CHESSBOOK REVIEWS 
Latest book reviews of 1 March
BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG.Wilhelminalaan 33n.elburg@consunet.nl
7261 BP RUURLO
The Netherlands.
Chess Books
Walter Penn Shipley Philadelphia’s Friend of Chess by John S.Hilbert
2003
McFarland & Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
442 pages
Price $45,00
ISBN 0-7864-1317-4
Order Line 1-800-253-2187
The lawyer, Quaker,organiser and chess master Walter Penn Shipley 1860 – 1942 was an extraordinary
person who probably belonged together with Hermann Helms to one of the most important chess organisers
of the late nineteen and early twentieth century of the United States.
Shipley was for example very active in arranging of the Steinitz – Zukertort and Steinitz – Lasker matches but also between the lines he found time to be president of the Franklin chess club of Philadelphia where he held the championship of the club for over many years
This impressive research work from 442 pages on Walter Penn Shipley from the chess historian John S.Hilbert
gives us not only an excellent inside view of the “simon-pure amateur “ as Shipley was called throw out his life but also lays attention to all kind of interesting information as for example his forgotten correspondences chess activities.
Strange enough Shipley is nearly not mentioned in the impressive work from Bryce D.Avery about correspondence chess in America but Shipley was more than only the editor of the chess and checkers column of the Philadelphia Inquirer and this he did for over the 34 years, but above all Shipley may not be forgotten as organiser of the Continental correspondence chess tournament of 1893!
In 1899 Shipley played a interesting correspondence game with his close friend Willian Steinitz where they even played on the theme of the celebrated Steinitz gambit.{This game is pleasantly annotated in this book with some original 1899 notes from the Philadelphia times.}
The book contains approximately about 250 mostly excellent analysed games where many of them as
Shipley his own correspondence games have never seen print before.
Personally I enjoyed in this work the so amassing amount of sharp Vienna games with the so bizarre but interesting Steinitz variation
as the game Lasker – Shipley of the Franklin Chess club game of December 28,1892 where Shipley over played the great master of chess in only 24 moves, it is clear Shipley was a phenomenally player and certainly belonged between the top ten of America from that time!
Included is a collection of 23 photo’s and a large amount of original documents and personal correspondence with some great players of that time!
Conclusion: A very intensive biography on Shipley!
Winnen met het Siciliaans by A.C.van der Tak & Friso Nijboer
2003
New in Chess
http://www.newinchess.com
E-mail: nic@newinchess.com
238 pages
Price Euro 15.80
ISBN 90-5691-104-X
Winning with the Sicilian from A.C.van der Tak & Friso Nijboer is a fine new updated work that is
expanded with more than eighty new pages!
Interesting to mention is that these first editions works did reach for that time in the late seventies the high standard level of the Batsford chess books.
As winning with the open games A.C.van der Tak has managed again to collect together with the Dutch Grandmaster Friso Nijboer a outstanding collection of 200 superb. tactical Sicilian games all nicely divided by the authors in to all major lines of the Sicilian defence ,where Friso Nijboer Sveshnikov was good for the chapters with the Rauzer, Rossolimo and Sveshnikov variation!
The large amount of material in this book is quite impressive for example from the Najdorf variation I found over 37 complete games but if I would count all the games between the lines than I would easy reach the double amount of games!
Seen the large amount of latest developments that I found between these games than I would like to speak
careful in this book from small but excellent made openings surveys.
The aim of the material lays around the level of average chess player but also material that can easy stand up against works as for example the 101 Chess opening surprises from Gambit.
Conclusion: An excellent invitation in to the world of the Sicilian defence!
King’s Indian & Grünfeld: Fianchetto lines by Lasha Janjgava
2003
Gambit Publications Ltd.
http://www.gambitbooks.com
E-mail Murray@gambitchess.freeserve.co.uk
320 pages
Price 22.95
ISBN 1 901983 74 9
Slowly Gambit publications has established it self as Publisher from high quality chess books
as this well made work from Lasha Janjgava on the white fianchetto system against the King’s Indian and Grünfeld defence.
Probably the whole system with g3 belongs to one of the most fascinating and least explored lines of the King’s Indian defence.
For example the Panno variation which is covered by Janjgava with a small 32 pages, where the most pages go to latest played lines as 8.b3 & 8.h3.
Going through this book my mind went back to the seventies with the impressive work from Barden,Hartston and Keene on the King’s Indian defence and it is even so many years later it is still very interesting to compare both books with each other, and it is surprising to see how many lines from the seventies did not stand the test of time!
One of the most straightforward methods of creating counterplay against White’s fianchetto is still the classical variation where the reader can find many latest ideas as the Romanishin variation with 7.Qc2 which usually only transposes but is pleasantly covered in this book with five well written pages!
