan opening with the moves 1.b4 c6 2.Bb2 a5!
More fun is even 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.f4?! exf4?! 4.Bxg7 Qh4 5.g3 fxg3
6.Bg2 gxh2+ 7.Kf1 hxg1Q 8.Kxg1 and white has all the play.
The typical motifs of the openings are well explained and pleasantly
divided in readable openings sections.
By the way the German edition is cheaper as the English
edition so for all who are able to handle the German language can save
a small €7,70.
I would like to end with the Monticelli trap named after the Italian
chess master Mario Monticelli: Monticelli,Mario - Prokes,Ladislav [E16]
Budapest Budapest (10), 03.07.1926
1.d4 Pf6 2.Pf3 e6 3.c4 Lb4+ 4.Ld2 Lxd2+ 5.Dxd2 b6 6.g3 Lb7 7.Lg2 0-0
8.Pc3 Pe4 9.Dc2 Pxc3 10.Pg5 {The Monticelli trap!} Pe4 11.Lxe4 Lxe4
12.Dxe4 Dxg5 13.Dxa8 Da5+ 14.Kf1 Da6 15.De4 Dxc4 16.b3 Db4 17.Dd3 c5
18.dxc5 Dxc5 19.Kg2 f5 20.Tac1 Da3 21.Tc2 d5 22.Tc7 Dd6 23.Thc1 Pd7
24.T1c6 De7 25.Txa7 f4 26.Tcc7 fxg3 27.hxg3 Df7 28.f3 Td8 29.Txd7 1-0
Conclusion: This book will certainly help you to sharpen your
tactical skills!
Secrets
of endgame technique by Mark
Dvoretsky & Artur Yusupov
2008
Edition Olms
http://www.olms.de
277 Pages
Euro 32,70
ISBN 978-3-283-00517-7
Mark Dvoretsky and Arthur Yusupov handle in this third book
the secrets of successful endgame play. The technique of converting an
endgame advantage is for the most of us a difficult task.
As Dvoretsky explains there are numerous weighty tomes devoted to the
theory of endings. Is it conceivable to assimilate and remember all the
information contained in them? It turnsout that it is not at all
necessary to do this.After reading the first part of this book,you will
see that your system of endgame knowledge can and should be
compact,easy to assimilate and remember, and you will learn how to
develop it,by making the acquaintance of certain important sections of
the theory of rook and minor piece endings.
Section two of this book is devoted to analyses of complicated
practical endings.
On my book shelf I have more excellent endgame books but not one
handles the techniques of the repetition of moves.
The authors write: The repetition of moves in the endgame plays an
important role. Disregarding the fact that it gains time for thinking,
it can be mentioned that, by repeating moves,the active side acquires
certain psychological gains.The defender, whose position is inferior,
often cannot withstand it,and he creates further weakening which
eases his opponent’s task.
In addition, repeating moves enables the position to be clarified to
the maximum extent.
We know that some upholders of ‘pure’chess will severely criticise us
for this advice.But we cannot refrain from advising players: sometimes
repeat moves in the endgames.In the struggle every chance has to be
exploited, and there is nothing ugly or unethical in repeating moves.
As we can learn in this book Capablanca was one of the greatest masters
of endgame play but Mark Dvoretsky comes very close t him.
A fine example of Dvoretsky’s technique of repeating moves can be found
in the game Dvoretsky – Privorotsky,Kiev 1970.
In part three of this book Artur Yusupov handles the technical
procedures in a grandmaster battle and covers his game Salov –
Yusupov,Linares 1991,which is good for nearly five pages of text.
This game was played in the Spanish town of Linares where it is
interesting to follow Yusupov his instructive endgame manoeuvring.
Where you can learn to increase and convert advantage.
Conclusion: There are simple no better trainings books as from
Mark Dvoretsky & Arthur Yusupov!
Stellungsbeurteilung
und plan by Anatoli Karpow & Anatoli Mazukewitsch
2007
Edition Olms
http://www.olms.de
199Pages
Euro 19,95
ISBN 978-3-283-01001-0
The story of the Mazukewitsch his book goes back to
the DDR Sportverlag books with there dreadful paper or may I say
toilet paper?
