CHESSBOOK REVIEWS

Latest book reviews of 1 March 2013
BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG.

Wilhelminalaan 33 

7261 BP RUURLO 

The Netherlands.
John Elburg


                                                                  Chess DVD's

ChessBase Magazine issue 152
2013
February
 http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Price Euro 19.95  


The tournament file of  this DVD is good for 730 entries where a small 40 of them are more than excellent analysed.
Taken from the London Classic,Tashkent Fide Grand Prix,Bucharest King’s Tournament, women’s WCh 2012 etc.
But there is more as heavy loaded video files from Alexei Shirov on the Sicilian Najdorf:1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3,Leonid Kritz Sicilian Rossolimo 3: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.0-0 Bg7 6.Re1 Nh6 and Viktor Bologan on the Slav Chebanenko:1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 5.Nf3 Bf5.
The Opening Surveys cover this time:
Schipkov: English A31
1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d5 6.cxd5 Bc5 7.N5c3 0-0,Gormally: Pirc Defence B09
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd3 Na6 7.0-0 c5 8.d5 Rb8,Kuzmin: Caro-Kann B12
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 h6 5.g4,Postny: Sicilian B30
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.0-0 Nge7 5.c3 a6 6.Ba4 b5 7.Bc2 Bb7,Langrock: French C01
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.exd5 exd5 5.Bd3 Ne7,Kritz: French C16
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Qd7,Breutigam: Trompowsky Attack D00
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 (d5),Marin: Slav D16
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bg4 6.Ne5 Bh5 7.f3,Krasenkow: Semi-Slav D31
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+,Schandorff: Semi-Slav D44
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7
12.g3 c5 13.d5 Qb6 14.Bg2 0-0-0 15.0-0 b6 16.Rb1,Grivas: Grünfeld Defence D85 and
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bb5+.
Other DVD columns are King Move by Move,reeh Tactics,Müller Endgames,Wells Strategy and at last Knaak: Opening trap who deals with a wealth of interesting short cuts as the following one from the great Spielman: Schenkein,J - Spielmann,Rudolf [A02]
Vienna Vienna, 1910 [Knaak]
1.f4 Bird Opening 1...e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Lxd6 4.Pf3 g5 5.g3 g4 6.Ph4 Pe7 7.d4 Pg6 [Übrigens ging der Versuch 7...c5? nach hinten los: 8.dxc5 Da5+ 9.b4! Dxb4+ 10.c3 Dxc5 11.La3 1-0 Fahrner,K-Leitner,M/Austria 1993/EXT 98 (17) mit Figurengewinn.] 8.Pg2 [¹8.Pxg6 hxg6 9.Dd3²] 8...Pc6 9.e3? In der Mega 2005 nur 1x gespielt, aber 3x in der Fernschachdatenbank. [9.c3 kommt häufig vor. 9...h5 10.e4 h4 11.e5÷] 9...h5 10.Ld3 h4 11.Lxg6 fxg6 12.Pxh4 Txh4! 13.gxh4 Dxh4+ Der schwarze Angriff ist kaum parierbar. 14.Kd2 Lf5 15.a3 [15.Kc3 0-0-0 16.b3 Le5-+] 15...0-0-0 16.Kc3 Le5 17.b4 Pxd4 18.exd4 Txd4 19.Dxd4 Df2 20.Dxe5 Dxc2+ 21.Kd4 Dd3+ 22.Kc5 b6+ 23.Kc6 Ld7# 0-1.
A eye catching booklet of 44 pages in two languages is included!
Conclusion: Must material for the modern chess player!

Power Play 18: The Sicilian Najdorf – a repertoire for Black
2012
 http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Euro  29,90
Pentium-Processor at 300 Mhz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, DVD drive, mouse, soundcard.