Besides the King’s Indian there is a detail coverage of 67 pages with the Grünfeld defence that runs after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 c6 or 3…Bg7 4.Bg2 a line where white is going for a direct solid advantage!
This work from the Georgian Grandmaster Lasha Janjgava is very compressive and many pages don’t cover
any text at all, so you must be prepared to work with the well known but so dry Informator symbols.
Seen the large amount of material some basic understanding of the King’s Indian & Grünfeld strategy is necessarily before you start memorising this compressive work!
Conclusion : This work covers a phenomenal amount of latest developments!
Development of a chess master by Eric Schiller
2002
Cardoza Publishing
http://www.cardozapub.com
192 pages
Price $ 14.95
ISBN 1-58042-050-8
Development of a chess master is a small chess course based on 55 lessons from the gambit master Eric Schiller
all concentrated on the author’s own chess career of played mistakes.
I am not going say as the cover of this work claims that these 55 games are going to develop you into a master player but some games as Schiller – Ligertink Iceland 1986 are certainly from master level and I consider them as instructive, even that Shiller annotations don’t reachin any way the positional understanding of the works from Dvoretsky,but Schiller annotations are still interesting enough for many local chess players who don’t want to spend to much time on chess.
Conclusion: There is no better way to learn chess from mistakes and these annotations to the games are honest and easy reach the level of a ambitious club player who would like to crick up his or hers chess knowledge all at the hand of
the enjoyable mistakes of Eric Schiller!
Chess Endgame Quiz by Larry Evans
2002
Cardoza Publishing
http://www.cardozapub.com
304 pages
Price $ 14.95
ISBN 1-58042-074-5
A endgame test book from Larry Evans with a collection of two hundred endgame exercises
where the reader is invited to find out of three choices the only winning move.
The material is all-round from dazzling compositions to practical endgame positions.
Pleasant to mention is that every page covers one composition but unfortunately many positions
cover no references to year that the composition is composed.
Further are the problems instructively divided into sections as pawn, queen, rook, minor piece ending etc.
Conclusion: One of those few text books where you don’t have to hide the diagrams with one or other
paper!
The 10 most common chess mistakes by Larry Evans
2002
Cardoza Publishing
http://www.cardozapub.com
304 pages
Price $ 14.95
ISBN 1-58042-009-5
A new print from Larry Evans amusing work The 10 most common chess mistakes
that had it’s first appearance back in 1998 and is now pleasantly reprinted by Cardoza Publishing with not only a much better letter type but also with a much thicker paper.
Pleasant to mention is that the price and typical mistakes of the masters have stayed unchanged!
All together there is a collection of 218 examples divided in to fascinating collection
of misplays and errors.
Conclusion: A well made second reprint!
Beginning chess play by Bill Robertie
2002
Cardoza Publishing
http://www.cardozapub.com
168 pages
Price $ 9.95
ISBN 1-58042-044-3
The second edition of Bill Robertie’s book at the first moves on the chess board
where the former US speed champion covers all the information what you need to get involved
with the game of chess.
Personal I would have given the first chapters of this book a little more place special with the so important explanation of the first moves, but on the other hand the reader can find everything that he of she needs to get involved with the so fascinating game of chess!
Winning chess openings by Bill Robertie
2002
Cardoza Publishing
http://www.cardozapub.com
176 pages
Price $ 9.95
ISBN 1-58042-051-6
The introduction and cover of this book offers a selection openings secrets, as the author claims in his introduction" We’ll show you the opening secrets of the chess masters and how to apply them in your own games", but unfortunately said enough I only could not
find any secrets in this book at all.
Chess Videos
Accelerated Dragon Assault! by Andrew Martin
2003
Bad Bishop Ltd.
P.O.Box 32699,London W14 oJH England.
http://www.badbishop.com
E-mail info@badbishop.com
Price £19.99/$29.95
ISBN 0-9542934 1 X
American NTSC version available in October
PAL version available now
In this second chess video from Badbishop.com IM Andrew Martin discusses at the hand of 21 complete games the first secrets
of the Accelerated Dragon, a dangerous set-up in the Dragon where black hopes to jump forwards with his black pawn from d7 to d5 in one turn.
Interesting to mention is that the history of the Dragon goes back in to the last two centuries with great players as Bird and Lasker.
The author is a experience chess trainer and his tips and advises are good for a enjoyable TV evening where the running time of the video is around a small two hours and in this time you have the opportunity to get involved with all kind of instructive lines as the Classical system, Pseudo Yugoslav, or the good old Maroczy Bind with the so interesting Gurgenidze system.