But this latest updated and fine revisited edition from Olms is a
complete other story!
Mazukewitsch and Karpov have created a complete new book based on open
lines, pawn structures,centre,attacks,position evaluations,plans and
more.
This all is explained at the hand of a lot of instructive games
as the short cut Reti – Euwe,Amsterdam 1920, 1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Pc3
Pf6 4.Lg5 g6 5.f3 exf3 6.Pxf3 Lg7 7.Ld3 c5 8.d5 Db6 9.Dd2 Dxb2 10.Tb1
Pxd5 11.Pxd5 Dxb1+ 12.Kf2 Dxh1 13.Lxe7 d6 14.Lxd6 Pc6 15.Lb5 Ld7
16.Lxc6 bxc6 17.De2+ 1-0
Euwe later said in a interview Reti was one of my greatest teachers and
this game belongs to one of the greatest attacking games of all time.
A other instructive game is Alekhine - Levenfish, St Petersburg 1912.
1.d4 c5 2.d5 Pf6 3.Pc3 d6 4.e4 g6 5.f4 Pbd7 6.Pf3 a6 7.e5 dxe5 8.fxe5
Pg4 9.e6 Pde5 10.Lf4 Pxf3+ 11.gxf3 Pf6 12.Lc4 fxe6 13.dxe6 Db6 14.De2
Dxb2 15.Pb5 Dxa1+ 16.Kf2 Dxh1 17.Pc7+ Kd8 18.Dd2+ Ld7 19.exd7 1-0
Fascinating is the game with the double attack on the white rooks,
Of course this is only possible with the Grob’s attack:
1.g4 d5 2.g5 e5 3.c4 dxc4 4.Na3 Bxa3 5.bxa3? Qd4 and after 6.Rb1 Qe4
white looses one of his rooks,Nemeth – Knezevic,Jugoslavia 1972.
To be honest this book from Mazukewitsch and Karpov reads easier than
the works from Dvoretsky and Yusupov,so I would like to suggest this
book for all players who would like to improve on there middle game
understanding,where I am think on players with a rating between 1250
till around
1750.
Conclusion: A classical masterpiece!
The Genius and the
misery of chess by Zhivko Kaikamjozov
2008
Mongoose Press
www.MongoosePress.com
224 pages
Price $ 19,95
ISBN 978-0979148-23-1
The Bulgarian chess master Zhivko Kaikamjozov portraits in this
book the life and games of 48 great players,many of them where
brilliant chess players but said enough there life often ended as the
title of this book in misery.
So as for example the tragic life of the Scotsman Cecil de
Vere,who was
so as many others of that time doomed by tuberculosis.
This chess genius fell into depression and became a heavy
drinker,and died five days before his thirtieth birthday.
Said is the story of the great Akiba Rubinstein who suffered from
anthrop phobia,a fear of people and society.During the World War II,the
Nazis eventually came to deport the aged Jewish grandmaster from his
asylum to the death camps ,but he was so obviously insane that they
reconsidered and left him alone.
One of the most talented Russian chess players,the chess prodigy Mark
Stolberg only become nineteen years old when he was struck down by
heavy enemy fire in 1942.
Here a game to remember him:Kotov,Alexander -
Stolberg,Mark Moiseevich [D55]
URS-ch12 Moscow, 1940 1.d4 Pf6 2.c4 e6 3.Pc3 d5 4.Lg5 Le7 5.e3 h6
6.Lxf6 Lxf6 7.Db3 c6 8.Pf3 0-0 9.0-0-0 Pd7 10.e4 dxc4 11.Lxc4 b5 12.Ld3
e5 13.dxe5 Pxe5 14.Pxe5 Lxe5 15.Kb1 Le6 16.Dc2 Da5 17.Tc1 Tfd8 18.Tcd1
Tab8 19.Td2 Lxc3 20.bxc3 b4 21.cxb4 Txb4+ 22.Kc1 Da3+ 23.Kd1 Tbd4
24.Ke2 c5 25.e5 Kf8 26.Thd1 Da5 27.Ke3 Lxa2 28.f4 Ld5 29.g3 Le6 30.Le4
Lb3 31.Dxb3 Txd2 32.Txd2 Dxd2+ 33.Kf3 Dd1+ 34.Dxd1 Txd1 35.Ke3 0-1
Klaus Junge only became one year older when he was mobilized and sent
to front and never returned.