The master of explanation Grandmaster Daniel King provides the user of his latest Power play DVD with a complete black repertoire based on
 the good old Najdorf variation which was a pet line of the great Bobby Fischer who understood more about the Najdorf than any other player of his time.
For me it is all very unclear the Najdorf is not called after Bobby Fischer!
On this DVD by the way in two languages, and in perfect  spoken  German and English language, I found smashing games as Troianescu,Octavio - Fischer,Robert James
[B99] Netanya-A Netanya (4), 20.06.1968
1.e4 c5 2.Pf3 d6 3.Pc3 a6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Pxd4 Pf6 6.Lg5 e6 7.f4 Le7 8.Df3 Dc7 9.0-0-0 Pbd7 10.Kb1 b5 11.Ld3 b4 12.Pce2 Lb7 13.The1 h6
14.Lxf6 Lxf6 15.De3 Dc5 16.Dg1 g5 17.Pb3 Dxg1 18.Txg1 Ld8 19.g3 Ke7 20.c3 a5 21.cxb4 axb4 22.Lc2 Lb6 23.Tge1 Thg8 24.f5 Tgc8
25.Pec1 Pe5 26.Pd3 Pf3 27.Te2 La6 28.Tg2 Tc4 29.Pe1 Pe5 30.Tgd2 Td8 31.f6+ Kxf6 32.Txd6 Txd6 33.Txd6 Tc6 34.Txc6 Pxc6
35.Ld3 Lb7 36.Pd2 g4 37.Le2 h5 38.Pc4 Lg1 39.Pd3 Pd4 40.e5+ Ke7 41.Lf1 Lxh2 42.Pxb4 Lxg3 0-1 and Tarjan,James
Edward - Browne,Walter S [B98]
Los Angeles m Los Angeles (4), 1968
1.e4 c5 2.Pf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Pxd4 Pf6 5.Pc3 a6 6.Lg5 e6 7.f4 Le7 8.Df3 h6 9.Lh4 Pbd7 10.Lc4 g5 11.fxg5 Pe5
12.De2 Pfg4 13.Pf3 Pxc4 14.Dxc4 hxg5 15.Lg3 Pe3 16.De2 Db6 17.Pd1 Pxd1 18.Txd1 e5 19.Lf2 Dxb2
20.0-0 Dxa2 21.Td3 Le6 22.De3 f6 23.Tfd1 Kf7 24.h4 g4 25.Ph2 Tac8 26.c3 Dc2 27.Tf1 Tc4 28.Le1 Da4 29.Db6 Dc6 30.Df2 Txe4 0-1.
In the following game we see a 16 year old Bobby Fischer where King did input some highly instructive
annotations: Tal,Mihail - Fischer,Robert James [B99]
Zuerich Zuerich, 1959
1.e4 c5 2.Pf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Pxd4 Pf6 5.Pc3 a6 6.Lg5 e6 7.f4 Le7 8.Df3 Dc7 9.0-0-0 Pbd7
10.Dg3 h6 11.Lh4 Tg8 12.Le2 g5 13.fxg5 Pe5 14.g6 Pxg6 15.Thf1 Pxh4 16.Dxh4 Tg6
17.Ld3 Pg4 18.Dh5 Pe5 19.Pf3 Dc5 20.Pxe5 Dxe5 21.Dxe5 dxe5 22.g3 Ld7 23.Le2 Lc6
 24.Lh5 Tf6 25.a3 Td8 26.Txd8+ Lxd8 27.Txf6 Lxf6 28.Kd2 Lg5+ 29.Kd3 Lc1 30.Pd1 Lb5+ 31.c4 La4 32.Pc3 Lc6 33.Pd1 Kf8 34.h4 La4 35.Pc3 ½-½.
Included on this DVD are Hugh amount of latest chess theory!
Video runningtime is over 6 hours.
Conclusion: All together we have here one of those super learning ChessBase DVD’s

Attacking with the Benko Gambit
by Alejandro Ramirez
2012
 http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Euro  27,90
Pentium-Processor at 300 Mhz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, DVD drive, mouse, soundcard.

The great chess crack Grandmaster  Alejandro Ramirez {born 1988}and one of the best players of the USA, provides the user of this DVD with a wealth
of creativity based on the Benko Gambit than runs with the moves:1.d4 Pf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5!?
Neil McDonald once wrote about the Benko:But the wonderful thing about the Benko:the player who shows the greatest strategical
understanding and tactical imagination can make his opponent look very silly.
Even wonder boy Magnus Carlsen could make no advantage with it,as we can see in  the following model game that I found on this great
download: Carlsen,M (2837) - Andreikin, (2700) [A59]
World Blitz Final Astana KAZ (16), 10.07.2012
1.d4 Pf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Pc3 Lxa6 7.e4 Lxf1 8.Kxf1 d6 9.g3 Lg7 10.Kg2 0-0
11.Pf3 Pbd7 12.De2 Da5 13.e5 dxe5 14.Pxe5 Pxe5 15.Dxe5 Ta7 16.Td1 Td8 17.De2 Tad7 18.Df3 c4 ½-½.
A fine example of play is also Bareev,Evgeny (2685) - Kasparov,Garry (2805) [A58]
Linares 12th Linares (1), 1994
1.d4 Pf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Pf3 Lxa6 7.Pc3 d6 8.Pd2 Lg7 9.e4 Lxf1
10.Pxf1 Da5 11.Ld2 0-0 12.Pe3 Pbd7 13.0-0 Da6 14.Dc2 Pe5 15.b3 Pfd7 16.f4 Pd3
17.a3 Ld4 18.Kh1 Tfc8 19.Tab1 c4 20.b4 Pf6 21.Ped1 Tcb8 22.Pe3 Tc8 23.b5 Db6
24.Pxc4 Pf2+ 25.Txf2 Txc4 26.Tf3 Txa3 27.Db2 Pxe4 28.Dxa3 Pxd2 29.Da2 Le3 30.Tc1 Dd4 31.b6 Txc3 0-1.
Video runningtime is nearly 4 hours!
Conclusion: learn from Ramirez how to seize the initiative!