The example material runs from 1964 with the famous game Keres - Larsen Hoogovens,1964 till Kasparov - Kasimdzhanov Europa -
Asia rapid match of Batumi 2002!
Conclusion: The aim of the CD lays by the local chess player who wants to learn a chess opening by simple watching TV unfortunately it is for the author not possible to cover all important ECO lines on one video tape but Andrew Martin made a very instructive selection of most important lines.
Chess sets
From the Polish company Firma Kompakt Tel. +48 14/620-11-55 Fax +48 14/620-11-56
http://www.chess.made-in.pl Email: kompakt@onet.pl
I received an excellent made set of Staunton standard Nr.5 chess pieces in a excellent
made wooden chess box, where the King size is around the 92 millimetres and the weight {With the included led} lays around 36 gram.
I saw simple made pieces in a chess catalogue where the price did lay around the 30 English pounds!
Any way for the interested reader or reseller some interesting prices:
Art. ab 500,00 Euro ab 1000,00 ab 3000,00 ab 5000,00
2% 5% 10%
1. Chess Ambasador 17.30 16.95 16.44 15.57
2. Chess Consul 16.50 16.17 15.68 14.85
3. Chess Senator 14.30 14.01 13.59 12.87
4. Chess Magnetic 7.70 7.55 7.32 6.93
5. Chess Touristic 6.00 5.88 5.70 5.40
7. Dame 6.60 6.47 6.27 5.94
8. Backgammon middle 17.90 17.54 17.01 16.11
9. Chessboard No. 5 9.00 8.82 8.55 8.10
10. Pieces Stauton nr 5 in box 9.00 8.82 8.55 8.10
11. Pieces Staunton nr 5 in sack 6.00 5.88 5.70 5.40
Chess CD's
White repertoire 1.e4 by Alexander Bangiev
2003
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price Euro 24.99
System requirements Pentium PC,32 MB Ram,Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP
A complete repertoire work from Alexander Bangiev with 1.e4 based on openings as the Grand Prix attack {Which is very impressive because I found around 48 openings surveys,423 analysed games and 12295 games with out comments!},Vienna gambit with 2.Nc3 followed by 3.f4 {Three openings surveys,154 analysed games and 4846 games with out comments.} Scandinavian defence {Four openings surveys,56 analysed games and 2394 games without comments.},against the French there is choice from the French defence with 2.f4 d5 3.e5 { Five openings surveys,47 analysed games and 870 games with out comments} and the French advance variation {Twenty three openings surveys, 360 analysed games and 20559 games without comments,}Caro-Kann of course with the aggressive advance variation but white can go for some interesting positional alternatives {Twenty two openings surveys, 400 analysed games and 13712 games without comments.},Pirc defence with 3.f4 {Nine openings surveys,146 analysed games,and 2061 games with out comment and at last against the Alekhine Bangiev goes for move with the most possibilities to transpose f possible in to the above mentioned Vienna opening with 2.Nc3.{Nine openings surveys,61 analysed games and 2147 games without annotations.}
From all openings surveys I counted the introduction text as opening survey!
Al together there are more than 60.000 games on this CD where the Author did analyses special for this CD a small 600 of them.
In the introduction file I saw that this CD is a improved version of Bangiev’s White repertoire 1.e4 CD
that was published some seven years ago but I must admit I never saw this CD before.
All material is in English, a ChessBase reader is included and not to forget there is a interesting made
database with training’s questions!
Conclusion: A very interesting made repertoire CD!
Special recommended for all fans of the Grand Prix attack!
StarBase 2.88
2003
Pickard & Son Publishers
http://www.ChessCentral.com
Price $ 22.95
The new StarBase CD which is now looking forward to it’s third edition with over 2.88 million games, when I scrolled through the data file I came on exactly 2,8886,737 games!
It is interesting to compare this StarBase CD with the Rolls Royces under databases bases the MegaDatabase 2003 from ChessBase with the expensive price of 150 Euro and than I am not mentioning here the ChessBase Corr database 2002 with the price of nearly 80 Euro!
If you would count the games from both ChessBase databases CD together you come close to the amount of games that are on this low budget CD from Pickard & Son Publishers for the small price of $ 22.95!
But take care there are differences first of all the Megadatabase 2003 is manual better filtered even it carries never played games as the Marshall gambit games from the Pope of the Krakow 1938 tournament!
Pleasant to mention is that Pickard & Son Publishers where so wise to delete
these worm games from there well filled StarBase CD!
Unfortunately the StarBase does not cover any annotations to the games but there for you get in the place
a unbelievable amount of simultaneous and Internet games!
Conclusion: Not all the games on the Starbase are high class chess games but if you are searching for some
special games than I would like to suggest go for this low budget CD from Pickard & Son!