But did you ever heard from As-Suli the Exile? This great man lived
from 880 till 946 and wrote the first book on chess strategy {Kitab
Ash-Shatranj.
Even today ,after more than a millennium,he is remembered by the people
of middle Asia and the Near East as a name of legends.
Included are also portraits from young talented players who are at the
begin of there career as the prodigy Magnus Carlsen.
Included throw this book are around 57 complete games plus clippings
from games and a great list of suggested books.
Conclusion: One of those books you can not putdown!
Chess results 1941 -1946 by
Gino Di Felic
2008
McFarland &
Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
376 pages
Price $49,95
ISBN 978-0-7864-3819-8
The Italian Gino Di Felice documents in this work the results of main
chess competitions during the years 1941 through 1946.
Much material is compiled from newspapers, periodicals, match books and
chess magazines mainly as the author explains in his introduction from
the famous ‘Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague.
Unfortunately Woman’s and correspondence chess has been not included in
this volume and we can only hope they will be one day the objects of a
separate work but even than you can ask your self why this way?
Even that these years where shadowed throw the second world war it is
still good for 810 tournament cross tables and 80 match scores, all
indexed by players and events.
Here we are able to find for example the last tournament of the
great Alekhine,played at Caceres of the year
1945.
Alekhine played quite poorly and lost to Lupi because he could not
settle for a draw.There game was adjourned several times,and the
champion finally lost by stubbornly for a impossible win.
That triumph over Alekhine,in both tournament and game,was the bitter
sorrow of my chess career.Alekhine was my lifelong idol,and at Caceres
I saw a broken idol struggle against destiny. I did not win that
game,nor that tournament: Alekhine destroyed himself in both.
Pablo Moran in
A.Alekhine,Agony of a
chess genius.
Interesting to mention is that Paul Keres played throw the war in the
following German tournaments:München 1942,Salzburg 1942 and
Salzburg 1943.
Chess results 1946 -1950 by
Gino Di Felic
2008
McFarland &
Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
496 pages
Price $49,95
ISBN 978-0-7864-3820-4
This present volume of Chess results starts with the Adelaide
tournament of 1946/47 where I found on the second place the first world
champion in correspondence chess Cecil Purdy,and this book ends with
the match between Zurich and Argentina.
Between this all lays 980 tournament cross tables and 155 match
scores,all indexed by events and players.
Of course as all Chess Results publications, if possible first
and last names of the players are included
Interesting to mention is that there are n this issue many players from
open tournaments as we can for example see in the popular Dutch opens.
But we can also see first steps of great chess players as Jan Hein
Donner who had that time difficulties to beat local champions as for
example the player Kees Groeneveld from Aalten.
More successful was Donner in Venezia 1950 where he made a
impressive 8 points!
Conclusion: A must for all who have
interest in chess results!
Adolf Albin in America
by Olimpiu G.Urcan
A European Chess Master's Sojourn,1893-1895
2008
McFarland &
Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
286 pages
Price $49,95
ISBN 978-0-7864-381-9
The most of us only know Adolf Albin as the inventor of the
Albin Counter Gambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 but as we can see in this
book,Albin was a astounding chess player.
Even that he author of this book, Olimpiu G.Urcan mainly based his
research on the years 1893- 1895 when Albin left for the new
world, his games
and that are quit a lot of them in this book, and many
of them are filled with creative ideas.
Some historican as Tomasz Lissowski consider him as the teacher of the
great Nimzowitsch.
Seen the games in this book and that are more than 130,we could
consider him as the father of the modern chess.
In 1899 Albin played against Brody,1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 a6!? Of course this
pure provocation but Stefan Bücker whould be pleased with it for
his gambit magazine Kaissiber,some say Albin even enjoyed playing moves
as 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Ng8!? but the Albin Counter Gambit and the Albin
Attack in the French defence (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7
5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4}made him immortal.
The first year in America was very successful for Albin,maybe it was
the pleasant sailing trip but he managed to become second in the famous
tournament of New York
1893.
Someway it was bad luck that Emanuel Lasker won all his games but
Albin did end ahead of players as Jackson Showalther and the phenomenal
Harry Nelson Pillsbury!
The Chess Monthly of November 1893 noted: “if we take the scores of the
five prize-winners, it will be seen that Albin beat all except
Lasker,and barring the latter,Albin is the best player of the lot.”
Olimpiu G.Urcan did a unbelievable job in this book not only his
splendid research, with microscopy’s details on his life and
chess career but there is also a lot of space left for the
contemporaries of Albin.
Books like these belong in every chess library!
Conclusion:Fascinating work!
Albert
Beuregard Hodges by John S.Hilbert and Peter
P.Lahde
2008
McFarland &
Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
542 pages
Price $65,00
ISBN 978-0-7864-3220-2
John Hilbert and Peter Lahde have managed to create a wonderful
542 page book on the colourful chess player Albert Beauregard Hodges.
In the 19th and early 20th century Hodges was a well known chess master
who had the honour to play with the greatest chess players
of that time.
Hodges was born on July the 21st of the year 1861,in the early days of
the Civil War,Nashville Tennessee.
Hodges become champion of the Unites States by beating Showalter with
the score of 5 against 3.Even Pillsbury challenged him for the title
but for business reasons the poor Hodges had to decline.
Between the game section of this book I found games that Hodhes played
against the greatest chess players of that time as
Steinitz,Capablanca,Pillsbury,Lasker,Zukertort and Alekhine,
but I fear that the game notes with Alekhine are lost for all time.
But a fine example of Hodges play is his game against Pillsbury:
Hodges,Albert Beauregard - Pillsbury,Harry Nelson [C60]
Manhattan New York (7), 1893
1.e4 e5 2.Pf3 Pc6 3.Lb5 g6 4.Lxc6 dxc6 5.b3 Lg7 6.Lb2 De7 7.d3 c5
8.Pbd2 c6 9.Pc4 f6 10.0-0 Le6 11.Pfd2 g5 12.a4 h5 13.a5 Lf8 14.De2 h4
15.f3 Ph6 16.Pe3 Pf7 17.Pdc4 Th7 18.Lc3 Ph8 19.Tab1 Pg6 20.b4 Pf4
21.De1 Dd7 22.Kh1 0-0-0 23.bxc5 Lxc5 24.Lb4 Lxb4 25.Dxb4 g4
26.fxg4 Lxg4 27.Dc5 Kb8 28.a6 De6 29.Pa5 b6 30.Pxc6+ Kc7 31.Pxd8+ Kxd8
32.Df8+ Kd7 33.Db8 Kc6 34.Txb6+ axb6 35.a7 Txa7
36.Dxa7 Le2 37.Tb1 Kc5 38.Dc7+ Dc6 39.De7+ Kd4 40.Pf5+ Kc3 41.Db4+ Kxc2
42.Tb2+ 1-0
This game as the other 351 Hodges games are analysed with extensive
notes.
Besides the Hodges games there are around 75 other games, usually
filled with the players of his time.
Hodges went one day for trip to see the famous Morphy,but when he
arrived,he was not permitted to speak to Morphy and Morphy
was not allowed to see visitors.
Interesting to mention is that Hodges played in thirteen cable matches
with Great Britain,and
with out loosing a game!
Both authors describe on page 180 the atmosphere of the cable match
which was for that time a wonder of modern technique,but as we
canread it did not always work perfect.