Chessbase magazine 92
February 2003
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Price Euro 19,90 per issue
Annual subscription costs Euro 99,70
Included is a booklet from 27 pages with some useful ChessBase information.
The master file of the ChessBase magazine appears as a icon and is good for about 1531 games if I may count the text reports as games where a small 564 of them are excellent analysed by world leading chess players as for example from Anand,where
Vishy annotated special for this issue ten in great depth analysed games of the World rapid, Fide World Cup and the Eurotel Trophy rapid.
Besides the master file there are nine other interesting icons as the Theory file with The Sicilian Grand Prix attack {With about 648 entries.},Vienna game with D39 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5 c5 7.Bxc4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qa5 {45 entries} and the amusing Jaenisch gambit {2082 entries!!} where black seems to have no problems at all! {At least if I may believe the authors Alexander Bangiev and Peter Leisebein!}
Very interesting this month is the puzzle corner from the ChessBase Christmas Puzzle where you shall between 32 entries some original compositions from GM John Nunn!
The endgame section goes to GM H.J.Hecht where the 74 games of his file deal with all kind defensive possibilities in queen endings.
Other high lights are the ICCF Tele file with a collection of 2763 top level correspondence games, Strategy
from Peter Wells,History with all the games of the German championship in Weidenau 1947, Fritz Forum, and Valery Atlas is good for the tactic side with some smashing positions of the European Club cup 2002.
The enjoyable AVI files go all to the Chess Olympiad in Bled .{Good for a small 560 MB filled with some exciting interviews.}
Conclusion: Slowly just so important as the Informator and New in Chess Books!
The Franco – Benoni by Don Maddox
2003
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price Euro 24.99
Chessbase Reader 7 included, system requirements 32 MB, Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP & CD ROM drive.
The Franco Benoni from Don Maddox is a real off beat repertoire opening where black is balancing
between the French and Benoni defence, both based on the classical moves from the French
and Sicilian defence.
Anyway this CD is a perfect choice for players who are searching a way to avoid al main lines and are willing
to take some risk, special after the moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 3.d5! ?
Which reminds me by the way at the old chess books from Gunderam and his New “Eroffnungswege”.
The material from Don Maddox on this CD is compressive first of all it covers a master file from about 13598 games where a small 853 of them are analysed.
One of the most pleasent lines that I could find for black on this CD was 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5!?
The whole Franco Benoni trainings file is good for 35 exercises,included on this openings CD is the CTG openings tree and the free ChessBase reader.
Conclusion: A nice made off beat CD!
Chess Magazines
British Chess Magazine issue 2
Volume 123
February 2003
Price: £3.25
E-mail: BCMChess@compuserve.com
http://www.bcmchess.co.uk
From Steve Giddins I found an excellent coverage of the latest Hastings tournament with
some excellent analysed games as the embarrassing defeat from Peter Heine Nielsen!
In games department Paul Motwani examines two games by the new Israel champion, Ilya Smirin,and Harriet
Hunt reports on the Woman’s Olympiad in Bled.{Good for eight pages of this heavy loaded issue!}
Others are : Fide reports January 2003,Reviews and new books, Kasparov versus Karpov from the four rapid match in New York.
Gary Lane is good for Chess questions answered,where I found the King’s Bishop gambit ,the Tromp,
and Dutch defence.
Congress diary is from Colin Crouch and covers the Hitchin from 7-8 December 2002.
News in Brief {There is a obituary on David Raeburn 1916 – 28-12-02 who held a BCM photo record
one photo appeared in 1934 and the other one in BCM 2000 page 333.}
Quotes and Queries {With Staunton reviewing Science and Art of chess by Monroe in the Illustrated Londen news of 20 July 1859.}
Problem world {With a very original helpmate in 4 from Robert J Bales jr.USA},fortcomming events etc.
Conclusion: A fine issue!
Free Newsletter
From the Italian gambit expert Davide Rozzoni I received this free Newsletter with a interesting article about the Halloween Gambit” that runs after the moves .
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5.
How dangerous this opening is shows us the following game that I found in the excellent written article from Paul Keiser
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 Nc6 (this is one main line, the other one is 5 ..Ng6), 6.d5 Nb8 7.e5 Ng8 8.d6 c6 9.Bc4 f6 10.Qh5+ g6 11.exf6 Qxf6 12.Qe2+ Kd8 13.Ne4 and Black resigned Brause (2355)-Betrueger (2315),ICC,1997,1-0(13)
Interested? Than please mail Davide Rozzoni rozzoni@libero.it or visit Davide his web side on http://www.rozzoni.6go.net/
Included with this free issue is a large collection Halloween games!
Conclusion: Very creative!