The first job that Hodges got was serving as hidden operator of
Ajeeb,the Chess Automaton,at the Eden Musee on West 23rd Street,where
he played against all.
Hodges was also an expert checker player.On hisvacation trips he always
looks up the local checker champs.Hodges died on February 3,1944,of a
hart attack at his home Valencia Avenue,Randall Manor,Staten Island.
Albert Beauregard Hodges has been involved with American chess for more
than six decades!
This book comes with two parts: The chess life of Albert Beauregard
Hodges and the chess games of Albert Beauregard Hodges.
The first part carries a impressive 323 pages covering a wealth
of readable details on Hodges and his contemporaries!
Included are 87 photo’s, diagrams, appendix, notes, indexes and a
impressive bibliography.
Conclusion: A classic masterpiece!
Play the Slav by James
Vigus
2008
Everyman
Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com
189 pages
Price $24,95
ISBN 978-1-85744-566-4
Dr.James Vigus author of the impressive The Pirc in black and white
offers you in his latest Everymanchess book a complete repertoire for
black based on lines as 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4
Bf5,the so called pure Slav.
Related lines in this book to the move 5….Bf5 are,Chapter one:The
Sokolov Defence:6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6.The Dutch variation with 6.e3 and
6…e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0-0 0-0 9.Qe2 {and of course all kind of
interesting alternatives!}
The idea of Krause 6.Nh4,The Tolush Geller Gambit with 5.e4,Fifth moves
alternatives as 5.e3,5.Ne5 and 5.g3,The solid 4.e3 where Vigus suggest
4…Bg4.
Quiet Queen moves as 3.Nf3 Nf64.Qc2 and 4.Qb3.The Argentinean
Defence,The Argentinean Defence 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 dxc4,The Exchange
Variation 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 and all kind of odds and ends as where
white is searching for a way to escape theory.
This is well provided with a impressive introduction of 42 pages where
blacks gets a course how to play and understand the Slav!
Nowadays everybody wants to play the Chebanenko Slav but the pure
Slav remains more than a interesting alternative!
Included is a impressive one and a half page bibliography.
Conclusion: A high quality repertoire book!
Dangerous
Weapons The Benoni and Benko
2008
Everyman
Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com
270
pages
Price $25,95
ISBN 978-1-85744-571-8
The four openings experts Richard Palliser,John Emms,Chris Ward
and the talented Gawain Jones provide the reader in this latest
dangerous weapons book, with a scale of tricky lines for both
sides of the board against the Benoni and Benko.
First of all what for lines are covered in this 27o page heavy weight?
Chapter one starts with a non theoretical weapon:1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5
e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.Qa4+!?,Chapter two: The
Sosonko-Kramnik Gambit,1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 b5
6.e4!,Radjabov’s Extended Queenside Fianchetto:1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6
4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.g3 Bg7 8.Bg2 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.Nd2
b6!?,Chapter four:Not castling in the Modern Classical:1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5
3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.e4 Bg7 8.h3 a6 9.a4 Nbd7 10.Bd3
Nh5!?,Chapter five: Espishin’s deadly 8.Qe2: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6
4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.e4 a6 8.Qe2,Chapter six: A direct and
powerful h pawn advance: 1.d4 e6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 exd5 4.cxd5 d6 5.Nc3 g6
6.e4 Bg7 7.Bd3 Ne7 8.h4,Chapter seven: Killing the snake: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4
c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 Bd6 6.Nf3 Bc7 7.g4,Chapter eight:The super
extended fianchetto:1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e5 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 Be7 6.g3 0-0
7.h4,Chapter nine: Adventures in the Blumenfeld Accepted: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4
e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.dxe6 fxe6 6.cxb5 d5,Chapter ten: A paradoxical
bishop retreat:1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bxa6
7.g3 d6 8.Bg2 Bg7 9.Nf3 Nbd7 10.Rb1 Nb6 11.b3 Bc8,Chapter eleven:
Tromping the Benko: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 5 3.d5 b5 4.Bg5,Chapter twelve:
Central control: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.e3 g6 6.Nc3 Bg7
7.a4 0-0 8.Ra3 Bb7 9.Nf3 e6,Chapter thirteen: Dark-Square magic: 1.d4
Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.f3 e6 6.f3 e6 7.e4 c4 and at last
chapter fourteen with the Pseudo – Blumenfeld Gambit: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5
3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 b5!?
The material is written as an openings book but the authors have also
included throw this book 17 model games,but between the lines
found the following beauty: Konopka,Michal (2451) - Vavra,Pavel (2366)
[A43] CZE-chT 0304 Czechia (10), 03.04.2004
1.d4 Pf6 2.Pf3 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Pc3 b5 5.dxe6 fxe6 6.Pxb5 d5 7.e3 a6 8.Pc3
Pc6 9.Ld3 Ld6 10.0-0 0-0 11.e4 Pd4 12.exd5 Pg4 13.Lxh7+ Kh8 14.Pg5
Lxh2+ 15.Kh1 exd5 16.f3 Dd6 17.fxg4 Lxg4 18.Dd3 c4 19.Lf4 Lxf4 0-1
16.f3 is a mistake but John Emms points in this book a beautiful finish
after the alternative 16.Bxg6 Bf4! 17.Bxf4 Rxf4 18.Nh3 Qd6! 19.g3 Qxg6!
20.gxf4 Qh5 21.Kg2 Ne3+! 22.Fxe3 Bh3+ with a decisive attack.But 18.Qe1
makes more sense but white stays worse.
Conclusion: A book that is overloaded with creative ideas!
Fighting
the anti-King's Indians by Yelena Dembo
2008
Everyman
Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com
206
pages
Price $24,95
ISBN 978-1-85744-575-6
The bright IM Yelena Dembo offers you in this fighting the
anti-King’s Indians a complete repertoire for black against the moves
1.d4 Nf6 and all second moves for white except the move 2.c4.
This includes the Trompowsky,Veresov,Barry Attack,London System,Torre
Attack,Colle System,The English King’s Indian,Blackmar Diemer
Gambit,Kingside Fianchetto vs the Grünfeld,King’s Indoan and more.
Yes I even found a defence against the rare move 2.g4!?
Yelena Dembo is very precise and she has covered all kind of defence
for black often with interesting alternatives.
In the Trompowsky she prefers to play aggressive with her Queen to b6
and she does not fear to get locked up at a1,as we
can see in the following Tromp position: 1.d4 Pf6 2.Lg5 c5 3.Lxf6 gxf6
4.d5 Db6 5.Dc1 f5 6.c4 Lh6 7.e3 f4 8.exf4 Lxf4 9.Dxf4 Dxb2
10.Pe2 Dxa1 11.Pec3 d6 12.Dd2 Tg8 13.g3 a6 14.Ld3 b5 15.cxb5 axb5
16.Lxb5+ Ld7 17.Ld3 Lh3 18.Dh6 Lg2 19.Tg1 Lxd5 20.Dxh7 Tf8
21.Pxd5 De5+ 22.De4 Dxe4+ 23.Lxe4 Txa2 and after Yelena black has the
better chances;his central pawns will start moving soon,forcing white’s
minor pieces to retreat.Moreover,white’s king is exposed,while black’s
rooks will soon become very active and his knight can come to
d4.Indeed,white is already fighting to survive.
Throw the book you shall find a mass of interesting lines so as for
example the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6
6.a4,the trademark of the legendary Oleg Romanishin but the great
Efstratios Grivas is a great fan of it too.It was this line that helped
Grivas to win the 1996 Greek Championship!And Yelena Dembo write: He
has stuck with it since!
Yelena Dembo does not use the words,it does not lay in the scope of
this book she even explains a move to move coverage of the English
opening 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.Nf3 {by the way
she gives here three other alternatives for white!}5…d6 6.0-0 e5 7.d3 h6
{or the alternative 7..a6}8.Rb1 a5 9.a3 Re8! This all is good for
nineteen pages of text!
Conclusion: Astounding!
